Hannele Lahti is a Virginia-based photographer who has captured the wear and tear performed by her pet dogs on the stuffed animal toys they were given. This story is repeated by many other pet parents who find that their furred friends quickly shred a new animal toy to bits or disembowels it. Lahti grooms three Boston terriers and she captured the tale of the toy destruction on her camera. This gave birth to her Dog Toy Project.
Lahti extended the project to her friends and gathered seven participating dogs. The larger canines destroyed their toys in minutes. Lahti recalls the interesting episode of a Newfoundland breed dog named Oscar who was given a purple and gray stuffed elephant. But the dog parent soon found that the toy was missing. After a frantic search, the stuffed elephant was found buried in the backyard.
Wolf Instinct Still Intact
Similar to many other mammals, dogs use playtime to learn. Canine experts aver that stuffed toys remind dogs of the real-world prey that their wolf ancestors hunted in the wild. This may be the reason why pet dogs make fast work of the soft and adorable toys. You should ideally select toys based on your pooch’s loved activities. If they like chasing, you can give them a Frisbee or tennis ball. Likewise, if Fido loves chewing you can offer him a rope toy.
Just like children, dogs become tired of toys quite soon. So, to maintain the entertainment element and to save money you should put their toys in storage for some time and reintroduce them after a few weeks to make the old toys look new.
Lahti’s project sheds a unique and creative light on canine behavior. Each pooch leaves a unique mark on their toys. Lahti got down to her pets’ level and snapped many of the photos on all fours. In this way, she captures the enjoyment and reality of pet parenting which is one of the small pleasures of life.
Credits
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2018/05/animals-pets-dog-toy/
Author: Carrie Arnold
For a daily dose of dogs https://dogsasart.com/category/dog-stories/
