Product Review: Kong Marathon

The Kong Marathon is a durable chew toy with a space to hold an edible treat. There is a Kong Marathon ball and a Kong Marathon bone, each comes in Large and Small. We have a large bone.

Photo by Erin Koski

Edible chew toys are a great idea for dogs like Brisbane, who refuses to chew anything he can't consume. Recently he briefly chewed a Nylabone for the first time since he was a teething puppy, and I briefly considered the possibility that my dog had been replaced by an impostor. The problem is that edible chews are basically quick snack for Briz, Greenies, those edible Nylabones, and even bully sticks basically get chewed up and swallowed within minutes.

Starmark's Everlasting Treat toys were the first ones I saw that combined a long-lasting edible chew with a non-edible toy that made it impossible to just chew and swallow the food part.

Photo by Erin Koski

I heard about the Kong Marathon toys while reading about the 2014 Global Pet Expo, and they sounded like the same concept as Starmark's toys. I knew we had to try this one too. Since Brisbane is already familiar with this edible-bone-inside-toy concept, he already knew what he was doing.

We took these pictures right after opening up the package and handing Briz the bone. He nibbled the edible bone a bit, and then gave the whole thing a gnaw. The idea is that dogs will chew the whole bone or ball in order to get some of the tasty treat inside.

The reality is that Brisbane immediately figured out that the treat could be removed if he really worked at it. He then spent 10-15 minutes working on this project before succeeding in popping half the bone loose. This was immediately chewed and swallowed, followed by the other half.

Pros: This is a high-value food item that kept Brisbane's attention until he got all of it. It's rewarding enough to keep him working at it, and it obviously tastes good. The refills are probably going to cost about the same as the Everlasting treats.

Cons: It's softer than our Everlasting stuff and didn't actually last very long, only about 15 minutes total. I wouldn't leave this alone with any dog until I was confident they would stop chewing once they'd finished eating all the food. Getting the fresh treats popped in is a little difficult.

Bottom Line: I won't be feeding Brisbane one of these treats every day, but it will definitely be joining his collection of treats that I hand him as a walk out the door.