The August BarkBox!

Yes, we are finally BarkBoxing again. I had canceled out subscription two years ago after the company's social media team temporarily lost its mind, and then tried to pretend their offensive posts never happened. Since then, their social media posts seem to have been created by actual adults rather than middle schoolers, so I thought it would be worth giving them another chance.

 I haven't been impressed with the subscriptions boxes we've tried in the interim.While it looks like BarkBox has made some changes to the content of their boxes, so far I've been very pleased.

BarkMade

Two years ago, our BarkBoxes came loaded with an assortment of treats and toys from a variety of companies. Most of these goodies were readily availably for purchase on sites like Amazon, or directly from the manufacturer. Only the really special stuff was marked "BarkMade", produced exclusively for BarkBox.

Nearly everything that came in our August Attack of the Space Squirrels box is a BarkMade, which is actually pretty awesome. We got a three-eyed purple stuffed squirrel, a stuffed ray gun that makes weird noises, a pig ear slice, and two different bags of treats. Our subscription is for a medium-sized dog, but I decided Ru would enjoy the smallish stuffies a bit more than the girls. He also fits quite nicely in the box!

Product Review: BarkMade Circus Elephant

This BarkMade Circus Elephant stuffy is tougher than it looks! It is available exclusively from BarkShop, and arrived in our July Allergy-Friendly BarkBox. The circus elephant comes in two sizes, ours is the smaller 6" version and the larger is 7.5".

Photo by Erin Koski

I know that BarkShop's exclusive toys are made by various other companies, like our BarkMade Shooting Star made by Swag Company for BarkBox. The company didn't announce who made this one though, and somebody ate the tag on ours so I guess we'll never know unless I get the urge to email the company.

For a toy that has gotten so much love, this one has held up remarkably well. Brisbane loved it immediately, and Sisci arrived a month later and was also immediately drawn to it. The website says this toy is good for smaller pups, but Ru mostly only likes gigantic stuffies and has ignored it entirely.

So far the stuffy has been shaken, tossed, gnawed, endlessly squeaked, and left out in the rare California rain. After a trip through the wash, it was as good as new.

Photo by Erin Koski

Pros: Sturdy enough to not split at the seams from normal dog play. Excessively cute. Seriously. Just look at it. I think it's the little circus hat.

Cons: Probably not sturdy enough to handle intentional destruction.

Bottom Line: Even if my dogs ignored it, the Circus Elephant would look adorable laying on the floor or in the toy pile.

Product Review: BarkMade Shooting Star

This BarkMade Shooting Star stuffy arrived in our September allergy-friendly BarkBox. It's a fairly large toy, with a smiling star and a long tail. The construction seems very solid, the fabric is thick and tough and the seams are clearly reinforced. There is a squeaker in the star itself, and another in the tail.

Photo by Erin Koski

This toy is actually made by Swag Company, exclusively for BarkBox. It's the second star stuffy we've gotten this year in our BarkBox. I liked the look of the P.L.A.Y. star stuffy that arrived in our June BarkBox, but I think Sisci might like this one better. I appreciate that this one is unambiguously a celestial object.

Obviously this star is a big hit, with it's long flappy tail. The edge seams are all reinforced, but the connecting seam between the body and tail seems like a weak point. I'm not overly fond of the light color, this toy has already been through the wash a number of times because it looks dirty the moment the dogs touch it.

Photo by Erin Koski

Pros: Heavy-duty toy capable to standing up to lots of flinging and shaking and maybe a little bit of tugging. Machine washable. Super cute.

Cons: The squeaker in the star body stopped squeaking pretty quickly.

Bottom Line: Definitely tougher than your average cheap stuffed toy.

The September Allergy-Friendly BarkBox

Our September BarkBox finally arrived yesterday! Unlike all our previous boxes, this month's did not include a card detailing the contents. Instead, the card directed me to visit BarkBox.com/MyBarkBox for a rundown of all our goodies. Many of our boxes have included corrections of the printed cards, and I know there is a lot of variety sent out each month so it's probably tough to keep track. Makes sense to put the same card on everything.

This month didn't particularly have a theme, and that's ok. We're expecting a whole bunch of winter and autumn-themed everything over the next few months even though it's projected to be 80+ degrees and oppressively humid here till January. Not that I'm bitter.

I would not have been happy to see the PetMate JW Pet Squeaky Barbel before Sisci joined us, but she is determined to play with All The Toys and started carrying it around and gnawing on it right away.

Sisci also happily adopted the BarkMade Shooting Star stuffy. It's not as cute as our P.L.A.Y. star stuffy, but it's not terrible.

We got a tasty EttaSays Rabbit Chew which I'm sure Brisbane will devour as soon as I hand it over.

The Lamb and Kale soft treats are BarkBox exclusives made in the USA by Delca. They look like they'll be good for training.

Those Chamomile, Honey, and Duck biscuits by Organicfuls look delightfully soothing. Sadly, Brisbane can't have them because he is allergic to duck and poultry. These will probably go to a coworker's dog.

Product Review: BarkShop Space Bandana

The BarkShop Space Bandana is a fabulous addition to our wardrobe. It is reversible, with a Space Rover logo on one side, and a fantastic star pattern on the other. This is a triangular scarf and can be folded and rolled to fit just about any dog.

