I don't have an alliterative day to post this one, so I'm just randomly tossing it into the blogosphere.
After seeing my #twilter friend @ltdermdvm (Lori) post about her doggies' Barkboxes each month and how much her dogs loved them, I finally caved. My husband was aghast: "You're spoiling Auggie! We never did that for Sammy!" Well, in my defense, all I can say is that Sammy was a puppy when we still had kids living at home, and Auggie is the puppy of empty-nesters.
It happens.
Barkbox is a subscription service for dog treats and dog toys. Each month you get a few treats and a couple of toys based on a theme. (They have a refund/exchange policy if your dog doesn't like something in the box, I guess, although that didn't come up for us this first time.) You pay so much per month, depending on the size and number of dogs you're buying for. I just subscribed for a one-dog box because Spencer isn't really into toys, and we can easily split the treats between them. Right now, I'm getting the mid-sized dog box because Auggie's still a pup. In a few months, I may have to switch to the large-sized dog box.
I was out of town when the first box came and I asked my daughter (who was dog-sitting that day) to take pics of the reveal.
The theme was a Japanese spring picnic.
The Barkbox includes a page that describes the theme and lists some of the items you might have in your box based on that theme. We didn't have all of these items in ours so I'm guessing some of them are only for smaller dogs.
They got a buffalo chew or two--I don't know if these are actual buffalo since they'd already polished them off before I got home.
The duck treats and rabbit treats really are made from duck and rabbit. All the dog treats that come in the box are organic and have a minimum of ingredients, which is nice, although, I have to admit, I rarely worry much about that because dogs eat all sorts of cr*p in real life when we're not watching so I'm not going to be overly picky about their kibble. It's got to be better than whatever they find in the woods when my back is turned. Still, it's not chemical, so that's a plus.
They both loved the buffalo chews and we're still working our way through the Duck Jerky, but they like that too. I haven't opened the bag of Rabbit Sliders yet.
Again, Spencer's not much of a toy-playing-dog. When she was a puppy she loved plastic water bottles, especially when I froze them. But once she got over a couple of years old she really didn't show much interest in toys anymore. Sometimes she and Sammy would play tug-of-war with a rope toy but it was terribly unfair because Sammy would just lie down on the floor and Spencer couldn't budge the 80-pounds of him, so they mostly mouth-wrestled.
Auggie, however, is Golden through-and-through. He needs to have something in his mouth. He'd prefer it to be our hands, of course, but that's not allowed, so we keep safer alternatives nearby at all times. He adores his Barkbox toys!
This stuffed Japanese teapot is his favorite, I think. It's got a rope handle so he can pick it up and swing it back and forth like he would attack an animal in the wild. He gets all cute and growly with it. I hate to burst his bubble by reminding him he's going all wild-dog at a stuffed teapot.
The sushi roll is filled with crinkly stuff so it makes a great noise when he chews on it, and it's got different textures, plus it also swings around when he shakes it. Very satisfying.
Sammy shredded every toy so quickly we stopped buying him stuffed things when he was quite young. So far, Auggie isn't shredding his toys. I imagine that'll start happening pretty soon, though, so we'll see how long these last.
Auggie is a quick learner. As I was opening my StitchFix box when I got home, he was standing right at my side, sure it would be more fun for him!
So, Barkbox is a huge hit in our house. If you use my referral link to join, your first month is free with any multi-month plan. Woo!