Grace & Benson Have Met Their Match! (Tuffies Tug Of War Dog Toy)

Member Name: FourPaws

Product:	Tuffies Tug Of War Dog Toy
Date:	01/04/09 (334 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Strong, soft, safe, floats, still in one piece after six weeks!

Disadvantages: Quite expensive, but worth it

*What is the Tuffies Tug Of War Dog Toy?*
This durable interactive dog toy is produced by the Tuffies company, who are experts and well known within the pet care industry for producing a wide range of extremely durable dog toys designed for particularly strong or large dogs.

*The product itself*
Many of you will have noticed a running theme throughout my reviews lately, and that is that many are about certain dog toys I purchased for my dogs whilst in my ongoing battle, which I must admit, I am loosing, to find toys for Grace and Benson! They are two very large and very strong dogs who are completely insane about playing and love their toys more than anything, so they certainly get a lot of use out of them, but because of their size and strength, they manage to destroy an awful lot of regular dog toy within minutes of receiving them, resulting in me practically throwing money away on a weekly basis! So recently, I've started looking a bit further a field than my usual Pets At Home stores where I use to buy their toys in a bid to find some new bits and pieces which I think may stand the test of time!

A friend who has had similar problems with her dog, recommended the Tuffies brand to me and I had a browse online to see if I could find out a bit more about them, I've heard of them in the past, but haven't really took much notice of any of the products they made until now. Tuffies is a company that specialise in producing incredibly tough and durable dog toys designed for use by stronger than average dogs, large breeds or households with multiple dogs who share the same toys, so I was instantly intrigued by them and this Tug Of War toy was the one I decided Grace and Benson would enjoy best as they do love a good game of tug.

The Tuffies Tug Of War toy claims to be the toughest soft dog toy in the world and is graded as a 9 on Tuffies 'Tuff Scale', so according to that, it is going to be 'extremely tuff & extremely durable'. It is made from two layers of industrial strength luggage material and then a layer of soft fleece on the outside. All these layers are then sewn together to make one super tough layer and the toy is sewn together with 2 layers of cross stitching and then 2 layers of linear stitching. Then, to finish the toy has an additional black rim stitched around it to cover the four layers of stitching and then the black trim is sewn on with 3 linear stitches to give the toy a total of 7 seams. Blimey! Well, it certainly sounds very tough and durable, I'll give it that! Even if all those different stitching methods go completely over my head!

The Tug Of War toy is probably one of the larger ones on the market, therefore only really making it suitable for the dogs at the top end of the medium size range and upwards- it measures 22 inches long, is 7 ½ inches wide and 1 ½ inches thick, which I'm not surprised at with all those layers and different stitches! The toy is available in a few colours, I've definitely seen it in red and purple and there might be other colours available too and the toys have a 'leopard' print to them, which make them quite striking and eye catching and easy to spot in the long grass.

Tuffies claim the toys, although extremely durable, are only designed as tug and general play toys and won't withstand long periods of determined chewing, and they are suitable to be used either by the owner and dog for an interactive game of tug or for multiple dogs to use to play together, and they can also be used in water as they quickly air dry and float.

*Packaging*
The Tug Of War toy comes attached to a small piece of cardboard which just tells you the basics about the toy such as the product and brand name, intended use and also contact details for Tuffies, should you have any questions or comments. The packaging can be recycled once no longer needed.

*Price & Availability*
Tuffies toys seem to have very limited availability offline, I have only ever seen a small selection stocked in one pet shop I have been to. I purchased my Tug Of War toy online from www.canineconcepts.co.uk for £20.60. Delivery from Canine Concepts has nearly always been absolutely perfect and goods are pretty much always delivered correct and on time, so don't have any hesitations ordering from them if you are looking to purchase this toy for your dog.

*My opinion*
I love Grace and Benson to bits, I absolutely adore them, but what I don't adore is their habit of literally chewing money up! Almost every toy I have purchased for them gets chewed up or destroyed pretty much the same day I give them it. So for this reason, I am always looking for nice robust toys for them but am not keen on spending too much, incase they do manage to destroy them. £20 is about my very top limit I'd spend on one dog toy, and considering this Tug Of War toy was just over that, I was a little reluctant to purchase one, but I'd had good reports on them from my friend so I decided to take a chance.

The Tug Of War toy I had ordered was the purple one, like shown in the dooyoo picture and when it arrived I was very pleased with in on first impressions. The colours were lovely and vivid and the toy seemed incredibly tough and extremely strong, with no open bits I could find where the dogs could get a head start and manage to get their teeth into it. I also liked the way the edge was taped with the black material rim as it meant there were no hard or rough bits that could hurt their gums whilst they played with the toy. Grace and Benson are getting use to all these goodies coming through the post for them now and always eagerly wait when I open parcels incase there is something for them, so they were very happy indeed when they realised this was infact something new for them!

I took them out the back and let them have the toy and they straight away got into a game of tug, with Grace at one end of the toy, and Benson at the other pulling away at it, this is usually the point where most other toys rip in half down the middle so I was very pleased to see that the toy showed absolutely no signs of weakening, and after 10 minutes or so they started charging around the garden together with it, flinging it in the air and chasing after it and then stopping for another game of tug again. They absolutely loved it and were having a right good game with it, so I was pleased that they liked it and were getting fun out of it, but now time for the real test.

My fiancé called the dogs in for their dinner and I got a chance to have a look at the toy to see what damage Grace and Benson had managed to inflict on it, I was very shocked, but pleasantly surprised to not see so much as a tooth mark- no ripping, no loose stitching, no tears, nothing! It was still in one piece, much to my joy.

It's now about six weeks since the dogs first got the toy, and I'm very chuffed to report it is still in one piece! It's got a bit of damage to it, but just general wear and tear really which is to be expected with the roughness Grace and Benson play and also with their strength, but it's definitely still safe enough for use and they still get an awful lot of enjoyment out of it. The 'handles' are soft and comfortable for me to hold when I have a game of tug with one of them, and despite its size, it is still fairly easy to throw a good distance. I must admit its not a toy I let them have all the time as I don't want them to chew it up, I'll get it out for a play session and then put it back away again so the play value stays high and the toy in fairly good condition for as long as possible.

The other major advantage the toy has is that it floats- I swear somewhere generations back that both Grace and Benson have a family of fish in their pedigrees as if there is the slightest drop of water to be found within a five mile radius, Grace and Benson will seek it out and be straight in there. They are both outstanding swimmers who will spend as long as I let them in the water and they have great fun taking their toys in to so it is nice to find a toy that floats if something else takes their attention and they let go of their toy for a second- I'm sure the majority of lakes, rivers and streams in Essex and the surrounding areas have a small collection of Grace and Bensons toys lurking at the bottom, and there is probably a very lucky dog living in France or somewhere who receives all the washed up toys that they loose in the sea! The toy isn't as quick drying as I had hoped, but we can live with that.

All in all, a fantastic toy, well worth its somewhat high cost. It's easy to clean (just pop in the washing machine on low heat), it's extremely strong and very tough, it floats and can be used for tug and fetch and the dogs absolutely adore it. What more could you ask for?!

Summary: An excellent quality toy from Tuffies, strongly recommended.