This month’s BarkBox arrived the day before Thanksgiving, but we didn’t get a chance to sit down and open it until the following day. This means that Benny and Sophie didn’t miss out while Daddy got to open birthday presents all day long!

As usual, Benny was anxious and curious:

And I think it was the best box the pooches have received so far!

The contents of each BarkBox so far have always included treats, a toy and something for dental hygiene. So let’s review some of this month’s items:

This chew claims to be “100% natural”, high in protein, low in fat and to keep teeth and gums healthy. It is made of 100% beef pizzle {whatever that is}. Sophie tried to rip it out of my hand the moment I took it out of the box. I didn’t want to give it to her, however, due to recently having two teeth extracted and her follow-up appointment being the next day. So it remains to be chewed. Still, this chew must have been a last minute addition to the box, as it was not listed on the BarkBox insert anywhere!

This plastic bone, made of food grade materials, claims to be virtually indestructible. The design is meant to fit your pooch’s mouth and its ridges are supposed to provide a “chewy” feeling. It is recommended to stuff it with treats and freeze it overnight for “hours of fun”. Ours is currently filled with peanut butter and has been stuffed in the freezer. We’ll try to test it out on both Benny and Sophie. If they both like it, we’ll have to buy another. Both dogs currently have KONGs, but I am not sure if those are freezable.

The pumpkin craze that has swept the blogosphere this time of year did not pass up the doggie world! I opened the bag and these actually smelled really good – lots of blueberry aromas, none of those dog biscuit smells. The dogs loved them. At only 9 calories per crunchy treat, they’d be perfect for training.

Okay, our dogs really aren’t into rope toys; so I had fully intended to give this one away. However, I let Sophie sniff it and she went CRAZY. She tugged, chewed, scratched at and rolled on this thing for at least an hour straight.

On the tag:

“Our MOOSE RAC* (rope antler chew) is made from Maine Moose Antler and 100% cotton rope with no fillers or synthetics. Soft roping acts as a floss for teeth, great for chewing, tugging and throwing. Chewing is great jaw exercise, and our Moose Antler will hep scrape tartar off your dogs teeth!!”

What a “cool” concept! I thought this might feel really good on Sophie’s teeth. I popped it in the freezer so that it would be ready by feeding time. The recommendation was to “pop the cool treat into your dog’s favorite bowl.” At dinnertime, I took the Smoothie out of the freezer, filled Benny and Sophie’s food bowls, divided the cup in half and popped it on top of their regular food.

At first, I think Sophie wasn’t sure what to think. She licked the cool treat on top of her food and then looked at me. Meanwhile, Benny took his portion out of the bowl and put it on the floor and licked it up. By the time they were finished, I checked both bowls: They both were completely empty.

Ingredients: Pumpkin Puree, Banana Puree, Apple Puree, Water, Omega 3 Chia

Also in the BarkBox were coupons/vouchers for:

• Rover.com – $10 off dog-sitting from local insured dog-sitters
• Chewy.com – $10 online gift card for pet food and treats
• DogTV – $10 gift card – uh what?

I had never heard of DogTV before, but here is what the card insert read:

I wonder if we’ll receive December’s shipment in time to wrap it up for Christmas. No matter what, we’re definitely finding products we would have never encountered nor tried on our dogs before if it weren’t for BarkBox!

This would make the perfect gift for any dog or petparent in your life. To join, you just choose your dog size, the plan (month-to-month, three months or six months) and enter your billing and shipping information. It’s that simple.

Click here to get $5 off your subscription to give it a try.

Have you ever heard of DogTV?

What do you think of something like this?

Cheers~
Carrie