My German Shorthaired Pointer is the youngest out of our pack of 4 dogs and shares the house with us whilst our other 3 are strictly outdoor dogs and absolutely hate it indoors, instead they live the life of luxury outside in a rather fetching wooden kennel with large run attached. Anywho, our pampered princess who likes to think she's a lap dog when in fact she's the largest pooch we have, happens to be terrified of water and would you believe it but she also has a hatred for squeaky toys. I remember when we first got her, she would of been a year old at the time and we gave her a squeaky ball to play with, she bounded after it and seized it with her jaws, it squeaked and she dropped it in shock; we've tried several times since then but as soon as she discovers anything squeaks she'll drop it in horror and run off. As you can well imagine, buying her suitable toys can often be a tricky task as everything aimed at dogs these days seems to have a squeaker inside it; thankfully there are some exceptions and one of the toys in her collection happens to be this rope one from Pets at Home.

The toy is made out of thick and brightly coloured rope that has a big knot at either end, beyond this the rope has been frayed to create a sort of "plummage", (can't think of the right word) and it is available in various different sizes to suit medium to giant sized dogs. We purchased the medium which I would estimate to be between 25-30cm long (no good at sizing, sorry!) and it cost £3.00 which I think is a reasonable price. For our own piece of mind we don't let Flick have access to this when we're not around as there is always the slight risk that she may decide to chew it to bits and eat the rope; when we are with her however this has proven useful for fun games of fetch and she finds it just as easy to retrieve as the tennis balls we also use. The rope is chunky and seems of good quality, though reading around online there seem to have been some fairly determined pooches that have succeeded in demolishing their own and eating the frayed bits - I think this does depend on how much of a chewer your own dog is.

When the toy gets grubby we simply pop it into the washing machine and it must be said that it has faired quite well on a cool wash; Flick has owned this toy for a couple of years now and whilst it's looking a bit tired around the edges it is holding up remarkably well. Worth the £3.00 as it has brought her hours and hours of fetching enjoyment.