How to Make a Tennis Ball Tug Toy For Your Dog For Cheap

Does your dog like to play tug of war with you or with another dog? Do you have a bunch of old towels lying around your house that you want to throw away? Dog toys can be expensive and tend to break quickly if your dog is an aggressive chewer. Dogs with high prey drives like Pit Bulls, Border Collies and Jack Russell Terriers tend to LOVE to play the tug of war game!! You can recycle those old towels, instead of putting them into landfill, to make a fun toy for you and your dog to play with!

Supplies

-An old bath towel or tea towel,

-An old tennis ball,

-Scissors OR a drill,

Instructions

STEP 1 - Carefully cut, with the scissors, or drill a large hole through the tennis ball.

STEP 2 - Cut 3 2" strips from the bath towel or tea towel, down the long end.

STEP 3 - Bundle the 3 strips together and tie a knot about 2" down from the end.

STEP 4 - String the strips through the tennis ball & tie another knot as close to the tennis ball as you can. Braid the rest of the length of the towels & when you get about 3" away from the end, knot the strips together to finish the braid.

TADA now you have a finished dog toy! You made it yourself, you made it with items that you recycled from around your house AND you made it for the colossal cost of ZERO dollars!! If you want, you can substitute the bath towel with polar fleece fabric. A great variation on the toy is to make the non-braided end of the toy with extra long dangling ends to give your dog more play stimulation.

Once you get proficient at making this toy, you can make them for friends that own dogs and give them away as gifts OR donate them to shelter dogs, they need toys, too :)

Karen Friesecke is the author of Bloggie Stylish a new blog dedicated to recipes and free projects for dogs. Please visit Tennis Ball Tug Toy Tutorial to see this tutorial, complete with pictures.

Tennis Balls - Simple and Effective Massage Tools

Tennis balls as a massage tool are easy to come by. Most people have one at their house, even if it's the old slobbery one from the dog. Tennis ball massage is great to use on sore or tight muscles in between your professional massages. With a couple guidelines anyone can do self massage with these perfect sized balls.

How to use

Put two tennis balls into a tube sock. Push the balls to the bottom of the sock and tie a knot in the sock close to the balls so they won't separate. Then you can lay on the floor with the balls under you or lean against a wall with the balls between you and the wall. Using a wall allows you to adjust the amount of pressure against the balls by leaning onto them more or less.

Where to place the balls

With the two balls next to each other, the groove between the balls is a perfect place for your spine. Each ball will be massaging the muscles on either side of the spine.

Back and neck: You can begin with the balls up at the base of your skull. This is great for massaging the muscles that get tight and cause tension headaches. Simply roll the balls down your spine, stopping along the way at the areas that need it the most. Those spots that are sore and hurt as the tennis balls put pressure there are the spots you want to focus on. You might feel that "good hurt," where it hurts like heck but you don't want to stop. You are your own best judge of your pain level. Put as much pressure on that area as you want, sometimes as much as you can take. Then move to the next part of the para-spinal muscles. Once you've massaged the muscles all up and down the spine you can use those tennis balls to massage any other areas along your back and hips.

Buttocks: You can always separate the balls and use one at a time. This works well to massage the gluteal group of muscles. This works best laying on the floor. Begin by lying on your back with knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Let both knees fall to the left and place a tennis ball under your right hip. Slowly bring your knees back to neutral and then over to the right. You'll feel your weight plus gravity give a nice amount of pressure to massage the glutes. Move the ball around to different areas of the buttocks as you continue to take your knees back and forth to adjust the pressure. Then repeat on the other side.

Feet: Another option for a single tennis ball is to roll it along the arch of your foot. Sit in a chair and place your bare foot on top of a tennis ball. Push down and roll the ball along the bottom of your foot. This is helpful self-massage for plantar fasciitis.

The next time you see a tennis ball, you might look at it differently. With a tennis ball or two and a sock you can create a handy massage tool. Massage your neck, back, glutes and feet or make up your own ways to massage different areas! Get creative, have fun and then give the ball back to the dog.

For more information on massage, please visit my website: http://www.arobertsonmassage.com
Angela Robertson B.S., LMT