Hey, does anyone here use any sort of "box" mail subscription service for treats and toys for your dog(s)? Like Bark Box or Loot Crate for pets? I'm seriously thinking about getting one for Misty -- She is SUCH a toy dog, and she also enjoys surprises -- but I'm not sure which service to get. Some of them are pretty pricey, but the less expensive ones only seem to offer toys that a Husky could destroy just by looking at them. Any recommendations?

-- Faye

I have a couple friends who have bark box and they love it. You can specify what kind of stuff you want according to the needs of your dog. One if for a black lab and the other a golden retriever. Not heavy chewers but very toy motivated. If there are certain treats your dog can't have you can tell them not to send those. Same with certain types of toys. If she doesn't like super soft toys then you can tell them not to send those.

We did barkbox for a while but I found the treats were full of junk & my picky dog wouldn't eat many of them. The toys are super cute but if your pup is a destroyer, I wouldn't really recommend. We do realpetfood now (realpetfood.com) & each month they send dried organ meat, muscle meat, seafood, and a few yummy dried chews each month (this month we got pork heart, lamb liver, smelt, duck wings, pig ears and a few other things). Its a little more pricey, but so totally worth it if you use a lot of treats for training and like to know exactly what you're giving your pup. I also really like supporting a small business and they use responsibly sourced meats.

Oh, and if you're more interested in toys, I'd give the Bullymake box a shot. I know someone with two huskies that gets that one and her pups love it.

I get the barkbox for my pups. They get so excited when I carry in that box! Balto can't wait for me to open it and when I do he sticks his nose in the box to see what's in it. My dogs like most of the treats they send. There has been one they didn't care for. But they love the toys. They're not toy destroyers so that's a plus. But all in all I love bark box because my dogs do!

My husky obliterates toys, the only one she can't destroy is her Kong. So if any of these companies supply toys that are at least somewhat husky proof, I would love to know too. XD My dog has dietary restrictions though, which is one of the main reasons I don't do these boxes.

The idea I love is that huskies really do get a kick out of getting new stuff- but I have just been doing that manually by finding things at the petstore or on amazon.

Thanks for the information, everyone! Wow, choices, choices ... I've looked up BarkBox, RealPetFood, and BullyMake, and they all seem to have things that I do like about them. Yeah, a couple of them are pricey, but really, compared to what the same types of things would cost at Petco or Speck's, a subscription box is a bargain. Since we're still learning Misty's likes and dislikes (so far, she doesn't like hard toys, but she'll utterly destroy one that's too soft. And she LOVES squeakies.), I'm tempted to invest in one box of each, just to see which one works best with Misty. I do like that they all seem to allow you to customize your treats to eliminate allergens, etc. Misty doesn't seem to have any allergies, but better safe than sorry.

I went ahead and ordered one each of BarkBox, BullyMake, and RealPetFood. The BarkBox showed up in only two days! Misty was definitely excited about it when she saw what was in the box. I guess BarkBoxes are "themed" and this one was a New York City theme. Two toys and three treats.

The first toy was a Statue of Liberty squeaky stuffy. This item thrilled Misty the most -- and in less than half an hour it was totally destroyed. She didn't eat any of it -- just tore it to pieces. Second toy was a crackly (fabric covered) rope pretzel. (Never been to New York -- Are pretzels a thing?) THIS toy is still in one piece three days later, and Misty enjoys playing with it with us. It's a decent pull toy. Probably not something I would have bought on my own, but we've been having fun with it.

The treats consisted of some sort of short bully stick (again, Misty destroyed it almost immediately), a bag of "no grain" jerky chews, and a bag of dried lamb lung chunks. Misty REALLY likes the lamb lung chunks. They're really light. I've been using them as training treats.

BarkBox is fun, and cheaper than the other two subscription services, but Misty needs tougher toys -- and I can't help thinking that this box, though for Medium dogs, is intended for smaller dogs. I'm afraid that if I switch to the Large box, everything will be TOO large for Misty. However, BarkBox does have an option where they'll upgrade your subscription to "Heavy Chewer" for free if you email them. I went ahead and did so -- Gonna give BarkBox one more chance.

I'll post more info when the BullyMake and RealPetFood boxes arrive.

-- Faye

Sorry -- I should probably be doing this under Product Reviews; but I already started the thread here, sooooooo ...

Anyway, the RealPetFood.com box showed up last night. The RealPetFood subscriptions don't contain toys -- only treats and chewies based on a fresh/natural/nutritious/unprocessed food approach. The treats come individually packed in resealable plastic sleeves, and the portions are fairly generous and come in a good variety. This box contained six different types of treats.

I have to admit right off the bat that I've never explored the whole "dried animal part" idea in dog treats. So, when we opened the box, squeamishness immediately set in. The first thing I pulled out was a bag of little FISH, all dried up and staring at me.  My daughter was horrified, then grossed out, and then fascinated in spite of herself: "Ewwwwww, gross!!  Oooh, what do they feel like?  Can I feed one to Misty?"  We opened the bag, and yep, it stunk like fish.  My daughter pulled one out and gave it to Misty. Misty was totally confused. She looked at us like, "What the heck is this?"  But THEN she got a whiff of it, did the Treat Dance around it a bit, and quickly ate it.  She was eager for more after that.

