Several months back I received a personal email from the director of an under-funded, over-crowded, open-admission dog shelter (Butte Humane).  What really got my interest was the “enrichment” program they have created for their dogs. We figured our Puzzle Toys would be a prefect fit for this program. We know our dog toys are not indestructible but we believe dogs love soft toys more than harder materials that often go unplayed with. We’ve designed our Plush Puppies to be more durable than other plush toys, and I thought this would be a great test to prove the durability of our toys.

The letter I received from Lyndsay, the coordinator of the shelter, is below. She also posted short video of the actual dogs in action.

Dear Kyjen,

Thank you so much for your generous donation of dog toys!  The staff, volunteers, and especially the dogs and puppies of Butte Humane Society have been having such a wonderful time with them!

Since we are a small, over-crowded, open-admission shelter our dogs get really stressed while they’re here.  We’ve implemented a kennel enrichment program to keep the dogs as calm and happy as possible while they are in our care and waiting for their Forever Homes. Part of this program is the “Toy Trolley” which gets rolled out every morning to distribute toys, chewies, and bones to our pooches to play with or chew on for the hour before we open to the public. This hour is their “Quiet Time” to settle down in their kennels and have some productive mental stimulation

Each morning when a volunteer brings out the Toy Trolley the dogs get SO excited and your wonderful toys have had them just jumping for joy (as you can see by the video)!  The humans here have been thrilled too, since the toys are so durable there’s less clean up to do afterward. Logan – the first dog in the video – is a master of demolishing his plush toys within about ten seconds of receiving them, but low and behold! An hour after he got his first Tuff Grunt it was still in one piece! Since our shelter has such a tiny budget for enrichment for our animals, having these durable toys that that dogs love so much has been wonderful for everyone.

The Chicken Ball Buddies have been special favorites among our Missouri fight-bust Pit Bulls. One pup (Apple- who has since been adopted) made it quite clear to us that he just could NOT leave his foster home without his special chicken, and Pete (the tan Pit rolling around in his Dogloo in the video) obviously loves his too!

Thank you so, so, so much again for the toys!
Lindsey Lieberman
Canine Services Coordinator
Butte Humane Society Chico, California
www.buttehumane.org

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