Great gifts and everyday essentials for pets

Tuesday

Pet product review: Boots and Barkley 5” Brainteaser Toy




Dog toys are meant to be chomped and chewed and tossed and crushed. They’re supposed to hold up to all manner of romping, rolling, and rumbling.

How does the Boots & Barkley 5” Brainteaser Toy take real-life dog play?

This fascinating plaything for pooches, sold at Target stores, looks like a lot of fun. It’s bendy and bouncy and colorful. Essentially, this clever polyester toy is a soft woven sphere with a little plush bumblebee dangling inside, tempting curious canines to try to extract it.

The Boots & Barkley 5” Brainteaser Toy, which retails for $6.99, requires no batteries and is marketed as non-toxic.



All that sounds pretty good.

Personally, I coughed up the cash, hoping to please my brand-new puppy with a perky plaything. That’s a fair amount of kibbles, but the product appeared appealing.

Immediately, my little Border Collie/Labrador mix took to the toy like a little kid on Christmas morning. She loved it.



She fetched and pawed and bounced the thing all over. She stuck her nose through the woven straps and played with the little bee.

Then what happened?

Here’s the drawback.

Puppies chew. OK, that’s no news flash, but perhaps the folks at Boots & Barkley didn’t plan on the degree to which this natural phenomenon may occur.

Puppies chew a lot.

In less than an hour, the stretchy multi-colored polyester fabric covering the straps that formed the ball was frayed. I was picking sharp shards of white polyester lining out of my puppy’s mouth.


This product reviewer purchased the product described and evaluated here, and the reviewer has no prior or existing relationship (either familial or professional) with the creator, manufacturer or marketer of the product.


The fuzzy little bee, presumably intended to remain inside the sphere (as the brainteaser) was already on its own on the floor. Apparently, my puppy is cleverer than the dog toy designers expected a dog to be.

The $6.99 Boots & Barkley 5” Brainteaser Toy was already trashed. What a disappointment.



Image/s:
Title image adapted from product promo photo – fair use
Additional photos by LAN/Fad to the Bone – all rights reserved



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Wednesday

Using toilet-cleaning tablets? Please shut the lid!




Dogs drink from toilets. No matter how we try to train them not to do this, most of them keep on trying.

Maybe it’s not dangerous or disease-causing. Hey, a clean flushed toilet (especially at home) is a whole lot more sanitary than most of the outdoor spots from which plenty of thirsty pooches slurp. But it still grosses us out.

 
Lots of pet experts claim toilet water is pretty safe for pets. The porcelain fixture keeps the water cool. Flushing makes it fresh. 

Most dogs don't drink from fountains. But they tend to try the toilet.

One warning is clear. If the water is blue, it’s not right for pets. Toilet-cleaning tablets and tank cleaners contain chemicals (like bleach or ammonia, plus dyes) that pets can do better without. Here are a few examples:


Go ahead and use these convenient toilet treatment products. But please protect those pets. Though we may grimace, the potty may be more potable to pets than most ponds or puddles … unless the water is blue. So, if you drop cleaning products into the toilet tank, please be sure to keep the lid closed.

Dogs drink from all sorts of spots, clean and dirty.
Image/s:
Public domain images

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