Bloodhound defeats Kong stuffing — what works instead

A Bloodhound who pulls the stuffing out whole rather than licking it — that's a dog who's figured out the shortcut, and a standard Kong has basically become a delivery mechanism at that point. The right chew toy for a serious chewer needs to be durable enough to last but not so hard it risks cracking teeth, and the right choice depends a lot on chewing style and jaw strength. Before I point you in the right direction: is your Bloodhound more of a methodical demolisher or does he go at things with real force? And what's driving the search right now — boredom, destructive chewing, something else?

Right, so the problem isn't power — it's problem-solving. He's smart enough to reverse-engineer the Kong's design, which means he needs something that doesn't have an obvious extraction strategy. What are you currently stuffing the Kong with? Wet food, kibble, something else?

He's genuinely outsmarted the Kong's geometry — that's the issue. The West Paw Tux is what I'd point you toward. It has a completely different internal shape: a three-lobed cavity that's much harder to compress from the outside, so the squeeze-and-pop trick doesn't work. The opening is also narrower relative to the internal space, which means frozen food stays trapped longer and he actually has to lick and work at it rather than apply pressure. It's made from Zogoflex — tough enough for strong jaws but not tooth-crackingly hard — and it's dishwasher safe, which matters when you're using wet food. For a 6-year-old Bloodhound his size you'd want the large. Freeze it with the same fillings you're already using and it'll genuinely challenge him in a way the Kong no longer does.

Both, honestly. The Zogoflex material is comparable in durability to Kong Classic rubber — neither will be destroyed by a methodical chewer who isn't trying to shred it — but the Tux's shape is the real advantage here. The Kong's cylindrical design has a predictable squeeze point; the Tux's three-lobed form distributes pressure oddly and makes it much harder for a dog to find a mechanical advantage. For your Bloodhound specifically, I'd bet the shape change alone buys you significantly more engagement time, especially frozen.

Stick with what you know he likes — the filling isn't the problem, the container is. The one thing I'd add: try layering it. Put a plug of peanut butter at the base, fill the middle with the wet food and kibble mix, then seal the top with another smear of peanut butter before freezing. That way he hits multiple textures and has to work through layers rather than accessing it all at once. The Tux's shape handles the rest.