Happiness Games for Dogs: Bottle of Treats

Hello, you Lovely Pet Parent you!

I think I’ve just invented a new fun game for dogs! Although there’s a strong likelihood, someone’s already done it. 😥

It’s called ‘Bottle of Treats’, and it’s super-duper simple to make and super awesome simple to play.

Frankly, with my DIYery, it has to be super simple.

It’s a plastic bottle with the bottom cut off and a piece of cardboard taped to create a new bottom of the bottle (the cardboard has holes cut into it for the treats to fall through). Then some string attached to the top of the bottle for two people to hold.

I told you it was easy!

What do you need?

1. Plastic bottle with a good rim at the top – (top tip… plastic bottles with thinner plastic walls are much better).
2. Cardboard
3. Tape
4. String
5. Strong scissors
6. Deliciously healthy Bounce and Bella’s Grain-Free training treats – YUM!

How to create the Bottle of Treats Game?

1. Cut out a piece of cardboard that’s about 50% bigger than the bottom of the bottle and cut and fold so it will fit on the bottom of the bottle.
2. Pop a hole in the middle of the cardboard so the treats will fall out and trim. (Make the hole so the raggedy bits of cardboard will point outwards. Inwards and they’ll stop the treats falling out).
3. Wash out the plastic bottle (I like to remove the taste of tonic from the bottles in case Roscoe gets a hankering for it and ends up snaffling all my gin – No Roscoe!).
4. Carefully cut the bottom off the plastic bottle.
5. Tape your cardboard piece around the bottom of the bottle.
6. Cut off a long piece of string. Tie it centrally below the bottle’s rim, so you’ve got equal lengths of string on both sides.
7. Pour in your treats.
   Grab a string and have someone else grab the other end (or attach it to something).
8. Then move it around and watch your dog-loving getting those treats out!

Here it is…

Here’s Roscoe showing off his mad skills (as the kids used to say)…

Lessons Learned?

Maybe I’ve started off a bit complex for Roscoe? He’s a bit of a newbie to happiness or brain games for dogs.

It probably didn’t help that I made the treat hole a bit large. He could hang around waiting for the treats rather than having to force them out with a few bangs from his big old hairy snout.

Use a plastic bottle with thinner plastic. I initially tried using a Schweppes tonic water bottle, which was tricky because it cracked and snapped. I was also worried about little bits of plastic working their way lose. So I tried out the Aldi own brand tonic water (which a friend just introduced me to btw – nice – I can see a permanent tonic change happening), and the plastic is much thinner, thin enough to cut with kitchen scissors and easier to puncture for the holes.

Will you be trying the Bottle of Treats Game?

If you try and it’s a win for your dog (or if it’s not), let us know in the comments. We’d love to see if it works or not…

And if you’re wondering what the delicious little training treats with a high-value crunch were, you can find them here: https://shop.bounceandbella.co.uk/products/grain-free-premium-poultry-treats-for-dogs
And you can even try them at 50% off if you’ve never used our awesome offer before. All the details are here… https://shop.bounceandbella.co.uk/pages/blog50.