I have a 7-month old female GSD that stays in a 10x10 kennel during the weekdays. She's in the kennel for up to 12 hours at a time (on a bad day). She has a few toys, like tied up socks and a Kong (checked daily for condition). Nothing that can be torn apart too much, like a deceased fleece stuffed toy that ended up in lots of fuzzy pieces around my backyard.

I think she likes puzzles, though. I've taken to tying a few socks around the kennel cage to see what she would do. At the end of the day, every one of them is untied, lying on the floor. In addition, she has taken all of the assembly connections out of her crate (the type that connect two halves of larger crates) that is kept in the kennel. I had a hard time taking them out!

I'm looking for suggestions on toys that are safe to leave in the kennel but will stimulate her in some challenging way. Any ideas?

Thanks for any input!

What kind of kennel flooring?

Metal pans on concrete (backyard sidewalk)entertain my dogs (and presumably my neighbors if I had any)for hours. The favorite is a big steel mixing bowl. It is a combination hockey puck, route to china, and vile enemy.

They also like those big rubber calf pans. And sand or water filled concrete mixing tubs or kiddie pools. Sometimes I bury or submerse toys.

And indestructaballs. The ones that are too big to be picked up by the dog.

Tig will play with the drip from a hose for hours. The hose is threaded where she can't get to it, but it drips or streams out over her play area.

I've got some big, really thick, cardboard rollers. Commercial paper was wound on them. They don't last long, but they have fun with them. Sometimes I put things inside and plug them at intervals with wadded or rolled cardboard so they have to chew down to where they can pull the wadding out to get the next treat. These are about a meter long x 4-6" dia with a wall 1.5 to 2" thick.

We have some of the contractor's wooden reels from wire, and a couple of metal ones. These are old ones, not treated wood.

Big cardboard boxes.

Big chunks of ice on warmer days (or even in the winter sometimes). Like grey-block size or bigger. Good like the bowls for chasing, clawing and barking.

I usually play with my dogs myself, but it's fun watching them mess with things. We have an obstacle course at the old house made with ramps, drainage tiles, logs, swings, catwalks, etc. that both the dogs and the sons loved.

Failing any of that, a cat a week would beabout right for Tig. She loves a brand, new kitty <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Try putting a fingerful of peanut butter or cream cheese inside the Kong. Assuming your dog has drive (I've heard that some GSDs do, LOL) that will keep her busy for a while. My dog also likes the ball that Ed sells. He never looked at it until about a year ago and then one day he seemed to look at it and say, "Holy cow! When did that get here!" Now he plays with it several times a day.

A big Jolly ball with a handle - have seen lots of dogs like these in all sizes. Check out some of the horse catalog sites for toys for horses - maybe 2 liter pop/soda bottles - Kongs can be stuffed with peanut butter and then frozen to keep them occupied much longer getting the goodies out! I know one dog who likes to play with a small tire in his pen. Just watch any toy for evidence of chewing - a small piece of plastic can stick in the dogs intestines somewhere and end up costing you dearly - in more than one way! I would be extremely careful of anything made of any cloth or rope - one of mine ate a top from a child's bathing suit in June, and need MAJOR surgery to remove it.

You can try getting some beef knuckle bones, or soup bones.........I warm them up in hot water (but NOT cooked) and my dog will chew on it for hours eating the marrow and so on. Every dog I have had in the past really likes them and it keeps the dog occupied.