Toy Story

Pup2 loves toys! Yard sales are full of these little stuffed animals for 25 cents or less. And I guess it's a sign of our age that we often comment on how many stuffed animals children have these days (we only had one stuffed animal each when I was a kid, yada, yada, yada). But that doesn't stop me from buying dozens of these a year for our 5 year old puppy-child. The above photo shows her at a yard sale picking out some toys for herself.

I've tried a few systems for keeping her daily toy selection "fresh". Here's a game that was a lot of fun (for both of us) for awhile. Each night when she went to bed in her crate, I would put gather up her three toys du jour, hide them in my secret hiding place, bring out three different toys and hide them around the house. Then she would get up the next morning and run around like a crazy pup looking for the new toys. Each day was like Christmas for her. Well, all good things come to an end, and this game ended when our impatient little pup refused to wait until the next morning for her toy hunt. One night she went to bed, gave me enough time to hide the new toys, then whined until I let her back out of her crate. Of course, once she found her fresh toys, there was no getting her back into bed for awhile.



Time for a new game (photo below). Now I keep a pile of toys in my closet and each morning she jumps in and chooses her three toys for the day. Much contemplation and careful thought go into her decision each morning. She knows that once she brings out three toys, the closet door gets closed.