Retooling A Tug-a-Jug
Lilly first conquered the Tug-a-Jug years ago. After a cleanliness-related mishap, however, the rope became useless. So, I asked Janet Velenovsky, who works with Premier Pet Products on toy designs, what kind of rope I could use to get Lilly’s Tug-a-Jug back in business.
I first interviewed Janet for this magazine article on the history of dog toys. I still haven’t quite reconciled my feelings about the company over its newish shock collar company ties, but we have this toy and want to use it. Lilly loves it. And, it’s too easy without the rope.
Many thanks to Janet, who offered these options via Facebook:
- Call Premier at 800-933-5595 to get a replacement rope.
- Insert a ball or two inside the jug — one big enough to hinder the release of treats.
- Crumple a piece of notebook paper and insert the kibble/treats with the paper.
Option #2 – Adding a Ball
I slid one of the sorrier incarnations of Lilly’s favorite ball into the jug. I worried that it filled too much of the space and would hinder the release of food WAY too much, but I was wrong.
In the time it took me to write the first 2 paragraphs of this post, Lilly had eaten all the cheerios I’d put inside. (If you’ve missed my earlier mentions, cheerios make good, low-cal treats for inside food-delivery toys.)
Option #3 – Adding Crumpled Paper
This option also seemed too hard to me, but somehow Lilly got most of the food out, even with a full piece of paper (8.5 x 11) inside.
I think of it as poor-girl’s Buster Cube, or as Elayne at Days of Speed and Slowtimes Mondays likes to say “a ghetto version.”
Lilly did, however:
- Bark in frustration while playing with the toy
- Wing it with considerable force around my office
- Continue to try and figure out the toy for quite some time (as you can see in the above photo … that’s Lilly thinking VERY hard)
Hearing her grind her teeth against the seemingly impervious bottle made me worry, in fact. So, I put it back in the cabinet when it was empty.