ModernGear Pets: Tricky Treat Ball

My husband and I adopted a puppy from the SPCA about a month ago and, being your typical over-eager and overly hopeful new puppy parents, we thought we'd have him trained in no time flat. Soon enough, we thought, Duane would go where we wanted, do what we asked, sit down, roll over, drop the ball, and never, ever, bite.

Well, the picture below is evidence of the result of us trying to get him to use a puppy training pad in a puppy litterbox. He's all, "You want me to go where??" Yeah no, that didn't work so much.


He is a love. He is also a brat, so I like to call him Luci-fur when he's being particularly devilish. What I must always remind myself of is the fact that he's a puppy, and with proper training and also simply time, he'll outgrow a lot of the behaviours that we are working on correcting, like the nipping, barking, and jumping.

But not without a little help from our friends. First of all there's Crystal, our fantastic walker/sitter/all-around-helper, and also Janet, our great trainer. And then there's Duane's newest friend, the Tricky Treat Ball, from Omega Paw.
I have one on order but today Crystal brought her puppy's to lend to Duane until his own comes, and this thing is a God-send. Our Big D. used to just hoover down his food and be done in about two minutes flat. The Tricky Treat Ball is designed to keep dogs engaged by working them for their food, and rewarding them for their efforts, and it has the added benefit of stretching out their feeding time.

The divets in the ball allow his little mouth to pick it up and run around with it, and one of the divets is actually a hole! Stuffed with kibble beforehand, as the puppy rolls the ball around, a bit of food drops out through that hole, he gets to nibble on it, and then roll it around for more. He took to it really well, and seems to enjoy the challenge.

What I like is that it's one of the tools I can use to keep Duane on a task while I am busy preparing our dinner, and he's also challenged to the point where it requires some energy to get his food.

I couldn't find it at any of my local pet supply stores, so I ordered ours through Amazon. There's a large ball for $9.99 new, or a small one for $6.99 new. The small one is also recommended for cats.




I can't recommend it highly enough to have in your arsenal of tools for new puppies. And now that we have debuted our new addition to the ModernGear TV family, we'll be regularly testing out new pet products that will make life easier for those particular members of the family, and for us, the folks who love them.

Because honestly, who couldn't love a face like this?!