Dog Enrichment Activities: Trixie Dog Toys

Ever since I learned about dog enrichment, I’ve been on a mission to try any and every dog enrichment activity and toy there is! Diesel was only a few years old when he got his first dog enrichment puzzle from Chandler’s parents. At the time, I had no idea that in just a few years, that dog enrichment toy brand would become one of our favorites and be featured on my blog! 

Since you’re all probably wondering, “ok Caitlin, who the heck are you talking about?”, this post is all about TRIXIE dog toys! You’ve probably seen them all over Chewy, Amazon and other retailers and they actually have a TON of dog products (and other animal products too!). 

TRIXIE dog toy puzzles are ranked on a scale from Level 1 to Level 3, and in this post, I’ll be sharing my review of some Level 3 advanced TRIXIE dog puzzles PLUS a bonus boredom buster for dogs from TRIXIE dog toys (there’s recipes!)! Let’s get into some fun enrichment for dogs!

What Is Dog Enrichment?

First, if you’ve been hearing the words “dog enrichment” are wondering, what the heck is that? I’m honestly so glad you asked! Dog enrichment is any activity that provides mental and/or physical stimulation for your dog. Most of the time when people think of dog enrichment, they think of dog puzzles, but dog enrichment can also be dog sports, K9 fitness (check out awesome K9 fitness exercise section on my blog), long sniff walks, etc. 

In this post, I will be sharing more about one of my favorite forms of dog enrichment, dog puzzles! Dog puzzles are a great way to provide tons of mental enrichment for your dogs on days where they might be stuck inside (rainy days or snow days), or when you might have back-to-back zoom meetings for work. Dog puzzles are great for providing your dog with fun challenges while also making them happy!

TRIXIE Dog Toy 1: Slow Feeding Rocking Bowl

The first TRIXIE dog puzzle toy that provides great enrichment for dogs is the TRIXIE Slow Feeding Rocking Bowl. Now, I personally love a good slow feeder dog bowl. My dog Annie has been a chowhound since the day I brought her home at 10 weeks, ha! If you’ve been looking for bowls to help your dogs eat slower/a dog bowl for fast eaters, then you should definitely try the TRIXIE Slow Feeding Rocking Bowl!

What I think makes this TRIXIE dog toy one of the best slow feeder dog bowls in my opinion, is that you can actually change the level of difficulty inside of the bowl. When you open up the bowl (twist to turn), you will see there’s a piece in the middle that you can rotate. As you turn it, the hole where the food comes out can become smaller or larger, hence increasing the challenge of this interactive dog feeder. 

This technically isn’t marked as a level 3 TRIXIE dog toy, but depending on the level of difficulty you set it to, it very well could be!

Pro Tip: Be aware of the size treats/dog food you are putting in the bowl and what difficulty level you pair it with. For example, don’t close the hole too small if you’re using a larger size kibble that will not come out at all. This will simply leave your dog frustrated and could possibly result in them trying to destroy the slow feeder dog bowl enrichment toy, rather than solve it. 

TRIXIE Dog Toy 2: Dog Activity Flower Tower Strategy Game

The next TRIXIE dog toy that’s become one of Annie’s favorite dog enrichment activities is the TRIXIE Dog Activity Flower Tower Interactive dog puzzle! What’s cool about this dog treat puzzle is that it has four different layers, complete with different challenges:

• The first layer comes with pegs that cover small holes where you can hide treats for your dog. They must remove the peg in order to find their reward.
• The second layer challenges your dog to “slide” compartments in order to find their treat.
• The third layer has built in groove designs on every flower “petal” for the treats to slide into, increasing the amount of time to get the treats out.
• The fourth layer has built in shapes that challenge your dog to sniff out and find their reward.

In addition to the three layers of this fun enrichment activity for dogs, surrounding the three sides are additional pegs covering more holes where you can hide treats. If you keep these in, the dog must remove these first, in order to rotate the dog treat puzzle to reveal all of the layers!

With this interactive dog treat puzzle, you can really customize it to create numerous challenges for your dog. You can keep pegs in or remove them or even fill treats in certain holes but not others to encourage more scent work from your dog. 

Want to get a few extra ideas for how to use this Trixie dog toy? Check out my YouTube video below to get a closer view of all the layers in the Trixie Flower Tower Interactive Dog Puzzle and tons of fun tips!

