The 19 Best Puzzle Toys That Actually Help Bored Dogs

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We love puzzle toys, and your dog will too. Often recommended by dog behaviorists, these interactive dog toys are designed to help keep your dog busy while you’re away, stave off boredom, and stimulate their natural curiosity.

While these toys offer much-needed mental stimulation for your pup, nothing can replace the value of engaging in interactive play with your dog (i.e. tug-of-war or fetch). But when you can’t be there, puzzle toys are a great supplement.

Here are some of our favorite puzzle toys for dogs.

Kong toys have been a favorite chew toy of furry friends for more than 30 years. The bouncy rubber toy can be stuffed with a treat like dog-safe peanut butter (and so much more.)

Whether your dog is pawing it around the house or carefully licking out every last goody, it’s bound to keep him entertained all day long. Available in multiple sizes and with special varieties for puppies, seniors, and extreme chewers.

Shop for Kong Toys at the Rover Store

For more Kong toy recommendations, check these out.

Move over hide and seek, there’s a new game in town—and it’s called hide and squeak by Outward Hound. This plush puzzle game is simple: you stuff the adorable little squeaky squirrels into the oh-so-soft tree trunk and watch your dog pull them out one by one. Then stuff ’em back in, and do it again. This interactive toy is super fun and food free for dogs on a diet.

Available in four sizes, it’s slightly less cardio-heavy than the chasing of squirrels IRL, but it keeps dogs just as entertained.

Certified dog trainer Shoshi Parks recommends this toy in her article, How to Buy a Quality Dog Toy (and Avoid a Dangerous Fake).

Shop the Outward Hound Hide-A-Squirrel at the Rover Store

Watch out! If you let your dog spend too much time with this clever puzzle, they’ll soon outsmart you. The wooden toy requires your dog to maneuver the levers to reveal treats.

Made by the well-regarded line of Swedish puzzle toys, Nina Ottosson, it’s a great exercise in mental stimulation that keeps your dog curious.

Shop the Outward Hound Puzzle Toy at the Rover Store

You know those blow-up bop bags you’d punch as a kid? This treat-dispensing toy by Starmark is kind of like that, only much smaller and filled with delicious goodies. It’s a dog puzzle to be solved with face and feet, so expect some loud and ecstatic playtime.

Fill the toy with your dog’s favorite treat, or even entire dinner, then customize the opening to determine just how many calories your dog should get. As he works for it, the toy bobs and tilts on an anti-slip, weighted base. It’s like dinner and a show.

Verified review: “The weighted base ensures maximum wobble to keep your dog interested. A great option for feeding your dog as it’s similar to slow feeders in the way it slows down the time to consume the food.” (For more about this toy, see the video review below.)

Shop the Bob-A-Lot on Amazon

Like the Bob-a-Lot, the IQ Treat Ball can be filled with treats, with the opening based on the desired difficulty. Want to entertain your canine all day long? Tighten that opening. Make it easy? Open it up. A one size fits all dog puzzle toy. Toys like this are great for keeping your dog physically active while also ensuring they are staying stimulated and less likely to be destructive.

Shaped like a warped tube, the Qwizl puzzle toy from West Paw can be stuffed with dog food kibble, apple slices, dog biscuits, jerky strips, carrot sticks, nut butters, you name it! As long as it’s healthy to eat and your dog likes it, feel free to stuff it into the Qwizl. West Paw claims this toy to be one of its strongest, so even if your pup is a heavy chewer, this highly durable toy should be able to withstand those chompers, at least for a while.

Shop Qwizl Toy at the Rover Store

It’s like fast food for dogs. The Tug-A-Jug by PetSafe, which holds up to an entire meal’s worth of kibble, won’t only satisfy your dog’s hunger, but keep them occupied for quite some time, too.

The unique design is a rubber chew toy, rope toy, and food dispenser in one. It features a textured rubber nodule, which cleans teeth, a rope to tug on, and a jug you can fill with kibble or treats. Made in different sizes for breeds big and small, it’s basically a dog’s dream.

Dogs love this because it’s basically their favorite game: fetch. Available in different sizes, the Tricky Treat Ball by Omega Paw is as simple as it sounds—a familiar ball shape, with tricky-to-find treats. No gimmicks here, simply load it up and watch as your dog pushes it around the house, trying to get their favorite snack out.

