Indestructable toy review

[silverdog]

I love my dogs, I love my dogs, I love my dogs............ lol how many of us have chanted this as we pick up the "guts" to yet another toy?  The great fluffy one, Ricky, is forever entertaining her bad poodle self by pulling a stuffed animal or tug out of the toy box and within a matter of minutes has it sliced open, de-stuffed and in pieces all over the living room.  Her brother Jordan, the Aussie, doesn't make things better.  I'm sure he means well...... but stealing the toy (or at least attempting to) and then shredding it himself... I don't think that makes the situation better.  It's the squeakers that get them really.  Ricky can pinpoint the exact location of a squeaker faster than I can and will very precisely rip the toy open, remove it and then procede to sit with that small bit of plastic in her mouth (chomping away of course) until either Alena or I pry it out.  Well, buy them toys without a squeaker you might say....... awe now that would be too easy wouldn't it?
  They don't really seem to care about the playthings that have no noise... though they will not discriminate in the end and that will end up in a pile of plucked fluff as well.  Sigh...  I hope I am not alone in this..... I'm sure my very pretty poodle (HA!) is not the only one who finds the need to destroy every toy she's given (tail wagging the whole time).

So the search has been on for something they will enjoy and also something that will last longer than a day!

I THINK I've found not one but two!!!!! ((((((drum roll please!))))))

The first is called a "Cuz" and it's a dog toy that makes one of the most irritating sqawks I've ever heard but the dogs LOVE it!  I'm sure some of you have seen these before.... they look like rubber balls with feet.  They are pretty tough, bounce, have I mentioned the sqawk?  The most important part is that they haven't even pierced it yet!!!!!  The one we have is a "devil" which just means it has little horns.  I was so worried that either dog would just knaw them right off...... but not a scratch!!!!!

They are made by "JW Pet" which has a very boring hum drum website.  BUT if you click the distributors link you will find that they sell these little guys in stores all over the place including Canada, the US and Australia!

The second toy is called a "Tuffies" and it comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.  Basically it's about a million layers of this nylon webbing (like a seat belt or something similar) with squeakers sewn in between and then covered with a soft felt like material.  THEY LOVE THEM!  One again the website that sells them isn't the best.....  www.tuffiespettoys.com... go to "Tuffies Retail" and then "Sport Series".  my kids have the boomerang shape.

So it's been almost two weeks and neither is even slightly damaged which is amazing since the average life of a toy is probably about an hour and a half from the time it comes through our door!

Anyone else have any luck with a toy that will survive a poodle and all of their plucking talent?

[zefi]

I know the CUZ... unfortunately neither of my girls liked it. Pagan has a thing for spikey squeaky toys/balls. I bought 2, one larger one for home use and a small one for the ring. Nope. No thanks. Montana prefers the stuffed toys (which she destuffs) and Pagan prefers the squeaky plastic or rubber ones she desqueaks. Unfortunately Montana has taught Pagan to destuff now too. So now I'm always picking up white stuff off the carpet. Oh well. They still play with the pelts! LOL

[silverdog]

Oh Drat!  And I thought I had hit upon something!   Oh well back to the drawing board for the general public!  At least my guys seem to like them!   I know what you mean about pelts.  Before these latest additions, the "toy box" was filled with random shells of what had been stuffed animals... including a very mangled set of novelty slippers that I never quite got to wear!  The dogs got more use out of them!

[Helen]

What a great idea for a thread!

Chula has always been a champion destuffer.  She'd eat the stuffing, so I'd have to take the toys away from her as soon as she "breeched" them.  I'd put them up, thinking.. I need to sew this back up... gotta go find the sewing machine.. someday.. ugh..... and never get around to it.  Finally I'd throw it away.

With Archie, I finally got the brainy idea of taking out the rest of the stuffing and still letting him have the toy.  He still loves it just as much!  (actually, he doesn't eat much of the stuffing anyway, just strews it all over the house, but I'm always deathly afraid they'll swallow a squeeker).   So anyhoo, we have all these empty, floppy, toy animal carcasses around the house.  One, formerly an adorable Booda Hedgehog, is now reduced to one flat square of hedgehog pelt, and another patch which used to be a hedgehog face I think.     We also have the empty giraffe, the empty headless much-beloved camel, and many others.  (that poor camel.. it's their very favorite!)

