Dog Toy Reviews - Not-so-good buys!

(Disclaimer: I am not trying to insult any companies that make toys. My purpose is to help people find toys that will withstand their more aggressive chewers and save them money. Toys that may not stand up to the jaws of my retriever might be fine for toy breeds or dogs that aren't as forceful.)


I'm not inclined to run products down but there are quite a few I've purchased that have been an instant waste of money. I won't name products in particular but will just give you an idea of products that likely won't work for you if your dog is a heavy chewer.




For Hope's 1st Birthday, last June '10, we bought her a stuffed duck. I thought it was so cool. When you squeezed it's belly it actaully quacked!!!! I mean, how fun is that to give a Golden Retriever/Lab cross a quacking duck toy?

Before the kill.


Well it lasted 10 minutes - we timed her! and she had it's white, fluffy stuffing guts eviscerated all over the carpet and the quacker laying
quietly  :'- {    (a moment of silence please!)
at her paws.
She had killed it and was proud of her prowess.
A $20 duck gone in 10 minutes flat.

We have bought her many soft squeaker toys over time. Liquidation World had a package of three stuffed cubes with squeakers, like baby building blocks, that we bought her. Each package costs $2. so we bought her quite a few packs just for her thrill of the kill. The blocks wouldn't last more than 10 minutes but she enjoyed getting the squeaker out. And as she never ate the stuffing, or the squeaker, we were both satisfied!


Because Hope enjoys squeaky toys so much I've been looking for ones that she can't annihilate. I thought I may have come across one that looked promising and even sounded like it may work by it's name. It was a long snake-like toy with rectangular squeakers sewn into separate segments down it's body. That one lasted about a month. Each day she would work at tearing out the squeakers one by one until there was one left in the tail. She finally got it out and it was game over.

Don't purchase tennis balls - the expensive ones or the cheap ones are destroyed in 5 minutes by a heavy chewer. I never noticed how easily the felt could be torn off and that they actually come apart in two halves. There are better options if your dog likes tennis balls. Check out my other page - Dog Toy Reviews - good buys to see what your options are.

Rawhide: This is only my opinion!!!
I am leery of feeding my dogs rawhide anything. I have given my dogs rawhide many times and they have been fine but I feel a little like I'm playing Russian Roulette. Dogs have been known to swallow larger chunks than they should, and when they get moist they swell causing "possible" choking hazards.
They are also slimy when chewed and nasty to have laying around. Some of them stink too. Check out the other page to see what I've found as better alternatives.