The night before we picked up our puppy in April, we excitedly visited pet world in order to get some essentials and also some treats that would make puppy happy. I have to admit, as I have never had a dog in my adult life, I was quite suprised at the high cost of the products. But nevertheless we spent a small fortune and left content in the knowledge that our new puppy would be happy.

Oliver is now six months old. He is a real sweetheart and we all love him dearly. He had used all the toys we bought him, some are certainly better made than others. However one toy that he does go back to time and time again is his knotted rope toy.

This toy is robust and simply ideal for a livewire puppy who is teething. He loves to grab one of the knotted ends in his mouth and knaw away quietly. His favourite thing though, is when one of us holds the other end and wrestles him for the rope. He really enjoys this game and I feel it is doing a wonderful job at strengthening his jaw and improving his balance and posture.

The rope toy is quite thick in appearance. I have the green and blue coloured toy. I have noticed that the colour does fade somewhat. But this has no real effect on it's usage. Despite being used on a regular basis, I am suprised that the general condition of this toy remains good. There have been a few stray pieces of rope which have come away, but apart from this the toy remains in reallt good condition.

The only thing I dislike about this toy is it is not pleasant when it gets wet. It does become quite smelly quite quickly. I have had to wash this rope on a few occasions. I try to ensure that this toy does not venture out the garden as it is certainly not an outdoor toy in my opinion. Just because it gets saturated and becomes really horrid.

I think that this rope toy is ideal for puppy dogs. I think it offers stimulation and the chance to promote report between owner and pup. I also think it works well to improve strength in pups as they learn to coordinate how to best get a grip of this toy.

One thing that I used this toy for was to promote obedience in our Oliver. I would use this toy as a reward when commands were followed. I found that this worked very effectively.

All in all, I think this toy is very good. It was quite expensive, when you take into consideration that they can be picked up in £1 shops. However, I would state that this rope toy is very well made and has lasted months. I am not so sure that the £1 would do the same job. I would most certainly think that in this instance it is worth the extra cost.