Toy Story

Gone in 60 seconds - an example of an ill-fated toy choice

I wanted to get the dogs some new toys recently, and was trying to balance cost versus durability.  I am finding the durability part awfully hard to come by.  I will concede that Kong toys are pretty durable, but they're not cheap.  Not when you're considering you have three young dogs whose attention flits from one thing to another, much like their human, so you want them to have a wide array, and you need to have some available on all three floors.  Plus, I want different toys to do different things.  Sirius, our main toy tester, sometimes wants to play tug, but sometimes wants to catch a ball.  I also like the concept of the toys that floss.  And, of all the toys, he sadly likes his Kong the least - it doesn't bounce and he can't play tug with it because Geddy destroyed the rope part of it long ago.  So he'll play with it in a pinch, but it is the lonely stepchild of dog toys in this house.

And of course then there are rules to what I can buy.  The husband hates anything that squeaks.  The dogs, on the other hand, love things that squeak, but they tend to rip it apart to find the squeaker, so I avoid them for a couple of reasons.  No way they can have plush toys.  Well they can, but I'll be cleaning up the corpse of the poor toy in a matter of minutes.  There is more than one reason we have baby gates all over this house - keeping Baby H safe and keeping his "stuffies" safe from the dogs!

Baby H loves hi stuffies.  The dogs would love to eat that stuffy.

I read a statistic in an article on LearnVest that estimated Americans spend $500 a year on their pets.  What?  How in the world are people only spending $500 on a pet per year.  I spend way more than that!  Just the food alone is probably way more, then the heartworm meds, the treats, the shampoos, and the toys.  I can't even imagine bringing my budget in at $500 per pet.  Tum Tum maybe.  She's high maintenance in some ways, but that article made me appreciate her in others - she's a bargain.  But even there, if I added up all her food, her vet care, and the litter, I'm probably over that sum.

Not that I'm complaining.  The dogs are definitely worth it (or why would I always have this many), but there is a real cost involved, so I want to be smart.  I want to balance quantity with quality.  I am open to suggestions!  That all said, I'll confess: I have no real idea how much I spend on dog toys a year.  I see one when I'm out shopping that I think they'd like, I'll buy it.  I rarely come back from the grocery store empty handed - they get a treat or a toy.  Yesterday I replaced a ball that I had originally thought was dog proof, but Sirius proved me very wrong in the course of one morning workout (I did the treadmill, he killed the ball).  So why try it again, you ask?  Because he loved it while he had it.

Much beloved, but abused tug toy

This is all on my mind because I was "toying" with the idea of doing a Barkbox subscription, but it would definitely have to be the Super Chewer, but I was looking at some sample photos and thinking to myself, "You're kidding me right?  Sirius would have that destroyed in no time flat."  So then I went surfing the net and found Varsity Ball.  You're definitely kidding me, right?  Over $100 for a couple of balls?!  I'm not in Tom Hardy's tax bracket.  I'm not going there.  You could argue it's an investment.  Until you lose one.  Call out a search party!

So the search continues for the perfect toy brand.  I'd love to hear what all of you get for your furbabies!