What do YOU expect from a soft toy?

PucciNPoni

PucciNPoni

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 March 2009
Messages
4,064
Visit site
Okay, I like to use you guys as a sounding board as for the most part, you're very much like many of my customers.

If you buy a soft toy from a pet store for your dogs (particularly terriers) how long do you expect it to last? Would the price you pay for it have any bearing on how you re-act? If you paid say, £3 for a soft toy (new) do you expect it to last as long as a soft toy that costs £10?

Strong coffee for reading, biccies for answering! :)
 
I don't expect anything out of a soft toy as my dogs would all just shred them apart within minutes. However yes if I'd paid £3 I'd be much less cross than if I'd paid £10.

But I never expect a toy to last that long in our house, I bought those lovely tweed coloured duck, Phyllis Pheasant, and the tweed dumbbell one (annoys me that I can't think what they were called), they're about £8 each and lasted about 8 days! But I'm also good at removing the stuffing and letting them play on as they don't care what their toys look like.

Sorry this is rambling!
 
That's not rambling at all - either that or in my sleepy minded state I'm just on the same wave length! ;)

But that's kind of my feeling too - that you just *know* that toys aren't going to last long, so might as well be a cheap one.

Anyone else? I definitely need some feedback on this one, and then I'll tell you a wee story.
 
Well pip our 10 week old pup has a fluffy duck from pets at home & has had it since 7 weeks & its the only toy she just mouthes gently & doesn't remove it from her bed - think she thinks its her litter mate so he stays there for her to cuddle up to in the night lol. Yet she destroys (or tries to.destroy) everything else
 
I don't actually think price has a huge bearing, Evie had one soft toy that remained unchewed for ages, and others were shredded in hours. Pickle has a zebra thing, it was from Wilko so don't spose it was too pricey but it has outlasted lots of other toys, including rubber ones which are supposed to be "tough".
Ets. Pickle is the same with his zebra, I said to daughter the other day that I thought we should try and get another as he would be devastated if anything happened to zebra!
 
mine seem to be selective about the ones the kill and the ones they snuggle up with. Flodden has a reindeer, it was bought for Poppy 4 years ago, she ignored it completely. when i brought flodden home at 8 weeks i popped the reindeer in his cage with him. Now at months old it is considered the toy to lie on in which ever room he is. He also has a meercat that just gets carried around and a soft dog that arrived free with his food. All those remain intact. Anything else seems to need killing, non of his toys cost much. In fact his favourite toy is a black plastic plant pot that he liberated from the garden when he was about 9 weeks old and still plays with every day, he will find all sorts and play with it, plastic bottles, a paper bag, a peg and generally he is not destructive.
 
Okay, would any of you return a toy after a couple of weeks because it had holes in it that the dog chewed, and ask for a replacement?
 
LOL, i would be astounded if it lasted 2 weeks sometimes. Some people are truly mad. Mind you I owned a saddlery and someone returned a coat they had had for 2 weeks because the pocket had been ripped off when they caught it on a door handle. They were extremely aggressive when I refused a refund as they felt a coat should stand up to that sort of abuse!
 
No, that is just crazy. Mind you I am tempted to take back the "teething toy" I bought for Pickle yesterday as he has chewed a couple of pieces of rubber off it already. Don't supposed they will be particularly interested as it was from Poundstretcher.:o
 
Well, that's what this one woman did this week. I stock really inexpensive soft toys as well as latex ones, some hard teething types, rope toys. The soft toys are cute for the price but dead cheap -- no more than £5 max. I would be hard pressed to justify spending £15 on a toy that I know my dogs would trash within minutes. It doesn't matter whether they are cheap or expensive, they either shred them or they don't. Well, they all get shredded, it's just a matter of WHEN, really. But hey, if it lasts a day and I only spent a fiver, I'm not too upset. They usually remove all the stuffing and squeakers and carry the empty sack that USED to be a bunny or whatever.

So a lady bought her westie a stuffed toy, retail £3.50. Two weeks later she brought it back because it had holes in it that the westie nibbled out. She wanted another one becuase clearly the first one was defective. :eek:
 
Hmm- I can't see me paying more than £5 for something that looks shreddable in a few minutes. Maybe birthday or Christmas if he was very lucky ;) Certainly wouldnt grumble if the longevity didnt match the price tag!
I used to buy one of the mini Space Hopper things from Pets at Home about once a month, but now the toy in favour is a ball-onna-rope.
Still his best toy from his puppy days- teatowel with a knot tied in it- I am a cheapskate mummy!
 
Bosworth said:
Mind you I owned a saddlery and someone returned a coat they had had for 2 weeks because the pocket had been ripped off when they caught it on a door handle. They were extremely aggressive when I refused a refund as they felt a coat should stand up to that sort of abuse!
Click to expand...

Was it made of kevlar? FGS....
 
PucciNPoni said:
Well, that's what this one woman did this week. I stock really inexpensive soft toys as well as latex ones, some hard teething types, rope toys. The soft toys are cute for the price but dead cheap -- no more than £5 max. I would be hard pressed to justify spending £15 on a toy that I know my dogs would trash within minutes. It doesn't matter whether they are cheap or expensive, they either shred them or they don't. Well, they all get shredded, it's just a matter of WHEN, really. But hey, if it lasts a day and I only spent a fiver, I'm not too upset. They usually remove all the stuffing and squeakers and carry the empty sack that USED to be a bunny or whatever.

