Toy of the Year: Linkables

One of the benefits to attending the APDT conference is the trade show. After attending conference sessions from 9am-5pm, 1,500 lined up like the Filenes Basement Running of the Brides. The reason for all the excitement was the free swag/treats/products given by companies like Kong, Premier, Cloudstar, J & J Dog Supplies, etc. in the hotels' exhibit hall. In addition to the free stuff, they had massive discounts for all their other products. For starters, I got a Kong Frisbee, retail at $12.99 for $5.00.

The best purchase I made, however, was on the Premier Linkables. This is a puzzle toy that beats Kong by a mile for those dogs that aren't challenged enough by it. We've been feeding Sadie her dinner out of this toy since she re-injured her leg, and it mentally exhausts her, and keeps her occupied for 20 minutes. As I type, she just finished her dinner, and is curled up at my feet, resting and relaxed. Not easy for a Border Collie!

The way this toy works is simple. It's three different pieces that can be linked together in a variety of ways to vary the difficulty. You can start with putting food or treats in just one puzzle piece, make sure your dog enjoys it, and as they get better at it, then make it harder by adding more pieces. This will make an excellent gift for people that have high energy dogs that may need something more challenging to do.

Admittedly, I was a bit concerned on my trip back going through the airport with these. This was the first week of body scans at Boston Logan airport and Atlanta's airport...and they were really looking into the luggage scans as well. With the three pieces taken apart in my suitcase, it had to have looked like the pieces for a pipe bomb or a bong. Luckily I wasn't pulled aside, but I can only imagine the look on the inspectors face when those very specific pieces show up on a luggage scan.