Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Love It: ChuckIt! Balls

Athena's most favorite toy ever is her ChuckIt! Ultra Ball and we love them for many reasons too.  Before discovering ChuckIt! balls, we bought Athena a pack of regular old tennis balls...little did we know that these would only last 30 seconds before being destroyed.  We then went on the hunt for some "indestructible" toys for power chewers like Athena.  After reading many posts online about indestructible dog toys, we read about the ChuckIt! Ultra Ball and went out and bought Athena a pack of two.
We do have to say that these balls have proved to be indestructible as of now.  These balls are great because the medium size is the exact same size as a standard tennis ball and they are easy to clean with soap and water.
Athena is really weird about the balls that she likes.  She only likes them if they are what we call "puffable."  This means that Athena has to be able to fit the ball into her mouth (the size of a tennis ball is perfect) and be able to "puff" the ball with her jaw.  We call it puffing because when Athena has the ball in her mouth and chews down, the ball makes a puff noise and her face gets all funny looking.  Athena's best puffing comes when she holds the ball in her mouth and then presses it up against a hard surface like the floor, side of the couch, or B's leg.
Getting some puff action!
We bought Athena a KONG Extreme Ball and it was a flop.  Athena really didn't have interest in the ball because the hard black rubber didn't allow for enough puffing action.  Somehow this ball is now stuck behind the shed and we can't retrieve it...we think that Athena shoved it back there on purpose to give us the hint that she's just not that into it.
Athena has also become pretty good at carrying her ChuckIt! Whistler Ball in her mouth on our walks with the "bring it" command.  We would recommend the ChickIt! ultra balls over the whistler balls though because even when thrown at long distances, the whistler ball doesn't really whistle much.

Check out this video of Athena "puffing" her favorite ball:


What toys have you found to be indestructible for your power chewers?

-A

20 comments:

  1. Awww! I love her "puffing" face! Too cute!

    Polly is the first dog to come through our house that actually LIKES balls! My boss gave her a Kong ball that she loves to chuck across the house with her mouth and then go bounding after it. It's pretty adorable!

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    1. She's pretty cute when she does the puff face! Maybe Polly's love for balls will rub off on Turk and Rufus!

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  2. Our pittie foster Laynie loved these balls! We discovered them after she destroyed every tennis ball we had. Nola doesn't like them as much for some reason. She prefers squeaky toys or bones.

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    1. Athena also loves squeaky toys but we try to avoid giving them to her because she just sits there and puffs them so it's super annoying to hear a constant "squeeeeeeeak, squeeeeeeeak, squeeeeeeeak..."

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  3. Dottie is also a huge fan of these balls. Part of the reason might be that it's the only kind she can't destroy!

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  4. My dogs don't get excited about balls at all. They do like to occasionally destroy a tennis ball, so maybe I should try these and see if they think they are fun. But they certainly won't fetch! We had a foster we bought the Kong ball for and she was 100% and totally in love with it. She'd chase it in a baby pool, play fetch with it, run around the house with it, and even take it for a walk.

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    1. Maybe we need to try to get the KONG ball from behind the shed and try it again with Athena...especially since it was such an expensive toy!!

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  5. Our dogs aren't puffers, but they LOVE the KONG extreme balls, and we do too, because they CANNOT be destroyed, or at least they haven't been yet.

    I also wanted to let you know, there have been some studies done showing that the glue used in normal tennis balls is actually toxic to dogs, and plus the destruction happens so quickly. So, just to let your other readers know, tennis balls can be toxic!

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    1. Thank you so much for the warning about tennis balls. I had no idea! I will definitely be looking this up!!

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  6. I clicked over to your blog from another, Athena is SO cute! My dog is obsessed with the squeaky tennis balls by chuck-it. She has zero interesting in anything else and is never fooled by an imposter "regular" ball! The squeak dies within minute, but she must love the "puffing" action of this ball like yours. Oh, and only good when filthy dirty. New balls are a real downer;)

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    1. Thanks so much for checking out the blog! Athena once got ahold of a squeaky KONG tennis ball at Petco when we were in the training room. She didn't let go of that thing until the very end of class! It's so funny how some dogs will do anything for a ball while others could care less!

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    2. I'm always on the lookout for other pittie blogs, I can't get enough of the cute photos & insider stories!

      You're right about the ball thing. The squeaky ball was instrumental in training my over-exuberant puppy. It's like she needed a mission on our outings or she was like seeya later lady! My other pup, Norman really couldn't care less, sometimes he gets excited about keep-away if I make Kaya take a mini ball break.

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  7. This was such a fun post. Athena's "puffing" addiction really had us laughing! Our puppy is a power chewer, too :

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  8. My Pitt loves the chuckit balls its becoming her favorite toy

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