Dog Toys are Washable

I made an amazing discovery yesterday: many dog toys are machine washable. Some of the stuffies Emme and Rudy play with are disgusting, they are so covered and caked with dog spit and grime. Some of them are older than Emme because we bought them when we first got Rudy. Most of the tags say, "Surface washable only." I have tried washing just the outsides in the past with no success. I made up a pan of soapy water and scrubbed the outside of the toys with the soapy foam. The toys got wet, but not clean.

Finally yesterday I decided that some of the toys were so gross that they were better ruined than dirty. I selected some of the worst ones, recognizing that if they disintegrated into a pile of stuffing in the wash, I could live without them. I would rather go to the pet store and buy new ones, than continue to looks at the dirty ones. They were brown and stiff with grime. I picked up about six of the nastiest toys and put them in the washing machine with a low level of cold water and a small amount of regular laundry soap. I chose a short wash cycle and started the washer. Every few moments, I would go back to the laundry room and open the washer expecting to find a disaster. Nothing bad seemed to be happening.

At the end of the cycle, the toys were wet, clean and in one piece. So I figured maybe they could go into the dryer, too. I put the dryer on low heat and placed all the toys inside. Again, I kept checking frequently and every thing was going fine. I took the toys out of the dryer just before they were completely dry and let them sit on top of the dryer overnight. This morning, I gave a few of them to Emme and Rudy. They were delighted. I was delighted. I have already selected the next six toys to go into the washer later this weekend.