Puppy Puzzle Toys: A Starter Kit
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A puppy that clears a bowl of kibble in nine seconds is not doing anything wrong. It simply has no reason to slow down yet. This kit gives it four reasons. A can shaped rubber toy small enough for a puppy mouth, a ridged bowl that turns dinner into a maze, a grooved mat for anything soft, and a rubber tire for when the puzzles are put away. One bag of cheddar loads every one of them. The rest of our kits sit on the Bundle Guides hub.
The dog this is sized for
Eight weeks to roughly five months, eating fast, still learning that food on the floor is not automatically hers. At that age the win is not a tired dog. It is a dog who has learned that dinner takes effort. Our guide to the puzzle toys we carry and how to load them goes further into loading technique than a kit page should.
Pass on this one if your puppy is already over 25 pounds at four months. The can toy will not fit that mouth, and a Medium tire with the bowl is the better two item start.
The can, the bowl, the mat, the tire
The Puppy Can Toy does the actual work of slowing a meal down. SodaPup describes it as gentle enrichment for teething puppies, made from FDA-compliant natural rubber. The Small size stands 2.5 inches tall by 1.5 inches wide, weighs 1.7 ounces, is listed for dogs under 15 pounds, and has a .625 inch hole opening into a cavity that takes treats, kibble or peanut butter. That opening is the number worth caring about. Too narrow and a puppy quits in a minute; too wide and the kibble falls out on the first roll.
The Flower eBowl is dinner, not a toy. TPE, about 8 by 8 inches and 2 inches deep, holding 4 cups, which means it keeps earning its shelf space long after the puppy is eating adult portions. The petal pattern ridge maze is what does the slowing. SodaPup lists it as freezer, microwave and dishwasher friendly, which is the detail you will care about on a Tuesday night. SodaPup also describes it as a bowl for medium and large breeds and large breed puppies, so for a flat faced or very small puppy the Four Seasons eTray is the better call at 1.25 inches deep.
The Jigsaw Puzzle eMat handles everything that is not dry. Same TPE and roughly the same 8 by 8 footprint as the bowl, but the surface is interlocking puzzle piece grooves, and SodaPup lists peanut butter, yogurt, wet food or kibble softened with broth as what goes in them. SodaPup says it can be frozen for a longer session, which is the difference between a five minute distraction and a real one. If you only ever feed dry food, the mat is a placemat.
Our Dog Tire Toy is the one thing here a puppy is allowed to keep. Durable rubber, shaped after a performance tire, sold in Small for dogs up to 25 pounds, Medium for 25 to 60, and Large for 60 and over. Our own listing calls it a toy for moderate chewers and that is the honest line, so this is not what you hand a determined adult jaw before leaving the room. The center takes peanut butter, yogurt or a soft treat and goes in the freezer, which makes it a fifth puzzle on the days you want one.
One bag of Freeze-Dried Cheddar Cheese Bites loads all four. The only ingredient is cheddar cheese, freeze-dried in small batches in Malvern, Pennsylvania, in a single 8 ounce bag. Our listing says freeze-drying leaves the cheese crunchy and non-greasy rather than soft, and that it needs no refrigeration once dried, so the bag lives in the same cupboard as the toys. It does contain dairy, which rules it out if you already keep dairy away from your dog, and the rest of our freeze-dried dog treats crumble into the ridges the same way.
No sliding lid board in here
Every list of first toys for a young dog has a plastic board with sliding lids and hidden wells on it. We do not carry one, so we are not going to pretend we do. The argument against it stands anyway: a board is a five minute problem a puppy solves once, and after that you own a board. The four formats above reset completely every time you load them.
Introducing them in the right order
Start with the tire, because it asks nothing of her. Rub a little cheddar dust into the center, let her find it, then leave the whole thing alone for a day.
Day two or three, swap a third of a meal into the Puppy Can Toy. Only a third. A puppy who gets stuck on the first attempt will steer around that toy for a week afterward, and re-teaching it is slower than doing it gently the first time.
The Flower eBowl comes next, at actual dinner, with dry food and nothing added. Let the ridges do the job they were molded for.
Leave the mat until last, because it is the messiest of the four. Spread something soft, set it on a floor you can wipe, and do it when you have somewhere to be rather than when you are trying to get to bed.
Four formats instead of four false starts
Bought one at a time, the usual sequence goes like this. A ball she ignores, a bowl that turns out too deep, a mat that ends up in a drawer, and a second bag of treats because the first one was cut too large to fit inside anything. Buying the formats together means you find out inside a week which two your dog genuinely uses. The bowl and the tire keep working well past the puppy stage. The can toy does not, and there is no way around that.
Questions about loading these four
What goes in a puppy puzzle toy besides peanut butter?
SodaPup lists yogurt, wet food and kibble softened with broth for the eMat, and the can toy cavity takes treats or kibble. Crumbled cheddar mixes into the eBowl ridges. Freezing any of them filled buys a longer session.
How young is too young?
Once a puppy is eating solid food she can work the mat, and SodaPup lists the eBowl for large breed puppies. The can toy is listed for dogs under 15 pounds, so with a large breed that window closes early. None of it asks the dog to know a cue first.
Do these need supervision?
Yes. SodaPup's line on all three of its pieces is to supervise play and size up for strong chewers. Our own tire listing says to inspect it regularly for wear and replace it if it is damaged.
How this one arrives
Three of the five pieces ship out of Colorado rather than from our kitchen, which matters if you are trying to have everything on the floor before a puppy lands on a Saturday. SodaPup/True Dogs, LLC items are sold and shipped by SodaPup/True Dogs, LLC through Shopify Collective, not made or shipped by Sniff and Shift. The tire toy and the cheddar leave Malvern together. If cheddar is not the first reward you want for this dog, Explore sorts the treats by protein, life stage and format, and the other puppy kits cover the rest of the first three months. Load the can toy tonight and put it in the freezer so it is ready at breakfast.
Related guides
- Puppy bite redirect kit
- Puppy starter kit
- Puppy Handling and Cooperative-Care Starter Kit: What to Put In It