TRIXIE Dog Toy 3: Dog Activity Ball & Treat Strategy Game

The third TRIXIE dog toy and honestly the hardest dog treat puzzle out of the three is the Dog Activity Ball & Treat Strategy Game! Now, I’m going to start off by saying that this Level 3 dog treat puzzle actually stumped my two dogs, but I think I know why. 

For this TRIXIE dog toy puzzle, in order to be rewarded with a treat, your dog must grab the basketball, drop it in the hole at the top of the puzzle, and then once it passes through, treats will be released on both sides. 

Now, if you have a dog who loves to play fetch or any type of Retriever, you are GOLDEN, ha (see what I did there lol)! Neither of my dogs are retrievers, and fetch has never been of any interest to them, which is why I think this puzzle completely stumped them, ha! Annie thought she needed to push it around to make the treats come out, and Diesel just did his classic bulldoze move where he also pushed it, but with more force, ha! 

If you have dogs similar to mine, here are some things you can work on (that I’ll be trying!) to help prepare them for this puzzle:

• Teach them how to pick up a toy and/or hold it and then drop it
• Teach them how to put away a toy (the adorable clean up trick)

I personally think either one of those tricks/training techniques could be quite helpful for teaching your dog this puzzle if they’re struggling like my two did. I’ll definitely try this and report back to you all with an update in this post to share how it’s going!

Bonus TRIXIE Dog Toy: TRIXIE Snack Snake

As a fun bonus, I wanted to share one of our favorite TRIXIE dog toys! This isn’t a level 3 dog treat puzzle by any means, but it’s absolutely fun and is great year round, especially in the summer, which I’ll get into next!

The TRIXIE Snack Snake dog toy has become one of our favorite dog enrichment activities to sprinkle in throughout the week, or as an added element in a busy box dog toy.

P.S. Check out my YouTube video for a fun tutorial on the DIY Dog Enrichment Idea: DIY Busy Box For Dogs where you can add in the TRIXIE Snack Snake!

The TRIXIE Snack Snake comes in two sizes: a longer straight snake and a smaller coiled snake. With this enrichment activity for dogs, you can do a few things:

• Grab your dog’s food and fit in all or as much as possible to give your dog a break from their food bowl.
• Put some treats in and make it a fun dog treat puzzle.
• Create a frozen dog treat by adding in any of the following ideas:
  • Mashed Banana
  • Pure canned pumpkin
  • Dog Safe peanut butter
  • Plain Greek yogurt
  • Blended dog safe fruit
  • Blended dog safe vegetables

Pro Tip: If you want to use anything that has a slightly thicker texture like the pumpkin or yogurt, grab a piping bag so that you can plug it in and fill it up! Also, if you want to use peanut butter, there are many dog safe peanut butter brands that come in tubes, so you can squeeze and go!

You can even create your own custom combinations by adding multiple options from the list above together! I love mixing yogurt and pumpkin together to make a fun frozen dog treat. Plus, this makes the best frozen dog treat for the summer that doubles as a fun enrichment activity for your dog! 

Out of all of the TRIXIE dog puzzle toys, which was your favorite? We’re definitely huge fans of the TRIXIE Slow Feeding Rocking Bowl, TRIXIE Flower Tower and the TRIXIE Snack Snakes! We’re determined to solve the Activity Ball & Treat Strategy Game though, ha! 

If you’re looking for fun new dog enrichment activities, definitely check out all of the fun interactive dog treat puzzle toys from TRIXIE! They have a huge selection of dog (and cat!) puzzles and we can’t wait to try many more!

Want more dog enrichment ideas? Check out some of my favorite posts featuring some more fun dog enrichment activities like DIY puzzle toys for dogs, Lickimat recipes, KONG filling ideas, and more:

• 3 Easy Dog Lick Mat Ideas 
• 3 DIY Dog Treat Dispensers 
• 3 DIY Dog Enrichment Ideas To Combat Dog Cabin Fever 
• 3 Dog Enrichment Activities Using Toilet Paper Rolls 
• 3 DIY Puzzle Toys For Dogs 
• 3 Easy Scenting Games For Dogs 
• 3 Ingredient Yogurt Dog Treat Recipe With Lickimat Soother  
• 3 Snuffle Toys For Dogs 
• DIY Snuffle Mat Ball: JW HOLEE Roller Ball Dog Toy Idea 

Plus, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter below to get more dog enrichment ideas delivered straight to your inbox.

Photography: Kate Kelley Collection

Thank you TRIXIE for sponsoring this post. I am so excited my dogs and I got to try more of your dog enrichment puzzles! All opinions in this post are my own.