Upcycled DIY Dog Toys

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Our one year old dog blows through dog toys. Yes, we’ve seen toys destroyed within minutes of giving them to him.

Some hold up better than others. After a year, I’ve kind of figured out which ones will hold up best, but most still bite the dust quicker than I would like.

We were spending tons of new dog toys, until we decided to repurpose what we already have and make DIY dog toys. They are super easy to make by tying off and braiding strips of old t-shits.

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These DIY dog toys are awesome and so easy to make! You likely already have everything you need, old tshirts and scissors, so they cost you nothing. As an added bonus, this is a project the kids can help you make.

Supplies

Old cotton t-shirts
Scissors

Things to Know

Different colored t-shirts will give you a more colorful toy, but I’m sure your dog won’t notice the difference if you only have one color.
The more strips you have the thicker your dog toy will be.
Sharper scissors or fabric scissors work best for cutting the t-shirts.

Directions

1. Cut t-shirts into strips. You need at least three strips per dog toy. The wider your strips, the thicker your dog toy will be. This step took the longest, because we prepped a lot of fabric strips to make several DIY dog toys.

2. Gather groupings of three strips and tie them together at one end making a knot. You could use 3, 6, 9, or 12 strips of tshirt fabric to make your dog toy. The more strips you have per toy, the thicker your dog toy will be. Remember when choosing how many strips you will use in your dog toy, you need to be able to knot them at both ends. The dog toy pictured under the next step and the one used in tug of war was made with just 3 strips of t-shirt fabric. The blue, purple, and pink dog toy was made with 6 strips of t-shirt fabric (2 of each color).

3. Divide your strips into thirds and begin braiding making sure to stop before you reach the end. We left about 6 inches at at the end.

4. Tie a knot at the end and play tug of war with your dog.

Save On Purnia Dry Dog Food

We continued our savings with dog food. We were able to use Cartwheel and save on at Target on BENEFUL® Original dog food. It has meat as the #1 ingredient with whole grains and vegetables and our dog loves it. We bought BENEFUL® Original dog food, but there is an amazing variety of Purina dry dog food products available at Target in the pet aisle.