How To Clean Your Dogs Toys

Hello my PAWsome furriend {and even those who do not have fur} I am so "Happy" you stopped by today. I am enjoying the nice weather outside. It has been making for a great walk time with my mommy. But I do love to be inside and playing with all my toys in my toy box.
Even before my pet parents brought me home I had a toy box full of toys. My mommy had researched the breed of dog she wanted for a year and so she had a pretty good idea on how a Havanese behaves before I arrived. She knew that chewing was essential to me, so she had a beautiful basket full of toys for me to play with.

Me getting my toys all out so I can play

I am very good at getting my toys out of the box each morning. I search around and find my favorites of the day then I get them out and line them up. My mom keeps saying we need to learn to put away the toys because at night when it is time for bed she picks them up and I keep helping her take them back out. But that is a trick to learn for another day.

I noticed one day my mom was going through my toy box and setting my toys in piles. I knew it must be time to clean the toy box out. My mom does check my toys daily as she puts them away to make sure they do not need to be discarded, but you should regularly examine your dogs toys and look for cracks, separations and/or missing pieces, if they have seen better days, no matter how much of a favorite it is for your fur baby, you must throw it away. It is very important to clean your dogs toys because bacteria can build up and make your dog and you sick.

As I said my mom makes 4 piles of toys when cleaning out the toy box; one for those toys that go to toy heaven {let's not say they are thrown away}, one pile for fabric or plush toys {my babies}, one is for rope toys, and one pile for toys which are not fabric.

How to clean your dogs toys

For our fabric and stuffed toys just put them in a mesh laundry bag and toss them in the washing machine with some mild, non-toxic detergent on gentle cycle {please so my babies do not get hurt}. Then allow to air dry so as not to harm them.

For our hard plastic toys all you need to do is soak them in a mixture of ½ part water to ½ part vinegar. Allow them to soak for about 30 minutes then just use a brush and give them a good scrub. For hard to reach places like my Kong, my mom uses a bottle brush for the inside. She also puts it in the top rack of the dishwasher sometimes as well. Follow with a thorough rinse and allow them to dry.

For rope toys they need an especially good sanitizing because they are a breeding ground for bacteria. So my mom sanitizes them in the top rack of the dishwasher with no detergent. Then allows them to air dry really well.

To me the best part about getting the toy box cleaned out is that I get some new toys! Boy oh boy do I love getting new toys! Here are some of my favorite dog toys:




One special thing my mom does for me is get me a toy each month from Doggy Loot. I am enrolled in the toy of the month club where a new toy is brought to me each month by the man at the front door with a box! I love when that box arrives for sure!

I love toys and I love how my mom keeps them clean and healthy for me and that is what makes me "Happy" today.