Whistle's PR Department Won't Talk To Me

Almost two months ago, Whistle announced their new GPS tracker, Whistle 3. As a Whistle 2 user, I immediately had questions. First, I tried their Facebook page. Many dog companies are happy to interact with their customers and fans through social media. I asked them my pile of questions, and the social media team responded the next day. They said they had forwarded my questions to their public relations department, and I could expect a response within a few days.

Nothing.

I waited 2.5 weeks for a response and then messaged Whistle via Facebook again. They apologized and said they'd send along my info to the PR team again. 

Two weeks later, I contacted them yet again. I was told to email the press department directly with my questions. It's been two  weeks since I emailed press@whistle.com, and I have yet to receive a reply.

Their unwillingness or inability to answer basic questions about their new product makes it difficult to compare to both their existing product and to other options on the market.

The Questions

1. Does Whistle 3 use 3G cellular networks? Does Whistle 2 use 3G cellular networks?
2. Is there any incentive for Whistle 2 users to upgrade? (Pod claims to offer a discount for existing users wanting to upgrade.)
3. Could an existing Whistle 2 subscription plan be transferred to the new device? If I purchased a 12-month subscription in December, would I have to buy a whole new plan for Whistle 3? Would my Whistle 2 plan be refunded?
4. Does Whistle 3 offer a virtual leash or temperature monitoring? What features does it have that Whistle 2 doesn't?

Those just don't seem like tough questions to me. Either Whistle is lacking in the customer service department, or their PR people don't actually know enough about the product to answer. What do you think?

Product Update: Starmark RubberTuff Stump

I brought a Starmark RubberTuff Stump toy home from SuperZoo, and was unreasonably excited about trying it out. This natural rubber toy provides a very different chewing experience than Starmark's flagship Everlasting Treat toys. The new Lock & Block treats are designed specifically for the RubberTuff toy line.

Several hours after I posted my original review for the RubberTuff Stump, I realized that it was already missing chunks. The toy came with a single Lock & Block treat, and I had purchased a pack of two refills. Sisci Godzilla does not normally chew to destroy, but the toy was already taking serious damage after only two play sessions. This is a size medium toy, the package says it is for dogs 15-40 pounds. Sisci Godzilla is a trim 28 pounds, so this seemed like the correct size toy for her.

I never write off a product without contacting the company first, so I emailed Starmark with a picture of the toy. They responded by sending me a large RubberTuff Stump, for dogs over 40 pounds. Yay Starmark! I truly appreciate a company that stands behind their products.

Testing and reporting back on the performance of the size large Stump was a bit delayed because
I couldn't find large Lock and Block treat refills anywhere. That's what I get for being an early adopter. My local shops only carry the small and medium RubberTuff toys and treat refills. I finally found large treats last week, and immediately put the large Stump to the test.

I am pleased to say that after two rounds of refill treats, the large Stump is holding up significantly better than the medium. It has some punctures, but the rubber is not tearing loose or giving up this time. Obviously it's not going to last forever, but it seems to be capable of withstanding the kind of chewing for which it was designed.

So know we know: Size up your RubberTuff toys! It's not a bad idea to size up on Starmark toys in general. My medium-sized dogs certainly get plenty of enjoyment out of the toys intended for dogs over 40 pounds, and 6-lb Ru loves the medium toys.

Product Review: Benebone Dental Chew

This Benebone Dental Chew is a bacon-flavored durable nylon chew toy made with bacon because how cool is that? This toy is large and comes in a unique shape. The handle loops are great for sticking a paw through to hold the toy at just the right angle, and the ridges are supposed to help clean the teeth during chewing. This toy is currently available in one size and only in bacon flavor, but the company plans to release chicken and peanut butters flavors in the future.

Photo by Erin Koski

Sisci loves her original Benebone, but she didn't take to this toy immediately. Instead, it sat around for a couple of months before she suddenly decided it was time for a good gnaw.

The handles and ridges of this bone are both awesome and terrible, depending on the dog. Some dogs love the ridges so much they immediately gnaw them into oblivion. They definitely become jagged and scratchy when chewed, and it's not hard for an enthusiastic chewer to make themselves bleed.

The cool loops on the Benebone Dental chew pose enough of a hazard that it should really be a supervision-only toy. Dogs have gotten their legs and jaws stuck in the loops. Fortunately Benebone seems to have super customer service, and they say they are happy to exchange the Dental Chew for a regular Benebone Wishbone if your dog has an issue.

Pros: Durable, long-lasting, and more attractive than any other non-edible chew.

Cones: Loop design of toy poses entrapment hazard if the dog's jaw or leg is just the right size. Nylon ridges tend to become sharp when chewed.

Bottom Line: If your dog loves Benebones, Nylabones, or ignores most non-edible chew toys, this one is probably worth a try.

Why We Won't Be Getting Any More BarkBoxes

I have truly enjoyed our monthly surprises, but is likely to be our last BarkBox for a while. I follow BarkBox's Facebook page, and last week they made not one, but two different posts in extremely poor taste. The first was of a baby pinching and slapping a barely-tolerant pug, with caption about it being adorable. By the time I saw it there were approximately 250 negative comments about how this was dangerous for the baby and unfair for the dog, and one positive comment.

