General information:
This box was school-themed, which I thought was SUPER cute! I'm in my last year of graduate school, so it made me smile that my dog got some school supplies too. I looked up using the Barkbox app what I was getting before it came because I was so excited, and I thought it was gunna be awesome! My dog is 15 pounds, so she is under the "small dog" subscription.
What was inside the box:
The box came with 3 treats of various sizes (one had small circle treats, the other was a longer thin soft chew stick, and the third was a hard cube treat). The box also had two toys,that kind of end up being more like 4, because one has 3 parts. There is a "lunch bag" that is crinkly and has velcro (very easy to open). Inside the "lunch bag" there was a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich" toy that had a squeaker and a "cookie" toy that also had a squeaker. These toys can be removed and played with on their own, but they both fit in the "lunch bag." The other toy was "chewed homework" that was crinkly and had two pieces that were sewn together at the top, both pieces of "homework" had a small squeaker as well.
What did my dog think?:
She ended up LOVING the crinkly lunch bag and the cookie and sandwich toy. She grabbed the cookie one right away and started playing with it. So far, she hasn't had any real interest in the homework toy, but she also isn't super interested in the crinkly stuff (which it is primarily) and the squeaker is pretty soft/quiet. However, she wasn't sure about the crinkly taco with the squeaker insides in the last barkbox, and now she absolutely loves it and plays with it everyday, so maybe it'll just take her time to adjust.
As for the treats, she liked the soft chew stick and the small circle treats. She was confused about the big cube treat that was made with yak cheese and it took her a long time to eat it. It was so big she could barely hold it in her mouth and was having a hard time biting it because it was so hard. However, once she started biting it, she loved it and finished an entire cube in one sitting.
My thoughts:
I thought this box was somewhere in the middle. I liked the treats from the first box the best and the toys from the last box (she literally is obsessed with the taco, it's so cute seeing her walking around with the taco toy in her mouth). This was somewhere in the middle for me. I loved the cute lunch box and items toy, but I think the squeakers were a little too quiet and the toys were thick so it was hard for her to squeak. She's also on the bigger end of the "small dog" size, so I was surprised some of the items were too big. I was/am not a fan of the cheese cubes. I do think the product itself is good, just not for my needs. To start, it was just too big for her. I can't imagine how any dog smaller than her could've eaten it. Second, it made a MESS! Usually with treats, there is some spillage but this just got crumbs (big and small) everywhere. My dog almost always will clean up the crumbs but there was so many I had to actually clean the area and vacuum up the crumbs. I also was disappointed that the cheese cube bag was not resealable, so I just had to fold over the bag and hide it somewhere. With that said, I think it's a cute theme and I really liked the other treats. I love that they are made in the USA with high-quality ingredients.
Overall, I still like Barkbox and think it's a good value. I like the variety of toys that it comes with, because they are almost always things I wouldn't buy (I generally just go for the stereotypical squeaking toys) but my dog often likes them! I also like that after her having such a very rough start to her life, she is now adopted and gets to be spoiled in her forever home. It makes me so happy seeing her joy when we open this together. Part of the fun is getting excited together and seeing her sniff everything :)! Dogs are just the best and I think this is a fun thing to do from time to time to treat our dogs, since they give so much to us.
Anywho, this was a SUPER long blog post! Feel free to message me if you have any questions or comment on my social media!
If you want to try this out for yourself, use my referral code: EXTRAMONTHBOX
or click on the link:
https://www.barkbox.com/r/EXTRAMONTHBOX
to get one month free with any subscription service purchase!
I outlined the services in my first Barkbox post if you wanna check that out, or just go to the Barkbox page for more info!.
:)