The May Not-Actually-Allergy-Friendly BarkBox

Our May BarkBox arrived on Wednesday, and it was filled with disappointment. Seriously, they could have sent an empty box and I'd have felt about the same when I opened it. Brisbane knows that BarkBoxes contain all sorts of wonders, so this box was a huge disappointment for him as well. "What's in here for you, Briz? It's...nothing. Actually there's nothing in here for you. Sorry. Nevermind."

The allergy-friendly BarkBox is not supposed to contain any chicken, turkey, beef, gluten, wheat, corn, or soy. Brisbane is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. Sometimes we get a food item with duck or eggs, but mostly we get treats with rabbit, venison, lamb, peanut butter, or fish. I can either swap out the allergen-containing treats using the Scout's Honor program, or I can swap out an awful crinkly toy instead. Brisbane and Ru really don't like toys that make crinkling noises, especially not loud ones.

Our BarkBox this month contained a bag of Nootie No Grainers Jerky BBQ Chicken treats. Wtf?

We also got an Etta Says turkey stick. Did BarkBox send us the wrong box? Did they stop offering allergy-friendly boxes without telling me so I could cancel my subscription?

There is a West Paw Designs Bumi tug toy, which looks cool and is very sturdy. Too bad Briz doesn't care for it. He had a Hurley toy by the same company when he was a pup, and I could  never convince him that it was any fun either.

The last thing in here is a R2P Pets Silly Bums bee butt. I am familiar with the Silly Bums toys, and frankly I think they're kind of stupid. They're not cute, they're not silly, they're just half a stuffy. All the ones I've seen before were just regular crinkly stuffies this, this one is something else entirely. It is majorly crinkly, the loudest crinkle toy I think I've ever seen. It also has a whole lot of plastic on it, the wings and the stripes are sewn-on vinyl. I'm not convinced that's safe, and am not completely convinced this is actually a toy intended for dogs. The number of accessible seams on it make it incredibly vulnerable to being shredded, it's just begging to be ripped apart.

So this is literally an entire box of stuff I will have to give away. I emailed BarkBox to ask why we got a box of poultry, with the plan to cancel my subscription and ask for a refund for this month if they discontinued the allergy-friendly boxes without telling me. I noticed on their Facebook page that quite a few people with 'special' boxes got regular boxes instead. Apparently there is an extra toy option for multi-dog households, and a tough toys only option for destructo-dogs. The flood of complaints appears to be limited to this month, and our box was sent out a day late so I'm pretty sure something unusual happened at BarkBox this month.

Last year I emailed them in order to cancel my subscription after receiving nothing but chicken-based treats for three months in a row. Our June 2014 box contained chicken treats and lame toys and I decided then that I was done. This time around the response I received was that there was a mistake with the treats for the allergy boxes and that I would receive an email today about how they were going to fix things. As of 9pm Thursday I have received no such email and am seriously considering canceling my subscription. Pretty much nothing they do is going to result in us getting anything for a few weeks, so the response might as well be "Oh well, better luck next month." Not cool, BarkBox. Not cool at all.

Treat Tuesday: yumZies BBQ Duck Jerky Burgers

These treats from the Nootie company arrived in our September Allergy-Friendly BarkBox. Unfortunately, they aren't friendly to Brisbane's poultry allergies. Fortunately Ulysses is here to eat them. The Jerky Burgers are grain-free and made from American ducks rather than dodgy foreign meat. They come in four duck-licious flavors, we have stinky BBQ duck.

Good For: Putting in easy puzzle toys like the Star Spinner and our big Orbee ball. Training Uly.

Not Good For: Feeding Uly without supervision because he tends to lose track of a few of them. Brisbane not only never loses track of his own treats, he finds everyone else's.

How Much We Like Them: Enough to keep them around rather than giving them away to my coworkers. Definitely not enough to buy them again, though. I dunno what's up with Nootie's BBQ-flavored treats, but for how stinky they are, my dogs don't find them very appetizing.

The September Allergy-Friendly BarkBox

Our September BarkBox arrived on Tuesday, and I am relatively pleased. It's not an all-star lineup, but we should be able to use most of the things inside. The theme this time around in football, which is not my favorite thing. It's not so much that I have a problem with football in particular, I just disapprove of the entire institution of professional sports. Still, this BarkBox had some interesting goodies.

I think my favorite thing in this month's box is the PetProjekt Football Tretball. Most of this company's products are along ultra-modern design lines, with plenty of bright colors and unique shapes. Many of their toys look like they were designed with a specific dog in mind, or a specific problem to solve. I like the Tennisbal rubber grip that fits over any standard-sized tennis ball and helps hang onto slippery, slobbery balls. Their YapCap screws onto any water bottle and turns it into a squeaky toy. We have their DogLog and Squeeki Tiki toys, and I'd like to get their Tretcon and a Furchun cookie puzzle toys. The Tretbal Football is interesting, it kind of reminds me of the Busy Buddy Kibble Nibble. The holes are too small to let most kibble fall out, so the intention is to have dogs squash, crush, and flip the toy inside out for their treats.

Ulysses particularly liked the FabDog Pom Poms. They're supposed to be cheerleader pom poms, I'm curious whether other BarkBox subscribers got the same or different colors. If I were not willfully ignorant about teams, I would probably know who these colors represent. This particular toy was specially made for BarkBox, it doesn't look like FabDog normally carries tennis-ball-on-rope toys.

We got an Etta Says Duck Chew, which Ulysses has already devoured. Brisbane is allergic to duck, and Ru won't eat most poultry, fortunately Uly is here to pick up the slack. These things are a mixture of duck feet and rawhide, and the company also makes them out of beef, deer, and probably some other stuff. One of our local stores recently started carrying a whole bunch of different Etta Says stuff, so we will be trying more of their goodies. I have long been a fan of their liver treats.

Duck was apparently a big thing this month, it's the only meat in the allergy-friendly lineup that Briz can't eat and this month we got two duck things. The second one is a bag of BBQ Duck-flavored yumZies Jerky Burgers from Nootie. The company primarily makes shampoos and bath products for dogs, but also produces yumZies dog treats.

The last thing in our September BarkBox is a box of bacon-flavored PetSafe Indigo Smokehouse Strips. These were vacuum-sealed and need to be refrigerated because they are totally perishable once they're open. BarkBox recommends using them within three days. I've been stuffing them into toys and so far nobody is complaining.