Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Introducing Purple Squirrel!!!

As everyone knows by now, Glacier is a toy monster. He can destroy pretty much anything and eventually he will do so. There have been a select few toys that have held up to his jaws of steel, even the Square Ball from Toughies has finally been defluffed. But there has been one toy that has held up through everything. It was one of the first toys I bought Glacier when I first got him back in 2008 and that wonderful toy is still with us today. Actually, it's the only toy that is still with us today. Meet Squirrel Dude by Premier.  which can be found
here.
The toy is a purple squirrel with his arms clasped across his chest, clutching a giant nut. It is a treat dispensing toy and Glacier is now chasing it about our very empty living room, trying to make his breakfast fall out. There is a hole located in the bottom of the toy where you put the treats and this hole is semi-closed by four little rubber prongs that kind of block the opening. These little prongs are meant to make getting the treats out more challenging. At first, getting the Squirrel Dude to dispense treats was a pain in my rear, but with a bit of creative thinking, the toy has been irreplaceable. There are two ways around the prongs.
1. Use kibble instead of treats. The kibble actually fall out whereas treats are too big and get stuck in Squirrel Dude.
or
2. Trim the prongs. You can clip them to make the hole a bit bigger and allow for treats to actually come out.
I personally choose to leave the prongs longer and just use kibble. It's a good way to dispense breakfast, as it is doing right now, and kibble are lower in fat than treats. The only downfall of Squirrel Dude is the filling time. Putting Glacier's breakfast into Squirrel Dude takes much longer than just dumping it into the bottom of the Kong Wobbler, but we gave our Kong Wobbler away. So, Squirrel Dude it is.
Squirrel Dude has been chewed on, tugged, tossed and chased inside and out and it has still held up. There are a few nicks on the bottom where Glacier tried to chew it apart, but they are barely visible. The best part is that Squirrel Dude comes in a bunch of different sizes, so dogs from small to extra large can have fun. I would also like to point out that its effectiveness as a dog toy is not its only perk-the thing is kind of cute and it's purple; the best colour out there.
So, if you are looking for a toy that will challenge your dog's brain and chewing power, the Squirrel Dude is right for you. It was definitely right for us since it's the only toy that has lasted longer than six months in our house. And I think it will be making a trip across the "pond" to our new home in honour of its survivability.

2 comments:

Jen said...

Sounds like a cool toy. I need a toy for Dougal that will take him a long time to get the food out.

Angels Amber and Max DaWeenie and Mom said...

We'll have to go check that out. No toy is safe in this house!