Product Review: TreatToob by Paww

The Paww TreatToob is a soft, squeezable, reusable silicone tube for dispensing squishy training treats. It can be filled with any number of things, baby food, peanut butter, canned dog food, cream cheese, the souls of unbaptized infants, whatever your dog really likes. The neck of the tube is wide enough to fit a butter knife or baby spoon for easy filling, and the whole thing comes apart so there's no uncleanable crevices. There are several types of treat labels around the outside, with a rotating window to show your choice. The TreatToob is food-safe and come with a lifetime guarantee.

2-oz GoToob, 3-oz TreatToob, 2-oz GoToob

The TreatToob holds 3 ounces of...whatever. I own one of these and three 2-oz GoToobs. The GoToobs are from the humangear company, which has a fun, informative, and rather silly website that looks almost exactly like the Paww site. Obviously the same people are behind both companies, as the GoToob and the TreatToob are identical except for the collar labels. GoToobs have labels like 'sopa' and 'lotion', TreatToobs have 'pate' and 'meat'. That and peanut butter being slightly easier to squeeze out of the TreatToob are literally the only differences between the two products.

These things are pretty awesome for taking peanut butter places. I've also tried canned pate-style dog food, but it just doesn't get their attention like the peanut butter. It's a definite must-have around here for FitPaws balance training time, Brisbane likes to hang out on the inflatable stuff and lick his chops.

TreatToobs are also amazing for taking super high-value treats to highly distracting environments. At home, they have been amazing for Brisbane's recovery from surgery. He has been eager to learn new tricks, but unable to eat anything but soft food for a few weeks.

A couple of snags in our TreatToob experience: I filled it with peanut butter without getting the cap super duper dry after washing it, left it unrefrigerated for a couple of days, and ended up with mold growing anywhere there was air. In an air bubble at the bottom of the tube, around the inside of the cap, gross. Also my dogs are afraid to lick the peanut butter off the end of the tube like the dogs in the stock photos so I end up putting it on my finger for them to lick off. This would never work if I needed to wear gloves or something.

Pros: Portable, mostly leak-proof, dishwasher safe. Hold all kind of cool treats. Pretty easy to fill with peanut butter, especially if you squeeze all the air out, set a glob of peanut butter on top, and let go so the expanding tube sucks the peanut butter down.

Cons: Cleaning all the nooks and crannies in the cap can be kind of a pain, especially if something really gross was allowed to go bad in there. Needs to be really truly dry before use or can grow mold in there too. My dogs fear the no-drip silicon valve.

Bottom Line: I have yet to find anything as convenient for peanut butter dispensing on the go, but my best friend got some refillable fruit squeeze pouch things for her toddlers that look promising. Maybe she'll trade me.

Product Review: Planet Dog Nook Ball

Planet Dog's new Nooks are cute little balls made from their special Orbee-Tuff material. They come in one size and three color/shape combinations known as Peace, Love, and Happiness. These are made in the USA out of peppermint-infused recyclable material. Planet Dog guarantees their toys 100%, though I have yet to test this because all of my Planet Dog stuff is apparently indestructible and awesome.

Photo by Erin Koski

The Nook

These are very solid balls, we don't have anything like them. They are basically solid rubber with a design cut all the way through. Ours is Happiness, the yellow smiley face ball. The design makes for several nooks in which to hide treats.

Planet Dog says this ball is for dogs of all sizes, but I disagree. Slightly smaller than a tennis ball, the Nook presents a choking hazard for large dogs. As a child I read a James Herriot story about a collie nearly choking to death on a small ball lodged in its throat, and have been paranoid about it ever since. I'm fairly certain this ball is big enough to be safe for Brisbane and Sisci, but I certainly wouldn't have a dog bigger than 50lbs playing with it.

Pros: Cute and smells nice. Bounces and floats. Can be stuffed with peanut butter or have small treats shoved into the smiley mouth. More durable than a tennis ball, and easier on the teeth. Fits in the opening of a different Planet Dog toy for a bigger challenge.

Cons: Not durable enough for serious power chewers. Does not fit more than 3-4 treats at a time, and if wedged firmly enough a motivated dog might tear it apart to get them. Too small for most labs, goldens, and shepherds to play with safely.

Bottom Line: It's a cute addition to the toybox, and the small, narrow cavities mean that the dogs spend a lot of time and effort to lick out a very small amount of peanut butter. 

