My dog destroyed the dog toy with toy inside quickly, what now? Tips for finding longer lasting options.

Making That Dog Toy with Another Toy Inside

Alright, let's talk about this dog toy project I did. My dog, bless his heart, is a little destruction machine when it comes to his toys. Five minutes, maybe ten if I'm lucky, and stuffing is everywhere, or the squeaker's been surgically removed. I saw those fancy toys in the pet store, you know, the ones with a surprise toy hidden inside? Looked cool, but man, the price tag. I figured, I could probably rig something like that up myself.

So, I started rummaging through the toy graveyard bin. Found this old plush alligator toy. It was pretty tough fabric-wise, one of those "reinforced seam" types, but the original squeaker died ages ago and Max was kinda bored with it. Perfect candidate for the outer shell.

Next, I needed the 'inside' surprise. Had a small, spiky rubber ball Max got in a BarkBox once. He loved the squeak but it was a bit too small for him to play with safely alone, always worried he might swallow it. Putting it inside the alligator seemed like a good solution.

Okay, operation time. I grabbed my seam ripper – super useful tool, by the way – and carefully opened up a section of the alligator's belly seam. Didn't want to make the hole too big, just enough to shove the little spiky ball in there. Took a bit of wiggling, but I got it inside.

Now the important part: sewing it back up. Max's teeth are no joke, so regular thread wasn't gonna cut it. I remembered I had some heavy-duty upholstery thread left over from fixing a chair cushion. Thick stuff. Threaded up a sturdy needle and got to work.

Sewing this thing shut was tougher than I expected. The plush fabric was thick, and pushing the needle through took some real effort. My fingers were definitely feeling it. I used a backstitch, going over the seam twice, making sure the stitches were really tight and close together. Didn't want any easy entry points for those teeth. It doesn't look factory-perfect, let me tell you, kinda Frankenstein's monster-ish stitching, but I hoped it would be strong.

Finally finished stitching it up. Gave it a good squeeze. Felt solid. You could kinda feel the lump of the spiky ball inside, which I thought might get Max curious.

Moment of truth. Called Max over and gave him the revamped alligator. He sniffed it, tossed it around a bit like usual. Then he seemed to notice something different inside. He started focusing his chewing right on the belly area where he could feel the ball. It definitely took him way longer than usual to breach the seam! He was working hard, really engaged with it.

• Picked an old, sturdy plush toy shell.
• Found a smaller, squeaky toy that fit inside.
• Carefully opened a seam on the outer toy.
• Stuffed the small toy inside the bigger one.
• Used strong upholstery thread to sew it back up really well.
• Made sure the stitches were tight and reinforced.

He eventually got the spiky ball out, of course. But it bought us a good chunk of playtime, much more than a standard plush toy. And seeing him figure it out was pretty fun. Felt good making something with my hands, using up old stuff instead of just buying more. Plus, saved a few bucks. Definitely gonna try this again with other old toys.