The fish turned out to be dried Smelt, which immediately lent itself to dumb jokes ("Well, that SMELT horrible!" "Have you ever SMELT anything like it?"). We let Misty have one more before resealing the bag and putting it away.  Other treats in the box consisted of Pork Loin and Lamb Liver, thinly sliced and dried -- like potato chips for dogs. We let Misty have one of each and she LOVED both.  There were also Pig Ears (yep, seen those before), Duck Wings (ewww, but Misty will probably love them), and Beef Aortas (again, ewwww -- but the dog will no doubt love them).  The Pig Ears, Duck Wings and Beef Aortas were labeled as Hard, Medium, and Light chews.  There was also a small bag of dried Banana -- not Banana Chips, but chunks of dried Banana. We let Misty have one of these, too, and she enjoyed it.  Then we put everything away for the night.  Don't want the dog to get sick from trying too many treats at once!  We'll try giving her a Duck Wing later today.

So, yeah -- GROSS, but Misty loved everything that we let her try.  The smaller items seem like they'd make good training treats.  I'm not convinced any of the larger chew items will last long with Misty, but I guess we'll find out.  Seems like a really good treat box, but obviously no toys for the dog. Misty needs toys, too.  She's a busy dog!

Awaiting the arrival of the last box, from BullyMake.

Faye, thanks for your running comments on the various packages - my pups don't get a whole lot of treats and would seemingly rather play with each other than a toy but I appreciate knowing what you've gotten so that I can store it when responding to others.

That box sounds like one I could do. Mine don't play with toys either and I'm getting pretty strict on treats/chews now because of allergies with the one dog. That sounds awesome.

Thanks -- I'm glad this info is useful to some of the rest of you guys. It's been a while since I've had a dog that was a total busybody like Misty. Subscription services like these didn't exist when I had my American Eskimo Dog. They would have been perfect for him. My Lapphund and my Shiba wouldn't have cared, though. Every dog is different.

I have a Lab pointer mix that eats every toy we bring home. We tested the barkbox and she at the toys so we call the Barkbox people and upgrade to their super chewer box and also learned of the destroyer's club just take a pic of the toy they killed and you get credit towards new toys they kill 5 toys they get a 5 dollar credit. The super chewer box has held up very well against my 9 month old lab mix and my 10 week old husky.

That's good to know, Cora! Thanks! If the next BarkBox doesn't work out, I might try the Destroyer's Club. Third time might be the charm.

The BullyMake box hasn't shown up yet, but we are experiencing a possible setback from the RealPetFood box -- Diarrhea! Not serious or severe -- more like loose stools -- but it's suspicious in that it occurred later in the day after Misty had a Duck Wing. It's probably the result of being introduced to too much new food too soon, though we were trying to limit Misty's portions. Still, the Duck Wing was pretty big, so it might have been too much of a new thing, in addition to the little RealPetFood treats she had the day before (not to mention the hot dog she'd had when she got loose the night before -- though she's had hot dogs before without any trouble). At any rate, Misty is back on just her regular food for the time being. Shame, because she really loved the Duck Wing. We may just break the other one in half for her and try again once she's recovered.

Full-blown gastritis. That's what we were dealing with all night with Misty. No appetite for her regular food, the diarrhea got worse, and then she barfed and barfed and barfed -- and YEP, it consisted mainly of chewed-up and partially digested Duck Wing fragments. No intestinal blockages, thank goodness, and no pancreatitis (I once had to deal with THAT with Max, my American Eskimo Dog -- NO fun), but last night consisted of many trips outside and sips of water to keep her from getting dehydrated. She got pretty low last night, but this morning she's acting a lot better -- and is totally miffed about not getting her breakfast. Once I'm convinced the diarrhea is done, it's good ol' Bland Diet for a while until I can get her weaned back onto her regular food.

This isn't my first dance with gastritis by a long shot, but it's been especially annoying because Misty still isn't fully housetrained -- She hasn't yet learned how to TELL us when she needs to go out. The whole house smells like carpet cleaner right now. Thankfully, it seems that Misty is now finally comfortable with her crate -- She kept going into it last night to lie down and chill out, and didn't complain at all about having the door closed. She's in her crate right now, in fact. So, if nothing else, this whole episode may have at last turned her into a crate-trained dog and we can at last get her completely housetrained.

The other Duck Wing has been thrown away.

Oh no! That sounds awful. Poor Misty. My pup already ate both of his duck wings with no issue, but maybe his insides are just more accustomed to raw/dried meats & bone? I'm sorry you had a bad experience. The customer service at RealPetFood is amazing, if you contact them they may refund your money or send something different next time (if you end up sticking with the subscription). Worth a shot?