There was also a post about breeds that first-time dog owners may not realize are challenging, with the caption "These aren't the puppies you wanna pop your dog owner cherry with (so to speak)." Apparently BarkBox let a teenage boy take over their social media for a day or something because that's just not professional language. This post also had many comments about how the BarkBox Facebook page had suddenly ceased to be family-friendly, and lamenting that fans would not be able to share this post with their friends due to the vulgar caption.

Myself and at least a dozen other people made visitor posts to the BarkBox page alerting them to the inappropriate nature of these posts. By the next morning, the baby-abusing-dog video had been removed from the page, along with all the comments every single visitor post mentioning it, with zero apology or explanation. I made a second visitor post stating my disbelief that they would handle the issue by erasing everything and pretending it didn't happen. The other post remained on their page, obscene caption and all, until a while later when I received a private message from BarkBox. I was told that they had personally responded to every comment about the baby post, even though this was demonstrably false as mine had been deleted with no explanation. Others also commented that theirs had been simply deleted with no explanation.

The gross caption and accompanying post did not come down until I sent them a screenshot. Again, there was no "Hey, sorry, our bad" or any acknowledgement publicly. The messages from BarkBox were much more to the tune of "sorry you were offended" than "whoops, we made a mistake". The implication is that myself and the other unhappy BarkBox fans were simply being overly sensitive about witnessing a dangerous and abusive situation for a dog and reading a crass and overtly sexual caption about a story.

This is not the kind of integrity I've come to expect from BarkBox as a company. What I expected was the video to come down with some sort of public acknowledgment. How about "Whoops, that video was actually a bad idea, here's an informative post/blog/video about healthy and safe dog/baby interactions" to help mitigate some of the damage caused by passing off the original video as cute rather than dangerous. Even posting something about healthy dog/kid interaction while making everything else disappear would have been preferable.

I understand that we're all human here (except for the dogs, of course). Letting one of your minions post idiotic stuff to social media can happen. What really matters is how you handle it. Acknowledging the inappropriateness of the material either publicly or privately, and taking steps to correct the mistake makes your company look responsible and professional. Deleting everything and pretending it never happened saves face with the general public, but loses a lot of integrity points with customers who witnessed the mistake. Also, there are better and worse ways to phrase an apology. "I'm sorry I posted that thing, it was a mistake" is taking responsibility. "I'm sorry you were offended by that thing I posted" says I don't think that thing I posted was offensive and the issue is entirely on the side of the person taking offense. Taking that stance after trying to pretend it didn't happen is just too much. I expected more from BarkBox, and though it may seem like a small thing, it's enough to make me cancel my subscription despite getting a really stellar box this month.

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.

Product Review: Ruffwear Roamer Leash, 2014

The Ruffwear Roamer is a leash made from stretch webbing. This year's model features Ruffwear's patented Talon Clip that allows it to be attached and removed with one hand. The current Roamer comes in four colors and two sizes, medium stretches from 5.5 to 7 feet, large stretches from 7.3 to 11 feet.

Photo by Erin Koski

I've owned a couple of Roamer leashes for several years now, and found them pretty neat. My original leash makes a great gangline for attaching to a pulling harness, and works ok for running though I find it a bit long. My biggest complaint was that my first Roamer leash was beginning to lose its stretch, the elastic was getting all worn out at the end near the clip. I've been having a lot of fun contacting companies about their products, so I went ahead and shot Ruffwear an email. I mostly just wanted to let them know that their product appeared to have a shelf life, given that my leash was only used occasionally and was basically in mint condition. Their response was to request a picture, and when I sent it they declared it to fall under their lifetime guarantee and sent me enough store credit to replace my leash.

This new Roamer is a fantastic improvement, they basically fixed all of my issues with the original. My size medium leash is the perfect length, long enough for running but short enough to not drag on the ground. I really like the Talon Hook on the handle portion, it doesn't require squeezing to open. I mostly wear this as an over-the-shoulder leash, which keeps Briz close enough to stay out of trouble. I love the new Wavelength stretch webbing, but time will tell whether it holds up or does what every stretchy this eventually seems to do. Seriously, nothing stays elastic forever.

Pros: Perfect length for hands-free use, absorbs shock nicely. The new custom hardware is sturdy and easy to use even when my hands hurt. It comes in pink!

Cons: Not everybody loves the Talon Hook on the handle, and the handle/belt section fits perfectly on my 5'3" 140lb body so may be too small for larger people to use the same way.

Bottom Line: The new Roamer gets a whole lot more use than my original. I still use the old one for teaching Ulysses to pull, but the new one also works as an everyday leash.

Thanks Kurgo!

I emailed Kurgo to ask if I could get a replacement handle for Brisbane's Wander Pail. Ours is still perfectly usable after Brisbane opened it, but the broken handle seemed like a small and easily replaceable piece.

Photo by Erin Koski

Kurgo surprised me by sending Brisbane a brand new Wander Pail! Yay!

This is my favorite dog food container by far. It's the only product I can accidentally leave in dog-range and expect to find intact when I return. There is an upper tray that can be removed from the pail and used as a second bowl.

I like to put bully rings in our Wander Pail, it's a good way to keep them unchewed while we travel. I also keep kibble and biscuits in there, it's big enough to hold a couple of days' worth of food for my dogs.

The Kurgo Wander Pail is insulated, so it can safely hold raw and canned foods. We see them at daycare all the time, and for good reason. Not only is this a durable and nearly-dog-proof container, it's also backed by an awesome company with awesome customer service.