Indestructible Dog Toys – What’s Hot & What’s Not!
How many times have you bought a dog toy thinking this will be it, this one will be the one that survives more than an hour, maybe even a day or with a bit of luck a week? Then before you have had the chance to really enjoy the happy face of your dog with their new toy; barely unwrapped the toy from it’s packaging, barely had a moment to enjoy your contented dog, you breath out a big sigh. Not a sigh of relief sadly, a sigh of sheer desperation as you see the first signs of a broken toy.
We know that feeling all too well, as dogs owners ourselves and taking care of our extended dog family at the shelter, we have tried and tested hundreds of toys. Well we use the grand ‘we’ but of course it is not us the experts it is the dogs! Yes our dogs know a thing a or two about toys. It is a big claim saying a toy is indestructible but we put 5 of these toys to the test with all of our dogs at Benafim Dog Shelter including Nero, Max, Maya, Black Nero, Jean and Pebbles. Here is their reliable, honest and trustworthy feedback – diplomacy may not be their strongest point!
Real, Honest and Reliable Reviews From our Experts – Benafim Shelter Dogs
These 5 toys: The Nylabone Extreme Tough Dog Chew Toy, The Kong Rewards Ball, The CyunCmay Indestructible Dog Toy Bone, The Hetoo Indestructible Squeaky Dental Care Dog Toy and The Kong Wobbler spent a week being chewed, played with, stared at with wide eyes, taken into water, buried, found again and put through their paces. Let’s see what the dogs say about them.
Nylabone Extreme Tough Dog Chew Toy
This Bison flavoured XXL Extreme Tough Dog Chew Toy claims it is perfect for the most powerful of chewers and for dogs above 23kg. Nero our Pitt bill of 9 years old and most probably more intelligent than the human team put together, spent hours chewing this toy barely leaving a mark on it. It is big in size but light for dogs to carry around in their mouth. With a slightly curved design it is easy to grip with their paws, making the chewing process straight forward and more satisfying.
Maya at 3 years old is not used to toys but took a liking to this one immediately. Abandoned and terrified of humans she would not have had any toys to play with in the first couple of years of her life. But this toy was not met with any confused looks or not knowing what to do with it. Instantly Maya was interested and had a good chew and really enjoyed running around with it in her mouth, encouraging Max among others to chase her.
It is really easy to keep clean, if we can actually remove it from a dog that is and what’s even better is the Nylabone doesn’t lose it’s flavour ever. For any dog owners who hate mess and smell the great thing about this bone is there isn’t any, no none at all!
Black Nero below is known for his powerful chewing style and will quite easily pick up a huge, absolutely huge tree trunk and chew through it in one go as though it were a piece of cake. Black Nero also doesn’t like to be left on his own and when anxious he has chewed and bent even the strongest of fencing material. This Nylabone is Black Nero proof and what’s fantastic is that he really really enjoyed it too. After hours of chewing there was barely even a tooth mark on the bone.
Gallery of dogs playing with the toy (click to enlarge)
The Details
Bison flavoured throughout (also available in chicken and turkey) encourages the dog to chew and has raised noodles to help clean teeth and gums. It is safe and non toxic.
Measurements 30.48 x 13.97 x 5.08 cm
Weight 485 grams
Designed for 23 kg plus
Summary
Every dog at the shelter would absolutely paws on heart recommend this Nylabone. Their advice to you is if you have a dog who loves to chew, gets easily bored and needs something really tasty and durable to get their teeth into then this is the toy for them.
Check Price on AmazonKong Rewards Ball
The Kong Rewards Ball wasn’t met with as much enthusiasm by our wonderful dog reviewers as some of the other toys. This was a very temporary and short lived reaction however. The combination of a toy that the dogs can play with and keep them amused for hours with the treat dispenser is a clever concept. For us humans it was super easy to insert the treats and unlike some other treat dispensers it didn’t involve too much brain power or effort for the dogs to actually benefit from the dispenser and receive the treats.
This being said, the dogs seemed to really love the squidgy soft and bouncy side more than the treat dispenser side of the toy.
Jean loved, loved, loved this toy, so much so he kept burying it, with hours and hours of chewing the rubbery side before burying it and finding it again. His best mate Komo did not get a look in at all much to his dismay.
But don’t just take Jean’s word, we don’t want a one sided review after all, look at all of of our wonderful dogs reviewing it too:
Gallery of dogs playing with the toy (click to enlarge)
Gallery of various dogs testing, click to enlarge
From huge Jambo to small Star, every single dog at the shelter had a play and a chew. Not one single tooth mark was found, neither were any treats left inside. Definitely a sure sign of an effective and simple treat dispenser!
