When washing your doggy toys in a washing machine, you have to make sure that all the materials are machine washable. That includes all the fabric used to make doggy toys that are made out of cloth, plastic and rubber, more particularly, the squeakers.
Most owners are confused as to what toys should be machine washed or done by hand, and this blog is here to tell you exactly how to wash squeakers and can you wash dog toys with squeakers in them.
So, without further ado, here are the tips for cleaning your squeaky toys for your dogs and if they are truly machine washed.
The big question: Can you wash dog toys with squeakers?
As you can see in most dog shops and thrift stores, the materials used in most doggy toys may vary. The most common ones are the plushies that have white plush inside them and fabric coating the exterior with different designs. Some are hard plastic-like toy bones and rubber ducks that dogs want to chew on.
In most cases, toys will have squeakers in them because dogs love the sound they make when chewing. You should take caution when washing them inside a machine for the following reasons:
- Cheaper squeakers are susceptible to breaking down when washing several times.
- Squeak technology in the past which most manufacturers still use today are not water-proof, let alone wash proof. Take caution when washing squeakers.
- Most squeakers will deteriorate over time the more you apply water on them which makes the sound duller and less audible.
Like most things, squeakers are simple machines that break down over time. While most less-quality variants may break down easier, they are also extremely affordable to replace should your dog look for the squeaks once in a while.
The Good News: Most are still machine-washable
While doggy toys with squeakers may break down easier and have short lifespans, the majority of these toys that are more innovative and have higher-quality seals in their packages are machine-washable.
It’s certainly best to look at the tag if it’s machine-washable because there are still those that can’t be placed inside a washing machine, and you might end up wasting your money all because you didn’t read the labels the moment you bought the squeakers.
Cleaning Plush Toys with Squeakers
For plushies with squeakers, you definitely can machine wash them. There is a good reason why you should focus on machine cleaning when putting your plushies because they are almost impossible to clean by hand. You can try all you want but it won’t be as clean as you want them to be.
When dogs go anywhere and eat anything on-site, it’s going to be difficult finding a method other than a machine to clean their plush toys. To some dogs, they even bite off too much and take out a few innards that will make the plushy destroyed and unable to be used anymore.
Machine washing ensures that the toys, including those with squeakers in them, can be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Even with dogs having really strong stomachs, they can still get sick with dirty toys if they keep on nibbling on bacteria and germs that are simply too much to handle.
The hard toys dilemmas
There are certain toys that are made of rubber or even harder materials that may seem like they aren’t machine washable. The short answer, when asked if you can clean hard or rubber-felt toys in a washing machine, is to do so with extreme caution.
Some toys are simply too hard or blocky to be placed in a washing machine. For starters, it’s going to make some rattling noise when inside a washing machine, and it’s going to concern you and your family when you hear the hard plastic rub around the inside surfaces of the machine.
You don’t want this to happen because they will cause your machine to have scratches on the inside further depreciating its value. Secondly, it’s quite useless and counterintuitive to do so because a simpler way of cleaning hard toys is by rinsing them in water and applying baking soda water on them.
That way, it is disinfected and cleaned. That means that your dog can immediately chew on it without worrying too much about its health. To safely use the washing machine for a longer time, try to avoid placing hard and rubberized toys outside of the washing machine.
Odd question out: Can doggy toys with squeakers go to the dryer?
Absolutely! Heat is not a problem for the squeakers, and you can definitely go to your dryer and place all your doggy squeakers inside to have them all dried up and have your dog play them again. It’s also important to read the labels again at what temperature are the toys most suitable.
Some toys that have softer materials will be prone to breakage when placed in higher temperatures, so it’s best to make a deductive guess on whether or not your dog’s toys should be dried.
While having a dryer is a good way to dry your dog’s toys, there is no need for it because putting it under the heat of the sun will dry them too, albeit a tad slower than that of a dryer. For harder plastic toys, there is no need to put them inside a dryer and just put them in front of an AC or fan to dry them quicker.
Conclusion
So, can you wash dog toys with squeakers? The short and best answer would be yes. However, you do need to take note that not all squeaky toys are made equally, so you still need to be aware of the materials used since they can break your machine and the toy itself which spells disaster in any household.
If you can find the time to hand-wash the necessary toys that aren’t made to be machine-washed, you should do that instead of risking breaking the toy and the washing machine. Always check the labels before doing anything, or check with the point persons in the doggy stores if the toys you picked are suitable for washing machine use.
