pet connection

Australian Shepherds are very busy dogs. They want to work, they love to run, and they need to play. Having three active Aussies is also tough on toys. They have no desire what so ever to play with three individual toys at the same time. No, they want to compete with each other, all three playing with the same toy. That means the toys have to be tough.

Some of the best toys that have stood up to my three have been balls and toys from Planet Dog. The Orbee toys in particular survive well.

I am always looking for new toys because so many toys don’t survive five minutes — the squeakers are dead or the stuffing is out — and although my dogs play with the Planet Dog toys, it’s nice to have a variety. A box arrived Friday with two new toys from Kyjen. Of course, we had to immediately unpack them and play with them.

One of the toys is called an “Invincible.” It is a red and black snake, complete with eyes at one end and a rattle in the tail. In between are sewn segments. Each segment contains the biggest, loudest, heaviest duty squeaker I have ever heard. Six squeakers total.

Archer immediately claimed this as his own, and since he’s at the bottom of our family pack, that meant he really really wanted it. He bit that snake, shook it, played tug of war with the other dogs, and asked me to throw it.  He bit each segment in turn, squeaking each squeaker. It kept his attention well and he continued to play with it for a long time.

However, after a while I had to take it away from him. Those squeakers are loud! Very loud. And after a while, I was either going to disembowel the snake myself or put it away. So I put it away.

I took it to the training yard Saturday and after classes were done, we gave it a good test. Six Australian Shepherds, a Cocker mix, a Labrador Retriever, a Pomeranian, a Belgian Sheepdog, and a Rottweiler all ganged up on that toy.

First of all, all of the dogs were interested. No one ignored it. And the toy survived. It wasn’t pulled apart during the tug of war games, no stuffing came out, and the squeakers were still squeaking. The advertising says the squeakers will keep on squeaking after being bit, bullied, and beat up. So far that’s true.

The second toy is a “Ricky Raccoon Real Animal Squeaker Mat.” It has a raccoon head and a puffy striped raccoon tail. In between the body is flat, sewn in segments, with each segment containing a squeaker. Whereas the snake was sewn in one long shape – like a snake – in the raccoon toy these segments formed a square, a mat. Hence the toy’s name, ‘squeaker mat.’ It looks kind of like a cheerful raccoon roadkill, flat in the middle.

Bashir took over this toy. He grabbed it, shook it, threw it in the air and then took it to the sofa and guarded it. He’s not normally a resource guarder so this shows how much he values it.

The squeakers in this toy are smaller than the ones in the snake and not nearly as noisy. I haven’t had to take the toy away from the dogs at all; it’s not nearly as annoying as the snake was. But it also isn’t as sturdy. Three of the squeakers are already dead.

There was also a noisemaker in the raccoon’s tail. I only heard it a few times before Bashir killed it for good, though, so I can’t tell you exactly what it sounded like. My first thought was a moose.

Several days later, Bashir is sharing the toy but when he wants to play, he’s still pulling it out of the toy box first. In fact, as I write this, he’s under my desk and his head is resting on the raccoon.

I’ll keep you posted as to how well the toys age. We’ll see if the snake really is invincible.

Share & Enjoy

Facebook	Twitter	Google Buzz	Digg
Technorati	StumbleUpon	Delicious	Email