To be honest, I don't really blame this on RealPetFood. After all, your Husky and plenty of other dogs don't have problems with eating Duck Wings, right? So, I'm thinking it's just an issue with Misty. She is still a bit underweight from her time as a stray (though she has gotten a lot better), so her system may just not be ready yet for the one-two punch of a crunchy, fatty Duck Wing. Still, this is a dog that gleefully steals and eats tomatoes with no trouble, so who knows? She also hasn't had any problems with any other treats. Maybe she just wasn't meant to eat Duck Wings.

Back online after fall break -- and it was a very good fall break! A month and a half after being busted out of the doggy slammer, Misty is now completely crate trained -- and as a result, she's now ALMOST house trained. I say "almost" because the other day she just HAD to go pee in the den. It was practically the only room she hadn't peed in yet. Still, it was the first time she'd peed in the house in a week, which is a huge improvement.

Anyway, we very well might have a winner in the subscription box department. Friday Oct. 6, after a week of recovering from gastritis and dealing with the gastritis bland diet, the BullyMake box showed up. This really made Misty's day, lemme tell ya. It had three bags of treats (two types of quality jerky chews plus a bag of cheese/veggie crisps that were perfect for Misty's tender tummy), one big chew toy (which Misty was kinda meh about, but there's a Great Pyrenees in the neighborhood that was happy to receive it), and the GREATEST TOY IN THE WORLD! Well, at least Misty seems to think it's the greatest toy in the world. It's a Cherry Bomb -- a rubber treat ball with a short rope attached. Wow, does Misty ever love this thing. We haven't stuffed it with treats yet, but she really doesn't seem to care. She's been chewing on it and flinging it around for over a week and it's hardly shown any wear so far. The only other toy that comes close to it in Misty's affections is her beloved rubber ChuckIt ball.

So, right now, BullyMake appears to be the winner, as far as Misty is concerned. We do still have the Heavy Chewer BarkBox to check out -- It's on the way. We'll see how it holds up!

UPDATE:  After all of the trials and tribulations, we've officially settled on BullyMake for Misty's monthly subscription box. She's just really into toys, and their toys are definitely her favorite.  

However, the box experiment brought our attention to an issue with Misty, which is that she has a rather delicate tummy and cannot eat treats that contain a lot of fat or sugar.  It's quite possible that Misty has chronic pancreatitis after all, meaning we have to make sure ALL of her food and treats are very low in fat and sugar.  The vet thinks it's probably something Misty developed before we got her, based on other clues in Misty's eating habits plus things the folks at the shelter told us -- It could also be the reason she looked starved when she was found as a stray in the state park.  I've dealt with this in a dog before, so it's not a big deal.  In a way, the box experiment did us a favor because it helped us discover the issue faster than we would have otherwise.  It's a little disappointing because I was hoping for a dog that could eat just about anything, like my old Swedish Lapphund could --  But, really, it isn't a big deal.

We communicated this to the BullyMake people and they were very nice about changing the treats in Misty's subscription box to ensure she only gets low-fat, low-sugar items from now on.  Not that Misty cares much, though, as long as she keeps getting their awesome toys!

Taking a survey and they list these Subscription Based Programs.  

I've added the links to these. The prices, as given on the web site for a medium sized dog, are one box and per box for a yearly subscription (unless otherwise noted)

Anything New to anyone?
Surprise My Pet $30 /26
Pet Treater $24.99 / ????
BarkBox $29 / 20
VetPet Box Very irritating site - can't get prices without a survey
Chewy 19.95 (Not a subscription)
Bullymake $39 / 31
Rescue Box $29.95 / 23.45
LootPets (no longer doing "Pet Crates")
Pup Joy $29 / 26 (looks like an interesting selection)
Paw Pack $29.99 / 24.99
Pooch Perks various options / various prices.

Wow, Al, I needed this list 2 years ago!

Faye, we've done BarkBox and the liberty ball was so popular, I bought surplus. We've earned free toys through social media in the Destroyers Club, but a lot of the surviving toys are in a cabinet Sophia has just discovered. She's finding a few panned toys interesting (see instagram feed, haha). Barkbox treats were usually a meh for Grant. A little too granola.

Loot Crate was an instant regifting to the Corgi, since we are more pragmatic than collectible-centric. Lots of tees and charms stashed at the top of the grooming supply cabinet.

BullyMake is a winner, though. We just received the first one recently and every item was a hit except the nylon candy cane, which is too big for Sophia, but we have already caught her guarding her nylabone from Grant (I tossed it in the freezer for future use), and Grant was like, "whatever, sister-dude, nylabone is Lame."

Currently Grant is chewing an escaped piece of Sophia's kibble puzzle, so I think high-value treats just got weird.

But we are excited about receiving a box in the mail again that Grant (and now Sophia, too) can smell is for the Husky.

Oh, wow -- I didn't know about all the rest of these services back when we were first looking for one. Thanks for posting these, Al! For now, though, Misty is still very happy with BullyMake.