I stuff Kongs with food to encourage my dogs to work for meals when I don’t use their daily rations for dog training. I also encourage my dog training clients to use food toys for their dogs. Kongs serve to use some of the mental energy dogs have. My personal bias is that Kong Dog Toys, and other food-destuffing toys, are doggy meditative toys. Have you ever watched a dog with a Kong between his paws licking out the food stuffed inside? It appears to be very calming as well as rewarding, as if the licking were the dog’s mantra. Food toys, such as Kongs, are wondrous. Back in the time when I started dog training, Kongs didn’t even exist! We had very few choices in dog toys. Latex or vinyl squeaky toys about summed it up.
Getting back to Kongs. I did have a gripe about the shipment of Kongs I received recently. They smelled awful. As if toxic fumes were coming off them. Really. So I washed them with soap and water and let sun dry. They still smelled. I then wrote to the company, and I got the following information within their reply.
“Let me first explain the typical smell of our rubber toys. Natural rubber, which our product is made of, has a component they call “smoke sheet” which gives the rubber a smoky smell. This maybe (and often is) mistaken for a toxic or harmful smell however, in no way is it either toxic or harmful. Because this is a natural product it is sometimes difficult to get the exact same results each time. So there are toys that smell stronger than others. We have found that most dogs are attracted to this smell, but a small number do not like it. But, in no way will this smell harm your dog.
Both our red and black extreme rubber formulas will normally contain a small amount of smoke sheet. You will typically find that the black rubber has a stronger smell of smoke sheet as there are less ingredients to mask the smell. While the red rubber has a few more ingredients that can mask the smell slightly.
If you do not like the smell, we suggest that you soak the toy in a water and vanilla extract mixture over night. The vanilla is the same thing that you may use to bake with. This typically will reduce the smell. You can place the KONGS in a bucket, cover the KONGS with water and use approximately 1 tsp. of vanilla per KONG.”
As you can see, I did just that, but I have to say, I soaked them longer than over night and in a fairly strong solution of water and vanilla. As the pot was stuffed with Kongs, and there were some smaller Kongs mixed in, and I gave each Kong a teaspoon of vanilla in the water, and added a dash more vanilla for the cause. I left the lid on as well, and in the Florida sun, the water got fairly warm during the day.
As for the sheen on the Kongs, the company explained it this way: “The KONGS are glossy because they have gone through the tumbler, which shines them up. This is in no way non-toxic [sic] or harmful to the dogs.”
After four days, I took the Kongs out and rinsed them well, let them dry in the sun, and I have to say that a good deal of that bad smell had diminished. I’d recommend this method to *detox* your Kongs before you let your dogs inaugurate them with play or for food destuffing.
By Helen Verte
Certified Pet Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed, Certified Trick Dog Instructor
Broward County Dog Trainer