How I WISH that years ago I'd thought of removing the stuffing and squeeker and still letting the dogs have the toys to play with!  All the toys we've gone through!  It never occurred to me! 

The toughest toys I know of are the red KONG toys.  They are a super tough rubber, and nothing can penetrate it!  They don't squeak, and they are sorta boring.  We have 2 large bone shaped ones.  Kongs are the ONLY toys I allow them to have in their kennels when we leave the house.  It's the only toy that I feel has no chance of choking them accidentally. 

BTW, we just came up with a use for the squeekers.  Richard gets frustrated when Archie won't come to him.  (he's getting better about it, but not perfect).  Richard would call him, and Archie kept running away.  I noticed that Richard has this voice that "sounds" like he's MAD at Archie when he's really not.  It's just the way he says it.  I tried to tell him that, but he says he can't change himself.  Finally I talked him into whistling for him instead, and that's better.  Not perfect though.. Richard doesn't whistle that loud (unlike ME, heh heh).  So we were talking about how the perfect way to get Archie to come right away would be to carry around a squeeky toy.  Archie hears a squeeky toy, and he's THERE!  So we had a laugh about that.  But yesterday, as I removed yet another squeeker, from the new crab toy  , it dawned on me.  That was perfect!  So I gave it to Richard and he's keeping it in his pocket.  When he wants Archie to come, he squeeks it, and BINGO!  Archie-On-The-Spot!  hahahaha!!!

I'm going to look for those toys you told us about!  I'm sure they'd love the Toughies!  And I'll have to try one of those balls too.   Cool!  Thanks for the tip!

[silverdog]

Thanks Helen!  And I have to say that you're idea is great too!  I never thought of using the squeakers for good instead of evil. hehehe  Of course by the time I get them they are usually little mangled pieces of chewed plastic!   I know you can buy them in small sets by themselves (for those silly people who actually want to put them INTO toys!  hahahah.  I'll have to try that!

About the Tuffies - not sure if everydog will like them because they are not as soft as other toys but they do squeak! So that's something.  The "Sea Creatures" are really cute.  I actually just odered the octopus!

[Michael]

I used to HATE squeaky toys...well, ok, I still do. Jamie never cared for them, and Shelby didn't either. So, I actually avoided toys with squeakers.....or would remove them and sew the toy back together at some point. Some I left in as neither of those girls really used that part anyway. Well.....just when you think life is all settled in some area, along comes something to turn the world upside down. In this case, she came in the form of a silver beige mini named Amber! First thing she did when I brought her home (she was already 2 years at this point) was grab one of the toys on the floor and claim it. Though I can't recall for sure, I think it was one of the sherpa seals....which later would become "her baby"! Amber's destroyed many toys in her time, but she tends to love the seals! (she's got good taste, at least!) And she'll squeak, squeak, squeak toys until they are almost dead.....sometimes she does kill the squeakers too. She's really hard on toys, but she has fun. To see her squeaking away and enjoying life so much, how can you not smile!?!? So, now...it's really pathetic...if I go to a dollar store or something, and check the cheap dog toys, I have to see if any squeak! So, yep, there I am, testing the toys out and smiling, thinking if Amber would like this one or that. Go figure...I hate squeaky toys....but the things we do for the kids, eh!

Now, Shelby is another interesting case. Though she's mostly good with toys, she's been known to destroy a number of things in her time too. Especially when she was a puppy. That was when Beanie Babies were huge, and there were all these knockoffs on the market then. One of them was called ZooBalls. They were  foam ball...about the size of a tennis ball, covered to look like various animals. I finally bought one...just for the heck of it...thinking it might last a few hours at most...but what the heck. I also bought a canvas retriever roll about the same time that I figured would last longer. Well, within days, the R-roll was just a rag pelt. The Zooball.....still intact to this day! And she LOVES them! We play with them regularly...they are her favorite toy.....she can keep herself amused for hours. But she loves playing catch with them too....she's an amazing catch too..she can pluck them out of the air like nothing. So, I bought more of them before they were discontinued. Now, lots of other dogs (Amber included) will destroy them, but Shelby always takes good care of them.

