Product Review: Kong Jumbler

The Kong Jumbler is a large, durable squeaker toy with a tennis ball trapped inside. There are handles on either side for shaking, tossing, and tugging. It comes in two sizes, round and oblong, and two sizes. Ours is a medium round ball.

Photo by Erin Koski

We're big fans of Kong around here, but some of their more recent offerings have been a bit short on real-world functionality. Sometimes think they just dream stuff up and then put it in stores without asking questions like "In what ways could this possibly go wrong?"

Fortunately the Jumbler is one of the better thought-out toys by Kong. It's not a durable rubber chew toy, this is more for interactive play or dogs who don't make it their mission in life to shred every toy. It's plenty sturdy though, and will handle quite a lot of biting and flinging.

Photo by Erin Koski

This toy reminds me of our Jolly Pets Teaser Ball, with it's eternally trapped inner tennis ball. Unfortunately, it has been nearly as big a flop as the teaser ball. Sure, it's fun to carry around and bite, but the ball within the ball doesn't seem to be adding anything. I think my dogs are too smart for this toy, they can tell immediately that the inner ball is inaccessible so they don't bother with it.

Pros: Big enough for giant breeds to play with safely. Handles make it easy to bite and pick up. Squeaks and makes tennis-ball-rolling-around-inside noises. Durable enough to handle pretty much anything except a dog deliberately chewing a hole in it.

Cons: Not actually a chew toy, can be gnawed into pieces by a determined dog. Translucent plastic becomes opaque with age.

Bottom Line: Nobody around here is into this ball-within-ball idea.

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.

Product Review: Kong Airdog Off/On Squeaker

The Kong Airdog Off/On Squeaker is a revolutionary new toy that I wish someone had invented years ago. Quite simply, it is a squeaky toy with an off switch. It is also made from that tennis ball material that dogs find so irresistible for some reason.

Photo by Erin Koski

Once upon a time, when he was under a year old, Kong came out with the Airdog products. Originally they were simply tennis ball material toys in various shapes. We had a big bone-shaped toy, and Briz enjoyed tossing it, pouncing on it, and stripping the fuzz from it. The Airdog stayed in our toybox for many years. When I tried to buy another one, I found to my horror that they had added squeakers to every single Airdog product.

Photo by Erin Koski

I've mentioned before that Brisbane has an obsessive compulsion to chomp tennis balls. He also has an obsessive compulsion to squeak things, so squeaky tennis balls are basically crack for him. Once in a while I buy him an Airdog squeaky tennis ball as a special treat. Those things last for about 15 minutes of continuous compulsive squeaking before the squeaker gives out and they become utterly pointless to Brisbane. This is why we need a squeaky toy with an off switch.

All squeaky toys have a hole plugged with a squeaker tube, and a chamber that forces air through the squeaker when compressed.
If you remove the squeaker tube from a squeaker toy, you will find that you can blow through it and make a continuous horrible squeaky noise that will gnaw at the sanity of anything within earshot. The Airdog Off/On Squeaker toys have a little switch that routes the air either through the squeaker tube, or through a plain hole with no squeaking. I am seriously in love with whoever invented this device because it is amazing. We have the rattle-shaped toy, and Brisbane thoroughly enjoy biting it.

Pros: The squeaker can be turned off. THE SQUEAKER CAN BE TURNED OFF!!! These toys come in two sizes and the large ones are big enough for big dogs. The felt is supposed to be nonabrasive and shouldn't wear down the teeth of compulsive toy-biters.

Cons: Although the regular Airdog toys are made in the USA according to Kong's website, the Off/On Squeakers are made in China. They come in a variety of shapes, but "average tennis ball" is not one of the options.

Bottom Line: Brisbane loves this thing, and it's one of the few squeaky toys he's allowed unlimited access to because I can shut it off instead of confiscating it when I'm on the phone with a client and he suddenly needs to make a bunch of noise. It has held up through a whole lot of compulsive biting so far, and I will certainly buy another one if/when this one needs to be retired.