Designed with hues from your dog’s visual color range that activate natural behavior, this delightful puzzle is a fun challenge. Watch your dog flip and slide their way to hidden treats with their tongue, paws, and more—all while sharpening their cognitive skills.

Remember: dogs don’t have opposable thumbs. With a non-slip bottom, this game stays in place as long as it takes.

Spin the alternating blue and yellow layers of this toy right ’round to dazzle your pet with a challenge. This game features several chambers to be filled with hidden treats that are only revealed after the dog spins each individual bone-shaped layer.

Increase the game’s difficulty by placing treats under smaller white bone blocks that fit into the compartments.

Shop Dog Tornado Toy at the Rover Store

Perhaps one of the most classic puzzle toys, snuffle mats are a fun way to work your dog’s brain while they sniff out treats or kibble in the strands fabric. This popular version gets great reviews and works well for dogs of all sizes and ages. It’s also machine washable for easy clean up. You can also try a DIY version here.

Shop Snuffle Mats at the Rover Store

FurryFido’s ball is a straightforward, no-gimmicks option for dogs who might enjoy fetch, light chewing and getting treats. It comes in three colors and is made of non-toxic, durable rubber to last. While this chew toy is great for play and increasing your pup’s “doggy IQ” it isn’t recommended for tough chewers.

You might have noticed by now that we’ve featured several toys in the Nina Ottosson collection by Outward Hound. They’re high quality, get great reviews by dog owners and are all around a go-to for puzzle toys. Who says learning can’t be fun? For dogs looking to level up, this tricky puzzle toy will keep them engaged as they search for hidden treats or kibble. With multiple levels, you can adjust to the more advanced option once your dog has successfully mastered it.

Keep ’em guessing! This puzzle toy is more play, less work; so it may be a better fit for dogs easily frustrated by more challenging toys. Kibble is sporadically doled out from three inner chambers via the Treat Meter, producing a pleasant surprise for your dog as they bounce the barnacle around.

Dogs have to work to knock their reward loose from this toy which traps treats in its ridges. To make the puzzle even more dynamic for precocious pups, you can interlock the small and large sizes for a bigger challenge. Because of its design, this toy has a larger degree of difficulty than some of the others, especially if you use treats that don’t easily dislodge.

Shop for Toppl Toy at the Rover Store

How cute is this? You can stuff six little aliens into this plush spaceship for your inquisitive dog to remove in whatever way they can. To increase the level of intrigue, each alien is equipped with a squeaker.

This toy is like seven toys in one, since you can toss the miniature Martians across the room for your doggie to retrieve.

Not recommended for heavy chewers who will quickly decapitate the adorable aliens. And know that squeaky toys can be fun for your dog but may not always be fun for you.

This interactive puzzle by OurPets proved to be great for our tester, Shirley the pug. It’s a fun, sushi-themed version of other toys we’ve seen where dogs need to navigate their way through the obstacles to find treats.

“This puzzle toy was great for my senior Pug. The depth of the treat slots is shallow enough that she didn’t have to work overly hard to get the reward, and she quickly picked up on moving the sushi pieces around to reveal more treats. At the end, she checks every treat slot to make sure nothing was missed.”

Let the experiments begin! Your dog will be challenged to flip the canisters upside down and keep them balanced until the treats fall out. This toy comes with several lids with varying hole sizes for increased or decreased difficulty and is likely best for a dog who’s familiar with puzzle toys due to its exacting nature.

We sourced the above review from our article, The Best Dog Puzzle Toys, Reviewed by a Dog.

Shop the Trixie Mad Scientist Toy on Amazon

We love a food-themed toy, and so do our dogs. The waffle puzzle toy by OurPets was no different when our tester Olive the Boston Terrier tried it out. It’s great for dogs who need a slightly simpler puzzle to solve, who might otherwise be frustrated by something more difficult.

“This is a really cute puzzle, and is good for a dog who is just starting out with enrichment toys. Since the “syrup” top portion doesn’t cover all of the cubes, dogs can quickly learn that they can reach the hidden treats with a press of the nose. Treat slots in the lower portion’s corners make for an additional challenge that my dog hasn’t quite figured out yet.”

Further Reading

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