Treat Tuesday: Bixbi Pocket Trainers

Bixbi Pocket Trainers are small, smelly, moist little treats that are absolutely perfect for training time. The peanut butter variety arrived in our space-themed June Allergy-Friendly BarkBox. These remind me a lot of Zukes Mini Naturals, but Brisbane likes them a lot better. They are made out of potato starch and vegetable glycerin, and have other tasty ingredients like chia seeds and blueberries. I am particularly fond of the shape, as they are scored so they can be broken into even smaller portions.

Good For: Mid-value training treats. Carrying around in my pockets without getting things all greasy. Training in public without having nasty-smelling hands.

Not Good For: Picky chihuahuas. Dogs that have trouble chewing. Super-uber-distracting training situations.

How Much We Like Them: Used them all up practicing core strength exercises with Brisbane, who thought they were awesome. Might have to buy more, wish they were available locally.

Treat Tuesday: Le Petit Treat King Cake Biscuits

Le Petit Treat King Cake Biscuits are darling heart-shaped dog cookies. They are gluten-free, corn-free, and soy-free. Le Petit Treat products are made in the USA. The ingredient list for these treats consists of four items: rice flour, apples, peanut butter, and olive oil. These arrived in our February Allergy-Friendly BarkBox.

Good For: Stuffing inside Kongs. Giving my chihuahua a healthy snack. Feeding the dogs on my way out the door without making my hands smell like liver or fish.

Not Good For: High-value training treats. Dogs with rice allergies. Taking pictures of pretty, unbroken heart-shaped cookies.

How Much We Like Them: Enough to buy a box if I ever see them at the store. They're pretty cute.

Cheapass Dog Fun: Non-Perishable Kong Stuffing

Every so often I get inspired and creative and stuff my Kongs and other food toys with sweet potatoes, bananas, applesauce, green beans, and canned dog food. I will inevitably regret this later when I find said Kong under the couch and full of mold a week later.

My dogs rarely empty a Kong completely, and we are all much happier when I accept this and stuff them accordingly. Sticking with non-perishable goodies means never finding a Kong full of green fur. If I stuff the toys in a very precise fashion, I might not even need to scrub peanut butter out of them after the dogs are done.

Peanut Butter is my standard stuffing, and each time I try something new I end up going back to it. The big jar lives in the refrigerator, but this stuff is shelf-stable. A peanut butter-stuffed Kong can spend months lost under the furniture and come back looking no worse for the wear. Peanut butter feels wet and sticky, but it actually has a very low moisture content, which prevents bacterial and fungal growth. The oil in it will eventually go rancid after a year or so, but it doesn't get gross hanging out inside a Kong under the couch for a few weeks. Heck, it could probably sit under there for a few months and still come out pretty much the same way it went in.

Brisbane and Ulysses cannot reach all the way to the bottom of a large or extra large Kong with their tongues. If I smear peanut butter all the way down to the bottom, I will have to scrub a solid plug of it out when they're done. For this reason, I usually start my Kong-stuffing with something dry and bulky to fill the space. A small scoop of kibble works, but I normally like to use something less dense. Broken up Cloud Star Buddy Biscuits and Zukes Skinny Bakes are currently my favorite things to cram in there.

Next I use a butter knife to spread peanut butter all the way around the inside walls of the Kong. A few more small biscuits help fill the space in the middle, and then I seal off the opening with more peanut butter. Sometimes I stick a biscuit in the opening for them to break off before they begin the unstuffing project.

This "How to Stuff a Kong Toy" diagram is all over the internet, and it always makes me laugh because it was clearly drawn by someone with no sense of perspective. Either this is a gargantuan XXL Kong, or those bone-shaped biscuits are tiny. Our Kongs are mostly size large, and I don't think I've seen any bone-shaped biscuits significantly smaller than the inner diameter of the toy.

I've also seen those "marrow bites" dog treats they show in the "dessert" layer, and a large Kong could fit maybe one or two in there. Definitely not five. Honestly, I think my dogs find kibble to be higher value than most biscuits, those things are pretty bland, so offering them as a dessert seems kind of silly. I also like the "tantalizer" placed in the small hole at the end, my dogs totally ignore anything in there. Maybe one of these days I'll try putting something really exciting in it to see if they notice. I'm thinking Limburger cheese or something equally stinky. They love stinky treats.

My dogs need no "appetizer" sticking out of their Kongs, they're really just in it for the peanut butter. I keep trying to find something less nutritionally dense to stick in there, but apparently nothing else is worth quite as much effort. I'm not going to argue.

I do occasionally leave Buddy Biscuits sticking out of the top of the Kongs before I freeze them, but it's for my benefit rather than theirs. I don't think the dogs care. I just like seeing those little guys waving like they suspect nothing.

