Hyper Pet Doggie Tail Interactive Plush Dog Toys (Wiggles, Vibrates, and Barks, Stimulating Play)

I have two very lovable, very big, very hyper dogs. The first is Rascal- my big playful boy. The second is Coho- my very serious and VERY smart girl. I also have three cats- who are kept separate from the dogs. One of our cats, Toby, likes to run outside and taunt the dogs when they're in their caged running area. He likes to sit just beyond their reach. Coho doesn't like this at all, and is very determined to one day get the cat.And here's where the toy comes into play. It was originally purchased for Coho. Toby, the cat, likes to sleep in a crate in our living room. Whenever Coho comes inside she runs right over to the crate and guards it. Toby is in a different room- but she refuses to acknowledge that. She smells him in the crate, so she simply sits next to the crate- staring at it- waiting for the cat to move. And that's why I bought this toy. Before bringing Coho inside to play, I put this toy in the crate and turned it on. As always- she ran over to the crate to guard it. But this time, to her utter surprise (and blood-thirsty delight) something inside the crate moved.And that is when all hell broke loose. And when I say 'broke' I mean... everything broke. Coho went bazirk, trying to get into the crate. Which then made Rascal also go bazirk, trying to get into the crate. So we had two dogs (50 and 70 pounds) romping around the house flipping the crate all over the place in utter determination to get the 'cat'. A lamp was tipped over and broken, everything was wiped off of the bottom of any bookshelf, a clothes hamper was thrown over, and dog food and water went flying. All of this panic ensued within four minutes until I could break through the growling, barking, frenzy of dogs to get to the crate and take out the toy.So... I guess you could say the toy worked. But only for a day. Once I removed the toy, Coho (being the very intelligent dog she was) immediately saw that the toy was not in fact a cat, and went back to guarding the crate (waiting for the real cat to come out). Rascal on the other hand (the big playful puppy) found the toy to be extremely exciting, and played with it for a very long time. After the one initial session where Coho figured out the toy wasn't the cat, she hasn't touched the toy again. But Rascal (who literally finds sticks to be great toys) really loves the toy- but then again he loves every toy.So this toy, which was originally purchased for Coho- became Rascal's. Coho would probably give it 1 star (because it's not actually a cat). Rascal would give it five. And I would give it five- just for the ridiculous smile on Coho's face when she thought she was finally going to get the cat.Now for a review of the toy itself. Some people have complained that it is very hard to install the batteries. I found this not to be true. If you follow the directions on the package, installing the batteries is actually quite clear. It is JUST like a children's toy (like a moving puppy toy, or battery operated stuffed animal). There is a Velcro attachment that you open, you remove the battery compartment, unscrew the compartment, install the batteries, screw the compartment together, place the compartment in the toy, and re-Velcro it up. A lot of steps- but worth the fun that comes after.There is an on/off button that you can push to either turn the toy on or off. The toy is sound activated, so whenever you clap your hands or 'bark' the toy begins to do its thing. But what exactly is 'its thing'? Well, it fibrates. And by vibrating it moves itself around. We didn't get to see much of this- as it was in the crate. And Rascal refuses to put it down when he has it- so it only vibrates in his mouth. The toy also barks- a very cartoonish/fake bark- but a bark nevertheless. Rascal growls at it when it barks, but other than that he doesn't really pay attention to the sound. He's more worried about figuring out how to tear it apart.We do have to supervise Rascal when he played because he'll eventually rip the 'furry cover' off and just have the plastic ball in his mouth. The ball is big enough that he won't choke- and it's pretty durable. But I'm just afraid one of the screws will come loose and he'll get hurt. So we try to get the ball back ASAP once he gets it out, and put it back into the furry casing.Overall it was a good toy. Kind of expensive for only 4 minutes of use with Coho. But Rascal gets his fair share of use out of it. I think almost ANY puppy would love the toy- and playful older pup's will definitely find it entertaining too. Totally worth it just to see your dog's reaction (even if the reaction only lasts a minute or two).

We have two of these now, and they are amazing. Our dog is an older gal (9 when we got our first one of these) who doesn't like tennis balls, ropes, or anything a 'normal' dog would, but this is her favorite. She initiates play with it (she smacks it with her paw until it starts barking and moving) and gets a ton of exercise this way. I'd strongly recommend this if you are looking for an interactive toy or just something different. We do have one other toy that barks like this, but that one is just a ball and doesn't have a tail. This gets used way more since the dog can carry this around by the tail. Overall, definitely worth the price and is a favorite. Details/specifics belowThe great stuff--our dog LOVES this toy (she'll pick it out of the bottom of her other toys we've tried, even if it's buried), and she is super picky with toys--super durable: had one for over a year and it isn't torn/fraying/or anything--interactive..hello exercise! we play fetch with this but the dog also plays by herself and will throw it around or chew on the tail (makes a crinkly sound)--battery cover screws: the screws stay in even after you take the cover off, so you can't lose them--Sound level. Not too loud, but also not too quite given it's a toy that makes noise (it might wake you up if you're taking a nap and the dog is playing next to you). It's just the right volume level to where you don't have to turn the TV up when the dog starts playing--easy to change batteries: there are two things of velcro you take apart to take the inside out and the two levels of velcro make it so the part with the battery is completely covered (don't see it, and protected from doggie slobber)the not so great stuff--we got the saddest look from the dog when we took it away to change the batteries. Seriously heartbreaking, but we now have a second one to distract her with so problem solved--the dog sometimes turns it off. There's a button on the inside ball to turn it off and on, and she sometimes turns it off unintentionally. I've learned to just find the button without taking the cover off, but it's nice that there is an option to turn it off. We have other toys with a similar design to this and I've thrown them out because the buttons on those are easier to hit and the dog turned them off constantly. It does happen with this, but not very often--battery cover screws: they are tiny (can't use a normal screwdriver--we use an eyeglass screwdriver we got from the dollar store) and are pretty easy to strip. We do change the batteries a lot though so I'm sure that's contributed. Screws are a phillips though so I've been using a slightly bigger flathead and that fixed the problemThings to note--we change the batteries at least once per month since the dog uses it so much, but we buy them in bulk so it's not really expensive--since our dog likes to throw this around on her own, we've had to designate her play areas. It hurts if you get hit with this thing, and we have glass fireplace doors/TV's/pictures/decor that have had some close calls when we first got it. I don't think the big items could break, but we didn't want to take chances with the smaller things (image throwing a slightly bigger baseball covered in a thin layer of fur at a picture frame very fast..no thank you!). A lot of variables here that may not make it an issue for others, but something to consider depending on your dog/home--not sure how it would hold up with grass/dirt/the yard as we keep it inside given the electronics in it--very scary to bump it in the middle of the night in the dark and set it off. User error, but I'd recommend turning it off when not in use or putting it away if possible--not sure how this would work for puppy teeth or mastiff sized teeth. Our dog is a bigger lab/husky so she's got some jaws, but the toy has held up very well with her 'chew with the intention of having something to chew/make noise with' rather than 'chew to destroy'