Product Review: Kong Bear

Markus posing with his new Kong Bear before playing with it

Like so many of you, my wife and I are meticulous shoppers. Whether it be online or in-person, we tend to put a lot of research into the things we purchase so that we know we're putting our hard-earned money on the proper products. There are so many options for even basic items like leashes and collars that it's easy to get lost in what we're buying.

We will be writing reviews as we purchase and use these items ourselves. As you do your research for products you're planning to buy, our goal is to add another layer to that research.

This week, we're writing a review on a Kong product that we recently purchased. Known for making toys for destructive dogs, we picked up the Kong Bear with the hopes of finding a good middle ground between the non-destructible rubber toys and a cotton-filled plush toy that gets destroyed all too quickly. We discovered the Kong Bear and we quite liked the concept, but how would it stack up against a destructive dog?

Let's start by breaking down the Kong Bear. The concept of the Kong Bear is actually quite clever. The bear itself is a cute looking plush bear made to look injured with fake bandage patches on its body. Instead of being stuffed with cotton, the bear is stuffed with rope so it feels solid to even hold in your hands. The toy is heavier than one would expect since it's filled with rope instead of cotton.

Markus working the limbs of the Kong Bear with his back teeth

Now to give you a little background on Markus, he's a dog who is destructive, but only with cloth-related items. He's not destructive around the house with furniture, drywall, or anything like that, but he will destroy cloth items that we give him like his blankets, dog toys or if he gets to our towels that are hanging off the racks. He'll usually look for extremities or things like tags that he can latch onto and then start pulling apart from there. His joy comes from taking a full toy and reducing it to threads or pieces of cloth.

So how did the Kong Bear do with Markus? Unfortunately, toy lasted for all of 20 minutes or so before it got to a point where we had to take it away and toss it out. I think there was satisfaction with biting down into the bear and discovering that there's rope inside so he went to the back teeth chewing really quickly. When he gets to the back teeth, usually it does some serious damage. Funny enough, Markus started with the bear's ears where there was no rope, but since there were so many limbs on the bear, it didn't stand a chance.

Twenty minutes later, the bear’s leg was opened up and the rope was completely unraveled with the threads everywhere. I really thought that the Kong Bear had a chance to become a toy that's soft on the outside, but harder to destroy. I even thought there was a chance that Markus could cherish this toy like kids do with teddy bears. No, it lasted for about as long as his other plush toys did. For something with the Kong name attached to it, I was a little bit disappointed especially considering the cost and the fact that it lasted the same amount of time for something I could've paid a fraction of the cost for.

If your dog is destructive, I would recommend seeing how they do with basic rope toys first. The cost of a basic rope toy isn't much, so if they can get through those toys quickly, I wouldn't recommend the Kong Bear at all since they’re quite pricey. If your dog is somehow able to let rope toys last, then the Kong Bear might stand a chance. The toy is cute and the concept is interesting, but at the end of the day, it is a rope toy covered in cloth and your dog won't know the difference. They especially won’t know what you paid for it!

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