Dogs Trust's Homemade Christmas!

It’s almost Christmas, and if you’re anything like us you love to spoil your furry friend (even more!) at this time of year. So we’ve decided to show you some homemade gifts that you can make for your dog, in true Blue Peter style!

FEEDING MAT:

Dogs are not usually the neatest eaters so why not make an easy clean mat to place under your canine’s food bowl?

 

 

What you will need:

• Some paper with your chosen design on it- this can be wrapping paper, or make it even more personal by creating your own design with your dog’s name on it! The size of the paper will depend on the size of the food bowls!
• Some coloured card (needs to be slightly bigger than your design)
• Glue
• Stickyback plastic OR a laminator

Instructions:

Start by placing your dog food bowls over the paper with your design on it (see photo)

Once you know that you have the right sized paper you can stick it to the card so that it has a hard back- try to make it so that the card creates a border around your design J

You now have your basic mat – though it’s not waterproof yet! If you have some stickyback plastic (the kind you wrap school books with) you can neatly cover your new mat with this. If not, a  good laminator can do the same thing!

Once it's covered you're done! There are lots of different designs you can have, so be creative!

PLAITED ROPE TOY:

If your dog loves to play with toys, then this is the gift for him!

All you need is some old t-shirts or material!

Instructions: Cut/tear long strips from the pieces of material you have,  they don’t have to be done neatly and it doesn’t matter if they aren’t all the same size! Tie the strips together at the top using a short piece of material. Now you can plait these together, and when you’re done, tie them together at the bottom the same way you did the top! Instant rope toy!  If you want a bigger toy, use more strips!

TREAT TUBE:

Using an empty Pringles type tube you can make terrific storage for dog treats!

What you will need:

•  1 crisp tube
• Some paper to wrap the tube with (you can do your own design on plain paper, or use some left over wrapping paper)
• Sellotape
• Stickyback plastic (optional!)

Instructions:

 

 

Wrap your paper with your design around the tube, and sellotape it in place. If you have some extra paper at the bottom you can either cut it off neatly, or cut a few slits in it so you can fold it under the tube.

 

If you have a bit of the tube uncovered like here, cut a length of the same design, or something plain, and stick it over so the whole thing is now covered in paper!

 

 

If you want extra durability, wrap the tube in stickyback plastic, although careful to avoid air bubbles!
Once you're done, fill with your dogs favourite treats :)

 

 

So there you have it, 3 terrific presents for your dog that you can make yourself! Don't forget you can also make some tasty dog cookies with the recipe that we gave you back in September :), make them Christmassy by using Christmas cookie cutters instead of bones!