So a lady bought her westie a stuffed toy, retail £3.50. Two weeks later she brought it back because it had holes in it that the westie nibbled out. She wanted another one becuase clearly the first one was defective. :eek:
Click to expand...

And clearly the next one will also be defective:)
I did buy my friends staffy a long squeaker toy that had about 12 individual squeakers in it so if they burst one it kept squeaking, it cost £12.50 and lasted 4 weeks (which is a record), the ridgeback I bought a furry warthog thing that actually last 3mnths, but now has no grunt as that has been ripped out along with the stuffing (and the tail last night), we just have the head and hide left, but he's actually really good with toys (it's the Sky remote controls he eats, think he's on the 7th one in 2 years and you would think the owner would have learned not to leave them lying about by now, just shows you can train dogs but not men:))
Dogs at the yard get really cheap toys/balls as they get buried within 20min and when they are dug up no one wants to touch them:)
 
I don't even buy then stuffed toys from a pet shop :o Unwanted teddies in the charity shop are much cheaper. Sometimes I feel a little guilty watching teddy being gutted but 50p is a lot easier on my purse! :)
 
Another one who buys charity shop teddies. :o Well I don't but my nan does and sends them along for her furry great-grandchildren! IKEA toys have also proven really robust, Skalbagge the woodlouse lasted for months.
 
I can't use soft toys either :o

Kongs and those Starmark foam balls are the only things that remain unscathed, anything stuffed is for unstuffing, balls are for crushing, ropes and knots are for shredding.

The lovely Blackcob sent me a ball on a rope/canvas tug toy a few weeks ago, the tennis ball part was pulverised rapidly, I left the room for two minutes while he was playing with the tug half last week, came back in and there was stuffing all over the floor :o
 
I'm in a definite minority then!

Harley has LOADS of stuffed toys and he doesn't destroy them!! :) Occasionally a small hole will appear in one, but nothing a few stitches doesn't sort out. :) :) :)

So I really don't mind spending £10/12 on a toy for him. I REALLY like the Kong soft toys, but shops don't tend to stock them for some stupid reason :( So I have to scan the internet for them. I've never even had to put a stitch in one of those!!!
 
I still can't believe he managed that so quickly, she'd been gnawing on it for months and there wasn't a mark on it. :p

I bought this the first week we had Dax and it's still completely unscathed despite loads of abuse, they get one end each and PULL, the fabric has faded a bit but there's not a rip to be found. Keep meaning to get some other bits from the same range, saves me clearing up stuffing. :p
 
I'd give the woman her money back and then ban her from buying any further toys. Unrealistic expectations.:eek:
Our Jrt buries toys or humps them. Now she only gets to play with toys with us.
 
Digger66 said:
I'd give the woman her money back and then ban her from buying any further toys. Unrealistic expectations.:eek:
Our Jrt buries toys or humps them. Now she only gets to play with toys with us.
Click to expand...

I politely explained that they were meant to be shredded, that was half the fun. She promptly bought another one! LOL
 
Pip our LH puppy still has her squeeky rat and pheasant,duck & wubba, we rotate them and have to be very careful the Dobes dont get them. We have lost quite a few toys that way although if Pip notices they have one she will bark and take it off them. Never mind the toys Im surprised shes still alive to play with them. Darcy has sneekily got hold of one of those teething bones and broken it so had to bin.

Going back to the original question the more expensive soft toys dont last longer than the cheaper ones they just look nicer and tend to have a good squeeker in them.
 
A soft toy lasts approximately 1 minute with my terrier, rubber toys slightly longer but not much to be honest. The only thing she hasn't destroyed is a Kong treat ball, her favourite 'toy' is 3 of my daughters old socks knotted together!
 
TOYS?
We don't do toys in our house.
Tennis balls get the outer ripped off then the rubber chewed
Ropes get shredded
Kongs get chewed up and shredded
I'd hate to even think what a soft toy would end up like...

It's not the fact that he just wrecks them, it's the fact he then proceeds to eat them and then vomit them back up.

So no, we don't have toys in our house.

P.S. He's a 6yo rescue pointer/boxer/collie thing that we have had 5 years, and no amount of training or hardship has improved this dog since the day he arrived home. We are experienced dog owners, but he, he is just on another level, I hate to think what would have happened to him if we hadn't of taken him home....The staff looked almost over-joyed yet sympathetic when we left the carpark with him... We should have knownnnnn!
 
Depends on the toy - although I try not to buy one's with stuffing, the best one was a squeaky rabbit that lasted about 4months (cost about £4.50), one of those tweedy duck things has lasted all of a week :rolleyes: Like BC and Cop-Pop, Lil also gets charity teddies - she's got a stuffed donkey that she adores and has never (touch wood) laid into other than to chew his fabric tag (my bad should have cut it off); I'm dreading the day he does die though as he seems to have some sort of rice stuffing at the bottom :eek:
 
No toy last long in our house. We have to be careful what we buy as our Jack Russell chews toys up, any bits he rips off he eats! Haven't really found anything indestructable yet so a soft toy would last about 10minutes.
 
Henry got one of the little stuffed phessies from my secret Santa last year - he's still got it, albeit missing one foot and with its tail hanging by a thread! He doesn't tend to go too much for killing things normally, he just loves to carry them around the house and to offer them to new people who come in. The damage comes when he settles down for a good old nom, haven't found the missing foot yet. Or when people play tuggy with him :rolleyes:

I do repair them when necessary so generally his soft toys last for ages. I like them as they hurt a lot less if he drops them on your feet or whacks you in the head with them!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top