(Would like to insert an image here of the ball being thrown played with if possible? )
The Details
Measurements 12.7 x 12.7 x 12.07 cm
Weight 417 Grams
Designed for dogs of 16 kg and above
Summary
The dogs feel this is an all round good toy combining two of their favourite activities: play and food. A durable and tough toy that withstands a lot of chewing, a lot of bouncing and interactive playing as well as a simple and effective treat dispenser toy.
Check Price on AmazonCyunCmay Indestructible Dog Toy XL Bone
The CyunCmay toy got the dogs very excited and was met with the most excitement as we unwrapped it from them. Sadly the excitement came to an abrupt end once black Nero got his paws and teeth into it. Okay so he did have a huge amount of fun with it during those 30 minutes, played tug of war thanks to the handles at each end, had a good old chew and enjoyed fetching it from the lake.
With it’s soft rubbery texture and bendy, pliable material we feared it wouldn’t withstand being put through it’s paces and extreme testing by our dogs. They are indeed taking their testing task very seriously. Nero proved us right sadly, very quickly – big sigh. The results are in the photos below.
Gallery of various dogs testing, click to enlarge
The Details
Measurements 32.9 x 12.2 x 3.8 cm
Weight 330 Grams
TPR environmentally friendly material, no chemical smell, safe and non-toxic
Surface designed to help clean a dog’s teeth and control plaque and tartar.
Summary
Although described as strong and durable and suitable for medium to large size dogs, the results from our dogs speak volumes. Indestructible? No. Fun for a short while? Yes. If you are looking for a toy for dogs to chew that will not be broken in minutes, this is not the toy for your dog. If you are looking for a fun toy for your dog to retrieve but not be left with to chew, this toy was very popular with our dogs and definitely had them running around with it and wanting to play. Our dogs were left sad faced and disappointed when they realised their fun was very short lived with this toy.
Check Price on AmazonHETOO Indestructible Squeaky Dental Care Dog Toy
So admittedly this toy is designed with the main purpose of cleaning a dogs teeth but was met with such unenthusiastic faces from our expert reviewers, the dogs, that we were left feeling perplexed. Even the squeak didn’t get them excited, well Maya did run and hide when she heard the strange noise coming from a strange looking red object. But Maya being the brave girl she is gave it another go and lay inspecting it for a few moments.
To try and make this ‘toy’ more interesting we put peanut butter within the grooves to encourage our reviewers to chew it. This kept Maya interested for a few minutes before she wandered off leaving the toy behind.
Gallery of various dogs testing, click to enlarge
The Details
Made from natural rubber
Measurements 12.7 x 12.7 x 12.07 cm
Weight 417 Grams
Summary
The Hetoo toy didn’t excite our dogs or keep them entertained for longer than a few minutes. Did we mention this toy squeaks? Annoyingly for us humans sadly it squeaks…. oh yes we know we are party poopers! Black Nero and Maya were the only ones who showed any interest whatsoever in this toy and sadly even this was very short lived.
Check Price on AmazonKong Wobbler Interactive Treat Dispensing Dog Toy
The dog’s reaction to this Kong Wobbler was hilarious. Is a bird, is it a plane, a UFO …….maybe? Now this may well be due to it’s size – it is big! Unlike many of the other Kong treat toys available on the market, this is made from a harder plastic polymer not rubber. From a human’s point of view the twist off lid makes it easy to fill with treats. Now we are not the experts, the dogs are and they seemed to struggle with this toy initially. They wanted to play with it (well other than our sweet boy Killo who was utterly perplexed by this wobbly red object), they understood their were treats inside but couldn’t get them out.
Then us humans realised this Kong Wobbler needs to be used on smooth surfaces not the stone pebbly surface the dogs have in their kennels and that of course the treat size needs to be compatible with the size of the hole – Doh.
Gallery of various dogs trying to wreck a Kong Wobbler
The Details
Made from a Plastic polymer
Measurements Diameter 13 x 19 cm
Weight 485 grams
Designed for dogs of 12 kg plus
Maximum Filling Capacity 250 grams
Summary
Once the dogs understood what this toy was and how it worked and that us humans realised it wouldn’t wobble on a stone pebbly surface, this Kong went down a treat. The large size makes it difficult for the dogs to pick up in their mouths which perhaps is a good thing as there is less chance of getting their teeth stuck into it leading to potential destruction. Indestructible? According to our dogs, yes. Easy to use? According to our dogs, yes! Once the humans realise the treat size put into the Kong can’t be too big as the hole that distributes the treats is quite small for the size of the toy.
Check Price on AmazonConclusion – Our Dog’s Verdict
Drum roll, lots of barking and smiles from our dogs (we won’t name and shame the loudest!!) they have discussed at length, had numerous seemingly serious looking meetings and have confirmed they have reached their final verdict on these five ‘indestructible” toy.
