Giving meals in chew toys is an extremely powerful way to teach legal chew toys. How difficult it is for the puppy to “win” and get the food is a balance that will change over time. Here are eight different levels of difficulty to try with your chew toy training with your puppy’s normal kibble at mealtime.
Serving meals in a chew toy support multiple aspects of training. It gives the puppy a huge release of happiness from chewing and eating. It teaches appropriate chewing behavior. It can help relieve the pain from teething (see the frozen options below). And it can support isolation training and give you a break from your puppy. The overall goal is to have the puppy’s attention on the chew toy as they problem-solve through chewing to get to their food.
1. Start with a toy easier than a Kong, such as a Topple
While Kongs are our go-to, in the beginning, they were too difficult and frustrating for our puppy Tuna. He couldn’t figure out how to get the kibble out of them and would get frustrated. When he got frustrated he would act out to get out attention by barking or even putting his mouth on non-legal chew toys (like the metal of his crate) while staring at us. Those puppy eyes were pleading “someone help me get my kibble!” The fact that attempting to train legal chews was leading to an auto-behavior of chewing on something bad to get our attention was not lost.
On the advice of a trainer, we tried a Topple, which is a similar material to a Kong but is shaped like a cup with a wide mouth. Using a Topple, mealtime was easier and Tuna understood that his chewing efforts would be rewarded. After just a little time with the Topple, we were ready to add back in the Kong and increase the difficulty.
2. Get at least one size too big Kong
Kongs come in all sizes and toughness. We started with small puppy Kongs which were quickly chewed through and far too small. Then moved to medium normal (red) Kongs. Then quickly to XL normal and extra hard Kongs. The lesson learned was that a Kong that is too big really isn’t a problem, and we ended up needing it just a few months later anyways. If we were to do it again, we would get a Topple for the early puppy months, then XL normal Kong. Having an XL Kong in an “easy” mode can make that transition possible without buying extra chew toys.
3. Dry kibble, loosely filled, upside down
The easiest possible way to set up a Kong is to make the reward happen from the most basic and simple of curios behavior. Take your Kong and put some dry kibble in it. Do not fill it up or pack it tight. Next, put it in your feeding area with a larger hole on the ground, so that the Kong stands upright.
Work on your sits or stays to build the interest in your puppy, and then after releasing them, all your puppy needs to do to get rewarded is to knock over the Kong. Just by being curious (and a little brave for some puppies), kibble will fall out of the bottom. Just like that.
The lesson this teaches is that the puppy can manipulate the Kong, and the Kong will provide a reward. While trivially easy to get rewarded, this is a great step for introducing the toy and developing a feeding routine.
4. Dry kibble, tightly packed
Take a full meal (and not more since we also need to ensure our puppy maintains a healthy weight) and pack it into the Kong. This will depend on your kibble’s size and shape, but you can vary the difficulty of the Kong by how packed the Kong is. The kibble will hold itself in place and the puppy will need to work by chewing in different ways until the kibble jostles free and out of the Kong.
5. Supercharge your Kong with a high-value treat
Some dogs get frustrated easily. Breaking through a moment of frustration can help the dog learn that they can solve their own problems. There are three ways you can help your dog work through frustration.
- Provide encouragement “You can do it!”
- Make the task easier
- Increase the value of the reward
For a Kong, you can increase the value of the reward by including a high-value treat in the Kong. Make sure it is something the puppy can sense so that they become driven to work through the more difficult task.
There are three ways we’ve used high-value treats in Kongs. One idea is to seal the hole with nut/peanut butter. Nut butter at the opening is immediately noticeable, and while the puppy will get to it first, there can then be enough momentum to keep working on the kibble in the Kong. Usually, you only need to do this a few times before it isn’t needed anymore.
The second idea is to place a high-level treat in the bottom or middle of the kibble. This works well with smelly treats (like freeze-dried salmon). That way, the puppy knows there’s something amazing, but the only way to get to it is to work through the chew toy and eat a meal of kibble first.
And finally, you can “supercharge” the kibble entirely. We did this by mixing the small, almost powder scraps from the bottom of a high-value treat bag (again like freeze-dried salmon), and mixing it in with the kibble. It basically tricks the puppy that the entire meal is a high-value treat. By upping the reward of the Kong, it is easier to make it more difficult and progress your chew toy training.
6. Frozen dry kibble
Now we introduce temperature. Having prepared Kongs in the freezer is a lifesaver, especially as a tool to redirect bad behavior or to support specific training such as sleep training or isolation training. But before making it too hard, start by just packing dry kibble and then freezing the Kong. This will be harder than room temperature as the Kong will flex less and your puppy will have to chew more to get the kibble out.
Frozen anything can also be soothing for a teething puppy. So having a few in the freezer at all times can also help with those difficult moments.
7. Soaked kibble, frozen
This is the level of difficulty where we have found stability in our feeding routine. To see how we do it, check out Our Feeding Routine for Behavior and Health. The summary is to first wet the kibble, then place it in the Kong, and then freeze the Kong.
How much water the kibble absorbs, which you control by the amount and how long the kibble soaks for, determines how much of a “kibble popsicle” is served. If you just quickly wet and then freeze, this will only be slightly harder than freezing dry kibble. If you soak the kibble for a long time and then pack it in tight, the Kong will basically be filled with a single ice cube of kibble. That will be significantly harder to the point where our dog learned that he just needs to lay next to his Kong to let it thaw naturally before chewing. We found a nice in-between where it takes him about 10 mins of very active chewing to finish on Kong.
8. Never give a free meal
Food is such a driver of dog behavior. This gives us as dog owners an opportunity multiple times a day for training. By setting the expectation that the dog must work for their food, you can make the most of the opportunity.
Our puppy Tuna does not have a feeding bowl. Every meal is given through a Kong, which are all prepared at the beginning of each day. Making his meal time part of our routine keeps him at a healthy weight, supports his training, and allows us to improve obedience over time. I don’t believe he would put the effort into a Kong if he could just “wait us out” or if there was an open bowl of kibble next to the Kong. Building the difficulty of Kongs slowly, and then finding a sustainable routine, will support a lifetime of good habits.
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