Which reminds me....years ago we boarded a basenji mix that had this small squeaky latex pig that he'd bring in every time he came to stay. He was meticulous about keeping that little pig clean and well kept. I was amazed. My point....some dogs just care about certain toys....so even some that may seem destructible aren't in the right hands (teeth?). But, the trick is....finding them....and some dogs, it just may not exist. BUT....the joy of seeing our dogs have fun.....that's up there on the top of the joys of life list to me! Gotta love 'em!

[silverdog]

That is how my Emma is (10 year old greyhound).  She tolerates the younger dogs but when it comes to certain toys, I think she would fight to the death for them.  We call them "Emma's babbies" because she will gently pick the object up and just carry it around in her mouth.  When she lays down it will be gently placed on the floor/couch/bed beside her and then picked back up when she's ready to move.  This is the same old girl that destroyed an entire pack of papertowels!!!  I guess every dog has there own way!

On the toy subject.... because we run our dogs in flyball, Alena and I are always trying to find the toy that really gets them going - Ricky and Jordan both like any type of fleece toy I can think up (I make them myself) and you can attach tennis balls or even roll a squeaker up in a section of it.

[silverdog]

Okay this isn't so much a toy review as it is a "keeping the dog occupied" idea.  We do not give our dogs rawhides to chew on of any type because they just chomp right through them and we're afraid they'll choke.

But we do give them the bleached shank bones that they sell sep. or in packs of small numbers.  I know some people stay away from them as well because they have hard chewers and there is the chance that the dog will splinter it.  Thank goodness ours do not have that habit. 

For those of you who CAN use these bones as diversions.....  There's a way of making them even better!  Put a piece of water proof tape over one end, blocking the opening of the hollow center, and then fill this space from the other end with either chicken water or gravy.  Put another piece of tape over the remaining opening and pop the whole thing in the freezer for a few hours.  The liquid will freeze and you'll be able to peal the tape off.

This is of course an outside treat since as the dog licks and works at the man made "marrow" it will slowly leak and drain out.   The dogs love it!

I've seen similar factory made ideas at the pet shops.  Usually it is molded plastic that you fill then freeze and since the plastic is covered in small holes the liquid comes out at they chew it, encouraging play etc.  We can't really use these though, because our dogs have a love-hate relationship with plastic (see above conversation about those darn squeakers) and they would most likely shred and eat the factory plastic bone in ten minutes at the most.  So homemade ones are the best for now!

If you don't like the idea of using a bone then you can fill a small metal water bowl with the same stuff and freeze it.  The dogs will lick, chew and general be enthralled with it for as long as it lasts!

[zefi]

When Tana was still a pup I'd give her a stuffed kong when I went out. I'd fill it with kibble, bits of cheese and treats and top it off with peanut butter or cream cheese. She loved it.

[auntie c]

i would vote the KONG the "indestructable toy" in this review...

my beautiful maxwell used to have to stay at home when i worked an accounting job when he was 3 years old. every morning he would wait very excitedly while i would fill his KONG with kibble and top it off with peanut butter... i think he really was sad when i resigned... no more KONG, only to retrieve...

carlene and harry who and pearl the girl
australia

[Helen]

I have to tell you guys.  I got one of those rubber ball things.. oh wait (scrolling up) maybe it's different.  It's sort of an open ball, all rubber.  It's not solid, but sort of open squares together?  This thing seems to be indestructable!  Archie even pinned it down and squashed it so he could bite harder on it, but couldn't make a mark on it.  It's easy for them to grab and run around with too.

I thought someone posted it, but maybe not.  I'll try to remember to go look up the name.

The long legged man has already been completely destroyed.  It lasted 3 days.

(edited to add)

Okay I found that ball on the petsmart site.  This ball is called the Hol-ee Roller by JW Pet.   Here's a linkee.... http://tinyurl.com/ycussd

[silverdog]

Thanks helen!

I've seen those toys in the shops before but I was never sure how tough they really were.  My guys are pretty rough on their toys.  But I'll have to pick one up next time I'm out and about.  We've pretty much given up on any type of stuffed animal since they are gone in a matter of minutes.