Best Dog Advent Calendars of 2026

The toys in this box are small — small enough that a cat in the house will claim them as hers, and small enough that a terrier carries one around rather than destroying it. That is the first thing to get straight. If you have a Labrador or a German Shepherd, this is not their box. If you have a puppy, a toy breed or a small terrier, the scale is right.

Behind each of the 24 numbered doors is a different toy, drawn from rope toys for tug, squeaky balls for fetch and teething pieces for a puppy working through its first Christmas. That mix is why we rate it the toy pick of the set: you are not buying one present, you are buying three and a half weeks of them, and in January there is a stash of toys in the basket instead of a pile of empty cartons.

It is also the answer for a dog with allergies or a delicate stomach, where a month of unfamiliar treats is a bad idea rather than a nice one. The trade-off is supervision. These are small toys with squeakers in them, and a dog who guts a plush toy in ninety seconds should get the rope and the ball and have the rest put away between openings.

Each drawer measures 1.92 inches long, 1.77 wide and 1.92 deep, and that is the number that decides whether this works for you. It is room for a couple of small biscuits or one standard-size treat, not a chew, so plan your month around small pieces rather than the big dental chew your dog gets on a Sunday.

The frame is wood, 13.2 by 8.8 by 2 inches, with 24 numbered drawers that push and pull and a hand-drawn festive dog on every front. It is the best-looking calendar in this set and the only one you keep. Fill it in December, empty it in January, and it comes back out next year with a different name on the routine if there is a new dog in the house.

You choose what goes in each drawer, and that is the point. A dog on a prescription diet, a household with three dogs of different sizes, or a family who wants the kids to be the ones stocking it each night all get something a sealed treat carton cannot give them. What it will not do is surprise your dog on December 1: the countdown is only as good as what you put behind the doors, and that is a job you take on for 24 nights running.

Small dogs get the better end of the bargain here. All 24 chews are miniature — eight bones with sweet potato, eight canes, eight sticks wrapped in chicken — sized for a mouth that fits in a teacup rather than a Labrador's. It is also the least expensive calendar in this set, which makes it the easy yes if you want the nightly ritual without spending much.

Rawhide-free is the detail that earns the price. A chew a small dog works down over an evening is exactly where rawhide causes trouble, and these are built as a digestible alternative, enriched with vitamins and minerals and shaped to satisfy the urge to chew rather than to be eaten in one gulp. We counted the contents against the doors, and the arithmetic is worth knowing before you buy: eight plus eight plus eight, so each shape comes around about eight times across the month.

For a Chihuahua, a Yorkie or a Maltese, that rotation is fine. Small dogs tend to like the familiar, and a chew they recognise is a chew they finish. What you should not do is buy this for a big dog in the house: a Labrador will take one of these in a bite or two and be back at the box. In a mixed house, buy a second box rather than sharing one.

Twelve doors instead of 24. That is the whole argument for this box, and it is a better argument than it sounds: it covers less of December, so it suits a household that travels over the holidays, a dog who already has a full toy basket, or a first Christmas where nobody is certain a nightly ritual will take.

What is inside is a working mix rather than a novelty one — chew toys, ropes, balls and squeakers, aimed at carrying, chasing and chewing. We think it earns its place as the short-countdown pick because those three categories cover what most dogs actually do with a toy, and because a 12-day box costs less than the 24-day ones here without feeling like half a product. Dogs do not count doors.

Twelve days is also twelve chances to find out what your dog genuinely likes, which is more useful than it sounds if you are buying for a puppy you have had for six weeks. Whatever doesn't get played with goes into the toy basket and comes back out in February as something new again.

Five different kinds of treat come out of this box over the month: festive-shaped biscuits, freeze-dried pieces, wrapped kabob meatballs, meat rolls and sausages. That is the widest spread of formats in this set, and it is why a dog who is bored of a biscuit by the 9th is exactly the dog this calendar is built for.

The proteins are named rather than generic — chicken, beef, duck and fish, with chicken heart and liver in the mix — and the whole box is rawhide-free with no artificial colors or flavors. We think the organ content is the most interesting thing here and the thing to think hardest about, because heart and liver are what one dog goes mad for and the next one turns over with a look of betrayal. If your dog already eats organ-based treats happily, the risk is low; if the current treat drawer is plain chicken biscuits, this box is a gamble worth taking in small pieces first.

The formats also mean the daily portion varies: a sausage is a bigger mouthful than a freeze-dried cube, so with a small dog break the larger pieces in half and the box stretches the full 24 days. Seven ounces of treats across a month is a modest amount, which is right for a countdown and wrong if you were quietly hoping to replace your regular treat supply with it.