Smarter Toys IQ Treat Ball Dog Toy

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $14.99
Sale Price: $7.99
Today's Bonus: 47% Off

This ball is great for my two and a half year old border collie mix. I give his breakfast through this ball, and it keeps him occupied for 20 minutes total. The ball won't fill up a whole cup of kibble, so I have to fill it up two times. This ball takes him longer and tires him more than the Tug a Jug, which only takes him about five minutes to empty. As he empties the ball twice, he will pant and go lap on some water. It's good to see he's getting some kind of work for his food as opposed to just chomping it down from the bowl with no effort.

The only downside is that a lot of times the lid gets loose even if you close it pretty secure. One time the lid came off completly as my dog was playing with it, exposing all the kibble. To prevent this I used some strength to close the lid very tight, but later I could not open it back up! It took a grown male to open it back.

My dog does not chew on this ball due to the awkward shape and material(hard plastic). I and my dog have dropped this a couple of times on both laminate and wood floor, but I see no crack on the ball so far. It seems durable.

Good ball to make your dog work for his breakfast or dinner.

UPDATE: My dog still loves this toy. With the difficulty setting set to max, it is the slowest treat dispensing toy in my collection(buster cube, tug a jug, kong wobbler). That's good, it lets him burn off more energy.

Also since the ball doesn't hold a full cup of kibble, I would pour half and the rest on his regular food bowl. I place the ball next the the bowl and give a release "OK!". Guess where my dog goes? He runs off with the ball! Even after realizing that there is food in the bowl (He puts his nose inside the bowl for a second and then goes to the ball) where he could just eat it, he perfers to get his food from the ball.

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I have a 12 week old golden retriever. This is his favorite toy since it provides him with treats. It's mine because it keeps him busy for a good 30 minuteswhich, as any puppy owner knows, is a long respite from puppy antics. Although the plastic looks like it's a bit weak, it seems to be holding up extremely well. Especially since puppy has learned to pick it up and drop it.

Tips:

*Add puppy's food along with small treats so that he doesn't get an upset tummy.

*If it confuses him at first (mine sat and barked at it) then put all the treats on the top of the toy, closing the 'trap door'. This makes it much easier for him to figure out how to get the treats. As he gets the hang of it, put the treats on the bottom and open the door to the widest, slowly closing it as he gets the hang of it.

This might not be great for you:

*If you don't have a fairly big non-carpeted spaceI don't think it would move too great on carpet. You don't want treats spilling out on your carpeting anyway.

*If your dog is very sedentary. To get the treats, the dog really has to bat this aroundso a sedentary dog may loose interest quickly.

*If your dog is not food motivated(as few dogs as this may be)once again, may not have much interest.

*If you have a very small puppysmall breeds may have difficulty with this as it needs to be batted very hard and it may be too large for them to get it to tip over (is weighted to stay with hole up if not hit hard). However, that depends on how active your puppy is.

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Received quick! Great seller.

This is smaller than I would have guessed. It's hard to get a feel for sizes here but the 5" is a large handful. It has adjustable difficulty, and I use this product to feed my dogs their kibble. Otherwise they inhale their food and get sick.

One of our dogs is easily frustrated, and one is really good with these puzzle toys. For now I have taken the center panel out entirely, as we don't want it that difficult and it allows me to put more food inside. It can hold about 1 cup of food and still be easy enough to screw it back together. With the panel in it will be a bit less. At some point in the future I may put the panel that increases difficulty back in for the more clever pooch.

One of my dogs managed to pop the thing open, but he's only done it once, perhaps it was luck or I didn't screw it tight enough. No damage to the ball. On more than one occasion I've found it difficult to open myself, it's just an awkward size for my hands my husband does not have the same difficulty, the dog drool does have a glue like effect.

If you are looking for a device to slow your dogs eating, this helps. It also helps wear them out a bit and allows them to utilize the scavenge instinct, feeder toys were highly recommended by our dog trainer. I think it's well worth it, but if your like me and have big dogs you'll have to refill them a couple times.

My dogs chew through most feeder toys (a German Shepherd and a Doberman), and they have not done damage to these yet. I try and take feeder toys away before they do damage, but it can happen so fast. The size of these and round shape makes it hard for them to do fast damage. They have tried a few times, but they can't get it into their grinding teeth due to the shape. They can both pick them up, but it's awkward to gnaw on.

Overall I would recommend it. I like to keep a variety of feeder toys on hand and I'm happy to have these in circulation. If eventually they do break it, I will likely buy another. This is our 5th dispenser. Our dogs seem to particularly like it because with the panel out, they can SEE kibble.

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I've purchased five different food dispensing toys. The 5-inch IQ Treat Ball, the Omega Paw Tricky Treat Ball, Large, the StarMark Interactive toy, and the Premier Pet Busy Buddy Twist N Treat Dog Toy, Medium, and the Premier Pet Busy Buddy Twist N Treat Dog Toy, Large.

Please note that you cannot clean the insides of the StarMark or the Omega ball. Unless you want old gunk hanging around for months, these two toys will last ... very short. I kept each for only a couple of months before tossing them out. The only two I use to this day are the Premier Pet Buddy, Large, and the IQ Treat Ball.

