Here at Dog Trainer house in Essex we are experiencing a mini-spring! Not quite a heat wave, but I’ve dropped the thermals for a while. The dogs here for boarding and daycare and I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and do some kong stuffing for garden games.

What’s kong stuffing? A kong is a rubber, hollow dog toy (other dog toys available) which can take a lot of dog chomping and is great for all sorts of games. We mostly stuff them! So here’s my basic recipe for stuffing.

I’ve been having trouble putting the photos where I want them, so I’ll just pop them all at the bottom of the post. Hopefully you can work out what each photo is illustrating, but if not, let me know!

You need:
Kong or kongs
Dog or dogs
Something to fill them all with. You can use their normal dog food (soak dry food with water until saturated) to make their mealtime more interesting, today I used some sausages just gone past their use by date (dogs have a much longer use by date!) which I mashed up. Well, the food processor mashed them up. I’m not silly! Anyway, give the kongs a good stuffing, then you’re ready!

A word of warning – if you have a dog that shows any signs of food or toy possession (eating fast, especially if they get faster when you walk close, growling, ‘nesting’ toys, or runs off to hide with them), you will need at least twice as many stuffed kongs as dogs. All dogs will need to be supervised during this game.

Chuck kongs and dogs out into the garden.

When the weather gets really hot, and if you have plenty of space in your freezer, you could try some more of our activities for dogs. The kongs can be put in the dishwasher, of if like me you don’t have one, boiled in a pan of water on the hob to make sure any remaining food is cleared out, especially if they may be shared with different dogs. Enjoy!