Best Interactive Dog Toys for 2022

The ultimate fetch toy, this rugby shaped football for boisterous pups is a best-selling Kong toy and a fantastic ruff and tumble activity for playing in the park.

A brightly coloured eggball with handles for your dog to bite onto, it features a tumbling tennis ball and squeaker inside which means chomping into it emits enticing squeaky noises, which your pup will be unable to resist!

The two handles make it great for tug of war battles with your buddy and you need only shake it to see your mutt’s eyes light up with glee!

KONG are probably the best known manufacturer of dog toys in the world and their ‘classic’ rubber range is one of the main reasons for their unparalleled success in the industry.

If you’ve not heard of KONG’s original rubber chew toy, then your dog is without doubt missing out on one of the best toys on the market, and a tasty interactive treat that brings pups hours of enjoyment!

With an erratic and unpredictable bounce, it’s a great fetch toy, and made of the thickest and most durable rubber, ensuring its place as one of the most difficult to damage products out there.

But what really makes the KONG unique is it’s stuffable inner centre, which we’d recommend stuffing with everything from peanut butter to standard kibble!

Hiding treats within the toy unlocks it’s mentally stimulating properties, as pups will spend hours manipulating the KONG and it’s small opening in order to get at the good stuff!

Simple and easy for dogs of all breeds to understand, it’s also dishwasher safe, meaning cleaning up the messy centre is a walk in the park.

Sometimes dog toys aren’t just about securing a distraction free hour for yourself, but instead are more about relieving the clear frustration and boredom of an under stimulated dog.

If this is the case for you and your agitated mutt, you can’t go far wrong with some of the interactive toy products designed by Nina Ottoson, Sweden’s biggest export since ABBA.

Nina and her team create puzzle games with the specific aim of banishing boredom from a dog’s life, helping to rid them of destructive behaviours and tendencies by exercising their mind.

In the main, these are often hide and seek treat devices, which dogs love to fiddle around with and unlock the secrets of to in turn gain access to a tasty bit of kibble!

This treat maze is no different, coming in a discus shape with two points of entry for dogs to manipulate and interact with in order to release the sweet treats within!

Rated at an intermediate skill level, it’s a great way to challenge and engage your dog in a new and exciting way, helping them become healthier, happier and better behaved!

Referring to themselves as the world leaders in pet education, Starmark aims to improve relationships between dogs and owners through their anxiety alleviating and boredom breaking toys.

The most popular of these is their Bob-a-Lot, so called because it’s unique shape causes it to display a bobbing motion when touched or knocked, which it then continues to do so for quite some time (a lot).

The point of the toy is that it is a treat dispensing device, and so with every few knocks it should bobble out a tasty biscuit for your hound to eat from one of it’s dual inner chambers.

This will keep a pup entertained for some time, batting their Bob-a-Lot around the room until all it’s inner goodies are gone!

However, if you feel your mutt is getting a little too much reward for very little work, the adjustable chamber doors on either side of the Bob allow you to increase or decrease the difficulty of dispense!

Simple to understand with a great incentive, it’s a sure fire way to cheer up a dawdling dog.

Every dog owner knows that our poochie pals are highly intelligent animals, but just like us humans, they can lose some of their sharp reactions and instincts if you don’t provide them with enough mentally stimulating activities.

Dog strategy games are helpful in this regard, as rather than providing an overly physical challenge like most interactive toys, they instead test a dog’s mental capabilities and provide a fun and engaging work out.

This dog activity flip board from Trixie is one of the best, with an intermediate difficulty level and a size that is suitable for any dog breed, big or small.

Coming in the form of an interactive board, the game is a treat finding game featuring two cones and several indentations with hinged lids and sliders.

This provides you with two different hiding places for your mutt’s favourite treats, as well as two different ways for your dog to extract them. But don’t worry about having to do any confusing set ups, as an included booklet with tips and tricks for designing optimal training will ensure it’s your dog getting the mental workout, not owners!

