Product Review: Nerf Dog

Now that Elka is okay with squeaky toys, I'm always on the lookout for something that will both occupy her and last longer than five minutes. When I saw that Nerf had dog toys, I was optimistic. Perhaps too optimistic?

I tried a fetching orange and blue one first, the Nerf Dog Crunchable Ball, Blue. After that, we did the Nerf Dog Squeaker Football, Red/Black.

Can you guess which one lasted longer?

photo from Amazon.com

vs. 

The crunchable ball was interesting, as it in fact does not squeak, but rather just kind of crackle/crunches like some baby toys do. The blue part is a very durable rubber, and the orange part is a.....far less durable fabric.

See, the thing about giving a stuffed toy like that to a dog like mine, who's had puzzle toys of varying sorts her entire life...well, I think Elka thinks if she pulls the stuffing out, she'll find peanut butter and other treats. This is not, in fact, the case. I know this. You know this. You'd figure Elka would know, with that big long nose of hers. How could peanut butter possibly hide?

Yeah. Plastic bag and white fluffy stuffing. She got it in about five minutes, I'd say. It looks kind of like some celestial event, doesn't it? A solar flare or a comet strike or something. I then spent ten minutes or more getting the orange thing out of the blue part, so I could just give her the rubber to play with and not have wasted more than five dollars on a freaking toy. So I got some mental exercise too. Yay. 

She seems to like the blue part well enough on its own, though I'm not laying bets on how long it'll fly solo. Why she cares about this blue Nerf thing and not the rubber Chuck-It balls, I'll never know. But as I type this she's playing a game where she lays on the couch and noses it, carefully, to see how close she can balance it to the edge without the ball falling to the floor. 

The red and black one, though. It squeaks in a ducky squawk similar to what the Cuz toys does. The area around the "squeak hole" is reinforced, so the licking/chewing right at that specific spot on the toy Elka does is actually repelled a bit. Plus, we get to yell "FUH-BALL" when we give it to her, and that's just good clean fun. 

See how the floor is wet? That means Elka has love slobbered all over the toy in her tongue-y chewing, and then smeared it on the floor. That's when you know Elka is really enjoying something. She'll also stomp it and jump around with it and shove it at you so you wiggle it around and then throw it at/to her. Sometimes some stalking is involved, à la Ramsey. Sometimes, it's just enough for her to hold it.

I'm typically happy with Nerf's products for humans (Maverick, anybody?), so it's cool to me that they've branched into dog toys. I'm happy with the quality and durability of the football, but I do wish the crunchable ball was a little less fragile. I mean, dogs have sharp teeth and toys are specifically for them to chew on. What else is going to happen with a fabric toy that makes noise when crunched?

FTC disclosure: I bought Elka these toys with my own money. We were not contacted or compensated by Nerf in any way for this review.