Best Dog Treats and Toys for Serious Chewers

So you might have heard that one of the reasons things have been so sparse around here lately is that we adopted a new pup! Our gal Penny Lane is supposed to be around one year old, but I'm guessing she's slightly younger than that. She has a TON of puppy energy and a serious need to chew. She also has jaws of steel and crushes regular toys in seconds. So I've spent a good part of the last two months searching for items that will keep the Mr.'s shoes out of her mouth (she only chews his stuff, which kind of cracks me up). Since Penny is a part of our family and this is a family-friendly lifestyle blog, I thought it would be fun to share a few pup posts now and then. Starting with my top treat and toy finds for serious chewers. Anyone else have a new furry family member?!

1. KONG is the go to brand for tough toys and we use several of the classic ones daily, but this oversized Wobbler food and treat dispenser takes the cake. It's hard plastic but fares well with teething and has held up well with Penny slamming it around to get her breakfast.

2. Penny is obsessed with cheese -- another sign that she was meant for our family. These Himalayan Yak Cheese chews are the perfect way for her to get her chewing fix without leaving gross bone residue all over the house.

3. You say peanut butter, Penny says YASSSSSS. This Peanut Butter Nylabone is textured for optimal chewing too.

4. Cami picked out this wood stick because Penny kept stealing all of her hiking sticks -- she loves it!

5. The West Paw brand has been a consistently good choice. I love to put a treat stick in this puzzle toy and let Penny have at it.

6. We live across the street from a tennis center and have a tennis ball obsessed dog. So you can imagine how that's working out. We kept getting her new tennis balls, but she destroys them almost immediately. This KONG Jumbler Ball toy keeps her occupied for a serious amount of time as she tries to get the tennis ball out. And the handle is fun for the kids.

7. Another West Paw fave, this little treat dispenser is another fun peanut butter or treat go to.

8. Lots of pups like long toys they can whip around and this sweet potato rope doubles as a chew toy too. Penny loves to run long loops around the house flipping it around, then chews all the sweet potatoes off, then chews the ropes to bit. It makes a mess, but it's worth it.

Miscellaneous Madness: Homemade Frozen Doggie Treats

We had a hard time deciding whether to categorize this item off of our summer bucket list as grub or not. Because, to be honest, we ate them too. We started making them and realized that they included all the same things we love: yogurt, honey, and peanut butter. We didn't even mind that bananas were in there too. We had them for breakfast! Oh, and Vegas loved them. Peanut butter is pretty much his most favorite thing in the world. He tried to eat one whole and almost choked, so mom had to cut one up for him to slow him down.

Here's what you'll need:
- 2 bananas
- 4 tblsps peanut butter
- 4 tblsps honey
- 24 ounces yogurt (we used a mix of a little banana and greek honey)

Mix it all in a bowl with an electric mixer until well mixed. Pour mixture into small cups -- we used a muffin tin and this made 12 treats (although, as we mentioned above, we ended up cutting them into 4ths). Freeze overnight. Pop them out with a knife and serve to your kids, errrrr doggies.