Of all of these, each one has its benefits and shortcomings:

The Omega Paw Tricky Treat Ball is the perfect material for my dog he's not a huge chewer. It hits the wall and makes a gentle "thud" sound. However, with the new design, the hole that dispenses the food is much too large and dispenses a ton of his treats right from the getgo this is not enough to keep my dog entertained for more than a few minutes! The Omega Ball fits the most food I believe I can get up to a full cup of kibbles into it. Note that the only way to clean this toy is to put water in it and shake. I made the mistake of putting dishwashing liquid in it, shaking, and trying to get rid of the suds. It didn't happen the suds persisted. There's a tiny air hole on the other side... not that that helped get rid of the suds. I threw the toy away.

The Premier Pet Busy Buddy Twist N Treat Dog Toy, Medium is my least favorite. Whilst it also does not make a lot of noise, you can't necessarily control how fast food comes out because it relies on twisting it just rightand when the toy is knocked around, it untwists, and just spills out all the food, too well, at least makes the hole bigger so food comes out much too fast. This is my least favorite food dispensing toy. The Buddy is also the smallest you can only fit 1/4 to 1/3 cups of food in here if you seal it tight. The one great thing about this toy is that you can actually clean it.

The Premier Pet Busy Buddy Twist N Treat Dog Toy, Large, is my very favorite. It's sturdy, food comes out at a decent pace and when my dog knocks it around, it doesn't cause the opening to get bigger. I can put his entire meal inside this toy (unlike the medium size) easily and it's not a huge balancing act to make sure nothing falls out. I can clean it, and it doesn't roll away like the IQ ball into places my dog cannot reach. It's slow rolling so he can guide it easier. Plus, it's quiet and only makes a gentle thud. No matter the size of your dog, get the large. My dog is a 25-28 pounder. The large is much sturdier than the medium.

The StarMark Interactive toy is very large. You can fit a lot of kibbles in there. That's a bonus. Also, you can make the dispensing method more difficult in two places. However, you cannot open the thing to clean it and I certainly would NOT put water in there, as it's odd shaped, and I really don't like what may happen if I try to pour water in there and shake. I would highly recommend that you start with this toy rather than one of the balls if you plan on buying a StarMark toy. The reason for this is that my dog was used to rolling or pushing a toy to get his food out. So instead of gently nudging the StarMark toy, he would try to roll it, which ended up being really loud for me. He has never figured out that you just need to push the top to get the food out and just pushed harder to get the thing to roll.

Finally, the 5-inch IQ ball is perfect in the sense that it lets you control how fast it dispenses, but it's SO LOUD. My dog gets all worked up at the ball and gets very aggressive with it because of the loud noises it makes. He reacts to the noises and I think it gives him anxiety. Not to mention all the loud clanging makes ME have anxiety. I'm worried the neighbors will complain!

Another thing about the IQ ball is that because it rolls so easily and fast and furious when my dog pushes it and it is so small, it often goes under a piece of furniture so that my dog can't reach it. So much for keeping my dog distracted so I can do other things I often have to get up and get the ball for him out from underneath a piece of furniture. This was not a problem once for the Premier Pet Busy Buddy Twist N Treat Dog Toy and not so much for the Omega ball because it rolls more slowly and when my dog pushes it, it doesn't travel that far. Obviously this is not a problem for the StarMark toy, as that toy is quite large.

Finally, the IQ ball only fits about a 1/2 cup of kibbles. There is a white enclosure to manage the dispensing of food. You can fit another 1/4 cup above the white enclosure, but it's a pain because you have to make sure none spills over to the side before twisting hard to explain, but trust me, it's a pain. 3/4 cup of kibbles max, and only a 1/2 cup is easily put in.

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When I first gave this to my 5 pound maltese/papillion mix, I thought it was going to be a big success. She is rarely challenged and this seemed to do the trick. However, she is so persistent that she was able to get both of her bottom canines through the outer hole (which is slightly oval shaped and not round thus why she was able to get both canines through). Then she somehow jammed her little jaw through the hole and got the entire piece stuck on her jaw. Although we were watching her the entire time, we didn't even realize she had done this until she starting acting strange trying to wildly buck the ball off of her jaw, rocking back and forth in a sitting position (which she only does when she is nervous or anxious). Only when we tried to take it from her did we realize that it wouldn't come off of her jaw and that it was cutting her and making her bleed. The only way it was coming off (without hurting her further) was to break the plastic piece that was attached to her jaw, but we didn't have anything strong enough (cardboard/carpet cutters didn't even work the plastic is very strong). Luckily, the emergency vet is only about 15-20 minutes away and they were only able to get it off of her after sedating her and using bolt cutters to shatter it! The cut to her jaw also was not bad enough to need stitches or antibiotics, so we lucked out. But she was traumatized by it, and the poor thing was forced to bear the pain of it cutting her jaw and having her mouth open and drooling for about an hour. I think this toy would work for a larger dog, or if the outer hole was round, so, the only reason I'm giving this a low rating is to draw attention to the fact that it is dangerous for very small dogs, especially if they are food aggressive.