Photo by Erin Koski

I love bandanas. I have autoimmune-related hair thinning, and I very rarely go anywhere without something on my head. I have a drawer full of bandanas and scarves, and an entire wall of hats to choose from. I don't put bandanas on my dogs quite that often, partly because I haven't had a great selection of things to dress them up.

I'm kind of a hipster about life in general, and I've always found paisley to be entirely too mainstream. Brisbane has a skull and crossbones bandana that he wears occasionally, but that was it until BarkBox started sending us stuff.

I love all things sciencey, and the June space-themed BarkBox seemed like it was made just for us. Brisbane doesn't like wearing most clothes, but he's perfectly happy to show off a flashy bandana. This is among my favorite things we have received in a BarkBox.

Pros: Super cute. Science-themed and awesome. Like looking into the universe.

Cons: Might be too big for Ru, unless I tie it into some sort of sarong wrap.

Bottom Line: IT'S BRIIIIIIIZ IIIIIIIIN SPAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!

The July Allergy-Friendly BarkBox

The theme of July's BarkBox is the Circus! This box was a long time in coming, well over a week. We got five items, but both big bags of treats are not Briz-safe. He's allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. The allergy-friendly BarkBox is not supposed to contain anything with chicken, turkey, beef, corn, wheat, or soy (unless they mess something up...). Unfortunately, that sometimes still leaves us with a box full of duck and egg treats.

This month we got a bag of Grain Free Roast Duck treats from Lucky Dog. These are apparently brand new and not even available on their website yet. They're made in the USA. Lucky dogs that belong to my coworkers, these will be going to them.

Those My Doggy Cheesy Bite cookies are soft and probably nice-smelling. Know why they're soft? Eggs. More cookies for my coworkers' dogs. Also made in the USA.

The only edible thing in this box fo Briz was the Emerald Pet Piggy Twizz...Twizzie? Twizzy? The chews are called Piggy Twizzies, I'm not totally sure what the singular of that should be. It didn't last very long, but Brisbane certainly enjoyed it.

I had a lot of trouble finding the website for Encore, the maker of this firehose flyer. It was on the fourth page of Google search results! This one isn't particularly attractive for Brisbane and Ru, but the current foster pup enjoys carrying it around the house.

My favorite thing in this month's box is the BarkMade Circus Elephant stuffy. Way too cute! I love cute stuffed dog toys, I consider them part of my interior decorating. The elephant looks great on the floor with all our dinosaurs. Overall this box was sort of disappointing, with two big bags of treats I'll have to give away. The elephant helps with that, a little.

Product Review: BarkBox Flower Bouquet

The BarkBox Flower Bouquet is an adorable plush toy made up of four different toys. It consists of four pretty plush flowers held together by a velcro sleeve printed with some doggy news. It is available exclusively from the BarkShop and made just for BarkBox subscribers.

Photo by Erin Koski

I had seen this uniquely adorable toy in pictures of other dogs with their BarkBoxes for a couple of months before ours arrived in our April box. My expectation was that the bouquet would be a little too large and awkward for anyone at my house to really enjoy.

Happily, Brisbane enjoys chomping the flowers. Foster puppy Xena likes to carry them around the house. The bouquet might be a little too awkward for Ru to carry around.

This toy is so adorable that I haven't even tried taking it apart and handing out the individual flowers. I've been waiting for the dogs to disassemble it but they haven't shown any interest in that particular feature.

Two of the flowers crinkle, and two squeak. Brisbane and Ru really don't like crinkly toys, but they can just stick to chomping the squeaky ones here. I like that they have options.

Photo by Erin Koski

Pros: Excessively cute toy makes it appear that your dog has brought you a flower bouquet when they really just want to play. Splits into multiple toys. Velcro sleeve and multiple pieces can give smaller destruction-happy dogs a project to do without actually shredding a toy.

Cons: Probably easy for a large or determined dog to destroy in short order, lots of seams and bits to grab.

Bottom Line: This is easily one of my favorite BarkBox treasures. The dogs like it, too.

The June Allergy-Friendly BarkBox

Our June Allergy-Friendly BarkBox arrived right on the 15th, and this one is so good that it makes up for last month's disappointment. The theme this time is "space"! I love all things sciencey, and this box feels like it was put together just for us.

We got a P.L.A.Y. star stuffy that is adorable and already much beloved by Ru. The dogs have loved every toy we've gotten from this company, and each has been wonderfully sturdy. Nobody has de-squeaked one yet, not even the foster puppies.


The other toy in our box is a Planet Dog Diamond Plate ball. We have a Diamond Plate Double Tuff toy that gets a lot of mileage, and I expect to add this ball into our rotation of food toys. It smells like peppermint and has a hole for stuffing it with treats.

Speaking of treats, we got some Bixbi Peanut Butter Pocket Trainers. These are bite-sized grain-free moist treats that look like they will be quite popular. So far I've been happy with all of the Bixbi products we've received.

We also got a bag of Your Dog's Diner Pizza Pawty Crust treats. These are big crunchy treats intended to capture the feeling of feeding your dog your pizza crusts. I know Brisbane gets quite a few pizza crusts (and occasional pizzas).

Everything in this box is delightful, but my favorite thing is definitely the BarkMade exclusive Space Bandana. This is only the second wearable item we have received in a BarkBox, and I love how wonderfully unique it is. I might even wear it myself.