Review: The Caitec Chase ‘n Chomp Sticky Bone

I’m always on the look out for new interactive feeders so when I saw the Ruff hounds shop were selling a new variety at a good price — the Caitec Chanse ‘n Chompe Sticky Bone — I decided to give it a go. I love giving my dogs a challenge and they love food so we all loved doing this review!

Caitec Sticky Bone

The Sticky bone is another food toy for dogs but it has the unique feature of suckers which the manufacturers claim will stick to any flat surface. It is bright green, and bone shaped with grooves for treats or paste at each end.

A potential downside is that the design of the bone negates the possibility of feeding your dog’s daily food allowance using it, as there just isn’t space in the bone for enough food (at least for most dogs). The grooves are really only easily suitable for soft pastes and I found peanut butter (palm oil and xylitol free of course) the favourite for my dogs so far. Using this gives them about 15 minutes of licking time — which isn’t bad at all as there really isn’t that much peanut butter in the bone, so you don’t need to be too worried about calories if you are filling it. It is a good size and I can see both large and small dogs being able to use the bone.

But how sticky is the Sticky Bone?

I can confirm it sticks to a lot of things including walls, my fridge, dishwashers, tiles, the windowsill, hard floor, bath (inside and out), glass, cupboard door and table top. Obviously not everything is a suitable surface so don’t expect miracles, but it does seem to stick to most surfaces well and survive mild to strong tugging from my dogs.

Let me say that I have not yet found an indestructible dog toy, nor does this claim to be one. If you have a determined puller or chewer then, yes, they will be able to pull the bone off a surface, particularly if they learned to focus on chewing the suckers. However, it is for supervised fun and using a little redirection on most dogs will soon have them licking rather than tugging at the bone.

So I am impressed so far with the Sticky Bone. Its not a miracle toy but it is innovative and interesting for the dogs. But the sticky bone can also be a really great tool for helping your training as well as entertaining your dog.

Here are just a few ideas:

• Take it to the pub (or the vet) — Ava enjoyed her sticky bone during her first visit to the pub, successfully distracting her from the new environment as well as the other dogs at a nearby table. This also applies to vet visits!
• Use it for bath time — None of my dogs have a particular love of baths. So being able to use the bone as part of my behaviour modification is a boon.
• Distractions – Keep your dog occupied, teach them to anticipate positive experiences and train and incompatible behaviour. Or in other words your dog can lick the sticky bone while you stack the dishwasher, hoover, answer the door or do those things your dog normally gets excited or nervous about.
• Grooming — in fact any sort of husbandry. Licking the bone can help keep your dog standing, you can also get them to put their head up, even put their paws and stretch up to reach so that you can reach normally difficult to reach areas.
• Visitors — If your dog jumps on visitors instead of staying in their bed, the sticky bone can help here too.

Summary

Pros:

Firstly, my dogs love it — this is always the most important thing for me.
Second, it is sticky and stays in place meaning I can use it in a range of different ways

Cons:

It is hard to clean! I prefer to wash it but hand and I have to use a finger to fully clean between the grooves, it is time consuming but not impossible.

All in all it seems to be a great tool, not a toy I could leave with my dogs all day necessarily but it does hold their dogs attention at a reasonable distraction level and after only one use they are excited to see it come out of the cupboard. So all in all it is definitely worth the price.

Buy now from Ruff Hounds!