So far, as long as I stick with the dry biscuits/peanut butter formula, I have yet to scrub anything Lovecraftian out of a Kong toy.

Treat Tuesday: CloudStar Original Buddy Biscuits Peanut Butter

I've been buying CloudStar Original Buddy Biscuits for my dogs since I first spotted them at Trader Joe's in 1999. They are a nice alternative to Milkbones and other dog biscuits because they don't contain any eggs. Brisbane can't have the Roasted Chicken flavor, but the rest are delightfully Briz-safe. These just contain flour, oil, and peanut butter.

Good For: Goodbye cookies and quick rewards that don't require me to wash the treat-stink off my hands. Brunching up and cramming in the medium-sized Starmark Treat Dispensing Chew Ball and other puzzle toys. Not getting disgusting when left in toys that get lost under the furniture.

Not Good For: Motivation. Dogs will not work very hard for unstinky treats.

How Much We Like Them: Enough to buy a 4lb bag of them.

Puzzle Toy: Kong Wishbone

The Kong Quest Wishbone is a rubber toy with grooves on either side for stuffing with kibble, dry biscuits, or pastes like peanut butter. It comes in five colors and two sizes. Unlike Kong's classic toys, the Wishbone is not made to be gnawed.

Photo by Erin Koski

We have a large pink Kong Wishbone. I originally bought it with Josie in mind, and she enjoyed it very much. Putting kibble in it was a great way to entertain an elderly dog with limited mobility, but it was basically the same as putting it in a bowl for Brisbane.

These days I sometimes put large dog biscuits inside the Wishbone. Briz had to bite the thing and break them order to get them out, much like his strategy for the Starmark Treat Ball. More often the Wishbone is part of our endless collection of freezer toys. I usually stuff it with a combination of peanut butter, cooked sweet potato, and banana, freeze it, and then give it to Briz before I leave the house.

Puzzle Toy Rating

Capacity: 2/5 

We have the large Wishbone, and it doesn't hold very much kibble. I could fit perhaps half a cup in here, but a lot would fall out. This isn't really a meal-feeding toy, it's a treat-feeding toy.

Loading Speed: 3/5

I can sort of bend the Wishbone open and pour kibble into it, but only on one side, and not very much kibble. I haven't found an efficient way of getting squishy stuff into this thing, I always end up mooshing it in with my fingers and getting peanut butter everywhere.

Unloading Speed (standard dog): 4/5

It took Josie a good ten minutes to get kibble out of this thing, and she could spend a long time licking peanut butter out of it.

Unloading Speed (superdog): 2/5

I'm always amazed how fast Briz can empty the Wishbone, even when the contents are frozen solid. It takes longer than a bowl, but not that much longer.

Size: 3/5

I can fit a decent amount of peanut butter and sweet potato in here, there's a ton of surface area but very little depth.

Durability: 4/5

I wouldn't give this to a dog that really enjoys chewing, and I would supervise any new dogs until I knew their chewing style very well. That said, ours looks brand new even after quite a bit of use. I expect it to be around for many years.

Noise: 5/5

This is another silent licking toy, it basically guarantees peace and quiet.

Locatability: 5/5

Brightly colored and does not roll at all. It stays where I put it, or where Brisbane feels like licking it. Either way, we've never lost it.

Washability: 4/5

The Wishbone can go in the top rack of the dishwasher, for those who have a dishwasher (grumble grumble), I haven't had any issue scrubbing it out with a baby bottle brush either. The grooves make it annoying, but not difficult.

Hoardability: 5/5

When the Wishbone isn't in the freezer, it's in one of Brisbane's lairs. He prefers a little privacy while he licks all the goodies out of it.

Total: 37/50

It's not the easiest or most efficient toy, and it doesn't keep Brisbane occupied for all that long, but it's still a regular part of the freezer toy collection. 

Puzzle Toy: Kong Quest Starpod

In my ongoing quest to keep Brisbane occupied, I own, have owned, or plan to own pretty much every food-dispensing toy on the market. It's worth mentioning that the number of toys I haven't tried is definitely the minority even as manufacturers introduce new products.

Admittedly the bright colors are mostly for my own benefit.

The Kong company is much-loved by dog owners everywhere. Their products are a staple of basic
dog behavior management, and Kong is a household name. Their product line is forever growing, and they recently introduced a couple of new toys that look like a lot of fun. The Kong Quest Starpod comes in two sizes and several colors, I have a large purple one.

