Is your dog toy squeaky snake safe for your pup? Important safety tips all dog owners should know now.
Right, so the dog, bless his cotton socks, managed to shred another one of his toys. It was the plush hedgehog this time. Stuffing everywhere. Honestly, keeping him entertained without constantly buying new stuff is a challenge.
I had this idea buzzing around after seeing those long squeaky snake toys in the pet shop. They cost a fair bit, though, and I figured, how hard can it be? Got some materials lying around anyway.
What I dug out
- An old pair of jeans. Tough stuff, thought it might last longer than five minutes.
- Some spare squeakers I bought in a multipack ages ago online. Knew they'd come in handy.
- Needle and strong thread. Probably should've used the sewing machine, but couldn't be bothered to set it up.
- Scissors, obviously.
Getting it done
First thing, I cut up the jeans. Took one leg and cut two long, roughly rectangular strips. Let's say about four inches wide and maybe two feet long? Didn't measure properly, just eyeballed it. You know how it is.
Then I put the two strips right sides together. Started sewing up one short end and the long side. Hand sewing denim, let me tell you, it's tough on the fingers. Used a thimble after the first few painful pokes. Left one short end open, so it was like a long, flat denim tube.
Turned the whole thing right side out. Looked a bit like a deflated snake already. Then, the fun part. I pushed a squeaker right down to the bottom sewn end. Then I sort of spaced out a few more along the length inside the tube. Maybe three or four squeakers in total?
Here's a tip: To keep the squeakers from bunching up, I did a few stitches through both layers of the denim tube on either side of each squeaker. Just simple running stitches across the width. It created little compartments for them. Worked pretty well, actually.
Finally, just had to close it up. Tucked the raw edges of the open end in on themselves and stitched it shut nice and tight. Did a double stitch there just in case. Didn't bother with eyes or a tongue, figured the dog wouldn't care and it's just something else to chew off.
The result?
It looked... well, it looked like a lumpy blue snake made of denim. Not gonna win any beauty contests. But the dog? He went absolutely bonkers for it. Grabbed it, squeaked it like mad, thrashed it side to side. The denim's holding up much better than that poor hedgehog did. It's been a few days now, and only one end is looking a bit frayed. Success, I reckon. Saved myself a few quid too.
