I thought part of the issue last month might have been that I'd had them mark her as a heavy chewer. She can definitely demolish a plush toy in about 5 minutes, but really she's just a selective chewer. Any toy with arms, legs (or other parts that stick out of the main body) is going to have them removed in a few minutes, then she will go for the rest of the toy. Toys with simple shapes and smooth edges fair well though, we have a plush bone that has survived since I've had her with its curved edges. Unfortunately, Barkbox doesn't have a 'no arms' option. :) Well it's pretty easy for me at this point to look at a toy and give its odds of survival, it's too much to expect from a stranger. However, part of what made me upset last month was the size of the toys, they were way to big and heavy for her to play with, and in addition to being a 'heavy chewer' she was also marked as a 'small dog'.
So, with all that in mind I opened up this month's box:
First up was the toy. There are usually two toys so I guess this qualifies as both of them? It was supposed to be a 'peek-a-boo' toy with the owl stuffed in the witches hat but I really can't see her (or any dog really) getting excited about the witches hat, even if it did have an owl inside of it.
Plus, once again, it's just too big for her to carry around.
I gave her the owl (I didn't even bother with the hat) and she happily ran off squeaking it. However, with it's high appendage ratio I give it less than a few hours of active play. At least it looks like she will thoroughly enjoy ripping it to pieces.
UPDATE: Several days later and the owl is still going strong! Either she particularly likes it for some reason or she's gotten more gentle with her toys.
Kind of sad there weren't any other toys this month....
The treats selection fared a little better in my evaluation. First up was a salmon skin chew that I'm sure she will love but I can only imagine is going to make me sick to my stomach. I am not at all a seafood fan and this thing looks like it will STINK.
Maybe we will take that with us for one of our outdoor dining socialization trips and let some local restaurant's patio smell like fish instead of my rugs. :)
UPDATE: Yep, she loves and it and YES it stinks. She enjoyed it on the local diner's patio although I only let her have half since it seemed like a pretty big snack for her.
Next up, some cute little peanut butter treats. Love the packaging on these and they look handy to throw in my purse for treat emergencies. It does seem like these shouldn't really count as a full treat for the purposes of Barkbox though since it's so tiny.
Finally, some baked treats with human-grade chicken, pumpkin and oat flour. The baked treats always look boring to me, but after initially turning up her nose at anything other than moist treats when she was still getting settled, now she will usually gobble anything up wet or dry. Plus, the ingredients look high quality. So all-in-all we are happy with these.
VERDICT: Mixed again this month although not as disappointing as last month. I would really have liked to see some different toys, so was bummed with my options there. Barkbox has such cute custom toys and it's always a let down when we don't get a new favorite.
My pup actually loves sticking his face into the witches hat to get the owl. It was super entertaining for me to watch and really fun for me. Give it a try!
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