The Starpod features a large central well and eight smaller satellite wells. The central well only has one opening, but the smaller circles are open on both sides. When I first spotted this toy at the store, I pondered what exactly one would cram into it. The smaller holes are way too big to contain kibble, and the big one would be emptied as soon as the toy flipped over. The Kong video shows Kong-brand treats, both soft chewy treats and the stuff that comes in the spray can. I've considered getting some Cheez-Wiz for rapidly stuffing dog toys, but my husband would probably eat it instead.

Stuffed with love. And sweet potatoes.

Stuffing all the little wells in the Starpod is actually kind of annoying. I usually end up using my fingers to smear stuff around the walls of the small wells and hoping it sticks. Microwaves sweet potato is a food toy staple around here because pretty much everything in the house will eat them (dogs, birds, turtles...) but Brisbane isn't madly in love with them. Our food toys usually end up stuffed with sweet potato, peanut butter, and occasionally leftovers.

I did find that I could stuff a very specific size of biscuit into the wells of the Starpod. It has to be small enough to fit in there, and big enough not to fall out immediately. The California Natural biscuits worked pretty good when I broke them in half, but that's an awful lot of effort for something Brisbane is going to pop out nearly as fast. It may have taken Brisbane a full five minutes to figure out how to get the first one out, and maybe 15 minutes total to get them all.

Doesn't everyone have a drawer of stuffed toys in their freezer?

Puzzle Toy Rating

Capacity: 2/5 

I can probably fit half a cup of squishy stuff in the big well.

Loading Speed: 1/5

It takes as long to smear each little circle with peanut butter as it takes Brisbane to lick it all off if the toy is frozen first.

Unloading Speed (standard dog): 3/5

Josie spent quite a while slurping each individual circle clean.

Unloading Speed (superdog): 1/5

Sometimes I am too lazy to fill this toy.

Durability: 3/5

It's not hard rubber, and I wouldn't give it to a recreational chewer. 

Size: 4/5

Comes in two sizes, and wouldn't be a choking hazard for a nondestructive large dog.

Noise: 5/5

Blissful silence, except for all the slurping.

Locatability: 4/5

Might get nosed under the furniture, but it's not the type of toy that encourages nosing so it's pretty safe. I usually find it in Brisbane's livingroom lair. 

Washability: 3/5

It would probably go through the dishwasher just fine, but I don't have a dishwasher and scrubbing all those nooks and crannies is annoying.

Hoardability: 4/5

Brisbane typically drags it away to empty it, but then ignores it.

Total: 30/50

It's pretty novel, and I'm sure it amuses Brisbane to forage for peanut butter in all those little circles, but this toy sort of annoys me. Good thing it's cute. I'm pretty sure Kong designed these things to be attractive to humans more than anything else.

Product Review: Planet Dog Orbees

The Planet Dog Orbee-Tuff balls are made from flexible rubber. The Planet Dog product line-ip has changed a bit in the last few years, but the quality of their products remains the same.

We have a 4.25" diameter Orbee ball with a hole in it, and two Orbos. The Orbo is a lot like the original Kong toy. These things are extremely durable; mine went through the dishwasher a bunch of times back when we had a dishwasher. I used to stuff Bravo raw dog food into the Orbos and freeze them.

The Orbos have two chambers, the large bottom and the small top, connected by a narrow passage. Getting peanut butter, ground meat, or cooked sweet potato into that smaller chamber can be difficult, but it is equally difficult to get the goodies back out. I've found Brisbane slurping peanut butter out of these things days later.

We used to have several more Planet Dog toys: another big ball, an Orbee-Tuff ball with with a rope handle, an eggplant, and an artichoke. The artichoke was difficult to clean. The eggplant eventually began cracking, and I'm not sure what happened to the other big ball.

The Orbo is supposed to have an unpredictable bounce, but Brisbane has very little use for them once they are empty. I like to fill the big ball with kibble for Josie, who is a bit slower and takes half an hour or more to empty it.

Pros: These things are tough as hell. They outlasted my classic Kongs and are still going strong after at least seven years. The two-chamber shape of the Orbo also makes them much harder to empty than a Kong. I wish they were still on the market as I would happily buy a few more. The large ball makes a wonderful and quiet slow-feeder for my elderly dog. It is large enough that it doesn't get lost under the furniture.

Cons: The two-chamber design of the Orbo makes it very difficult to clean, and sometimes I find a nasty surprise down there.

Bottom Line: We use the Planet Dog Orbee-Tuff toys pretty much every day. When they're not being hoarded inside a crate, they are in the freezer stuffed with peanut butter.