Yet Another Puzzle Toy

The K-9 Obedience Club's December meeting included a potluck dinner and a Dirty Santa gift exchange. I'm a new member of K-9 so it was my first December meeting with this club. Right off the bat I noticed that this was a lot different from the GSD Club Christmas parties. Apparently obedience people are a lot more relaxed! We met in the clubhouse (instead of a fancy restaurant), wore comfy jeans and t-shirts (dog themed, of course) and every other gift included a bottle of wine and/or a dog toy. My peeps! I came home with a giant shiny gift bag containing a puzzle toy and several different treats that were reviewed in another post.

Jedi has many puzzle toys, so I was excited when I saw -- and eventually stole -- the Yin-Yang-Yum dog toy puzzle. I hadn't seen this one before! This puzzle is made by Kyjen, one of my favorite dog toy companies. The toy has two hinged flaps on top which are held in place by a pair of cups that fit into a hole. The red cup is shorter than the yellow cup, making it more difficult to remove. Each flap covers three compartments for placing treats, and the compartments vary in size, getting smaller toward the hinge. The smallest ones are about the diameter of a nickel. The dog has to remove the cups and then swing out the flaps to access the treats.

This puzzle was frustrating for Jedi. He didn't get the concept of swinging the flaps open with his nose. Jedi is a foot guy. He pawed at the toy to get the cups out. He kept pawing until the flaps opens up slightly, but couldn't figure out how to open the toy completely. He eventually got it open and ate the treats by stomping on it and flipping it over. After making sure there were no more treats inside, he tried to rip the flaps off with his teeth and paws. I guess I'll put this toy up and try again later.

How about you, have you seen any cool puzzle toys lately? Let us know! -- K