Durable Dog Toy

A Craft for Mosby

So, if you know me AT ALL, you know that I am (slightly) obsessed with dogs, particularly with my puppy, Mosby! My very crafty, very talented friend Cathryn taught me about this craft last year. I changed it just a little, but the idea is all hers! 

As Cathryn taught me how make fleece pajama pants last Christmas, she told me that you can make a cute dog toy with the scraps. I decided to make one for Mosby, with just a change or two. Here's the finished product.

(Spartan fans, please excuse the HORRIBLE pattern on this material. After MSU beating U of M FOUR YEARS RUNNING, I thought I better throw Jeremy a bone, by using his team colors for Mosby's toy.)

First, get some scraps of fleece and some scissors. 

Mosby loves to help with crafts!

Next, cut out 1 inch by 3 feet strips. These measurements are complete estimates, and the strips do not have to be perfect. If you have a bigger dog, make them wider. For my toy, I cut out 9 of these strips.

Now, take 3 strips. Tie them together at the top. Braid the strips together.

After braiding, tie the strips together at the bottom. To do this, I bunched two of the strips together, then tied them with the third strip. Repeat these steps 2 more times, so you have a total of 3 braids.

 Using another little piece of strap, tie the third braids together. Now, braid the three braids to make any EVEN bigger braid. Use another little piece of strap to tie off the big braid.

Your braid should now look like this. This can be the complete toy. Actually, this is the toy Cathryn taught me to make. It's a great tug of war rope!

I took it a step further. I shaped the rope into the circle. Then I took the little loose ends of the braids and tied them together. It's not a perfect art; just grab and tie!

Here's Mosby enjoying his toy! The little guy is loving it!

So, there's lots of reasons that I love this toy! First, fleece is SUPER stretchy! It's really hard for the dogs to tear apart. Second, it's CHEAP! It's made from scraps, so if your dog does destroy it, no biggie! Just grab some more straps and make another! Third, even if the toy starts to come apart, it breaks into smaller toys. First, the circle will become a rope; then it will turn into three little rope. The best part of the toy is there is no stuffing to clean up after!!!

If you want to make a toy for a bigger dog, it's really easy to do! Instead of using the 9 strips of fleece, use 27. Then, follow the steps I outline, instead of making one big braid, make 3. Braid the 3 together, and you have a great thick rope. I made one like this for our pit bull neighbor, Fate, last Christmas, and it took her a month to get through...I think that a world record for Fate's longest lasting toy!!

Til next week...Happy Crafting!

SB