Made of robust plastic, it’s also perfectly pup-safe with a non-slip rubber base ring to support sturdy and unproblematic play!

If your mischievous mutt can’t seem to stop chasing the neighbourhood cat, barking at birds or clawing the television every time you put on Planet Earth, then this is the interactive toy you’ve been searching for!

With over 20 different animal noises within, the Pet Qwerks Babble Ball is your canine’s very own virtual zoo and to hear crystal clear wildlife from the heart of the jungle, all they need do is push, prod and poke their ball!

Made from a durable plastic material, it’s a great choice for chewers, helping to support the strength of their teeth and health of their gums.

And don’t worry about it being a source of endless racket! As an on/off feature allows you to use it as a simple, soundless exercise toy if you ever just want to play along with your pup!

Another fantastic puzzle from Sweden’s premier pooch toy manufacturer Nina Ottoson, this Casino Treat Toy is certainly worth the gamble with it’s challenging and brain-bamboozling mechanics.

For seriously smart pups, this toy helps to train and teach your dog through sequential steps, making it a far cry from the more simpler treat dispensing toys on this list.

In this boredom breaking board game, your dog must open 6 drawer compartments to get access to the stashed treats within. However, each compartment can be locked and unlocked via a linked movable bone latch at the top of the device – but will your little Einstein be able to work it out?!

A seriously tough task, this noodle-buster is a fantastic choice for dogs who have ploughed their way through simple and even intermediate puzzle toys!

Visually, there probably is not a more appealing interactive toy on the market than this high-stacked activity tower toy from Trixie.
A sturdy model suitable for dogs of all sizes, the tower is made of three compartments, designed to be stashed full of tasty dog treats. But to get access to them, your pup will need to work out how to remove the compartment trapdoors, sending the treats down a chute and into the paws of your hungry mutt!

There are also two cones on the model which can be stuffed with kibble or peanut butter, providing two ways for your pup to entertain and reward themselves by solving the puzzles.

It might take some time for them to figure it out, but it’s up to you how much you want to help them, as remember, it’s far more mentally beneficial for them to work it out themselves!

Keeping dogs active for longer, it’s a guaranteed way to improve concentration and behavioural issues in pups!

Suitable for all sizes of dog, the oddly named Wobble Wag Giggle ball surprisingly does exactly what it says on the tin, as its wobbly movement and giggle sound effects are sure to have any dog tail wagging in no time.

Made of phthalate-free vinyl, the ball is a flexible and strong material that rough house pups can feel free to bite and strike at their leisure and is perfect for both indoor and outdoor use.

With six ‘clutch pockets’ around its surface, it’s also easy to pick up for small-mouthed mutts and emits bizarre giggle sounds whenever pushed, picked up or shaken thanks to inner sound tubing as opposed to batteries.

The toy as a whole is a fantastic addition to any pooch’s daily exercise routine, and its unique noises will spark the natural instincts of even the most domestic dog!

A mouthful to say, the Busy Buddy Tug-a-Jug is a literal  mouthful for any inquisitive canine, and a toy that appeals to multiple senses at once, each of them helping to keep your dog focused and engaged with play.

Utilising a unique, patented design, the Busy Buddy is in essence a treat dispensing device, taking the form of a lot of treats inside a see-through jug. This of course creates an effect where your mutt can see the treats inside as well as smell them, and hear them when the jug structure is rolled around.

However, the top of the bottle is obstructed by a rope and ball combination, meaning access to the treats is going to take a bit of work!

By tugging on the rope, dogs can change the position of the ball covering the opening, allowing for treats to fall out of the bottle in small batches, meaning your pup is going to either have to put in a real shift or come up with a really successful method for releasing the goodies!

This makes it a great item to be used as part of obedience training, or even as a diet control option which combines exercise, mentally stimulating activity and smaller more manageable portions!