Labrador Toy Review: Treat Dispensers

In this article we are going to take a look at some treat dispensers for Labradors.

Are you looking for something to keep your Labrador occupied?

With the winter weather approaching, you might like to find a fun way to entertain your dog indoors.

A treat dispenser can be a great distraction to your active furry friend.

We picked three hopeful candidates, with some surprisingly varying results.

Busy Buddy, Kibble Nibble

This bright, large ball is very easy to use. The ball twists apart for the kibble to be put into the chamber. This means that you can poor the food in directly, no fuss or grubby fingers!

The gap where the kibble falls out, has little prongs to prevent a fast flow. However, they seemed to often stop the kibble falling out altogether. This may be more suited to a smaller size of kibble – closer to cat food than dog food!

We gave the ball first to Rachael, an eighteen month old bouncy Labrador.

Whilst she had lots of fun, Rachael’s exuberant play did cause the treat ball to fall open after a couple of minutes. Covering the floor in it’s contents.

However, it wasn’t broken, and when we gave it to our older, more sensible Labrador, Tess.

She pushed it around happily with no further mishaps.

I’d therefore suggest Busy Buddy Dispensing Ball(paid link) for an older, less bouncy Labrador.

Trixie, Activity Snack Ball

This is what I would describe as a traditional treat dispenser. A pink rubber ball, fairly sturdy and in a bright colour you are not likely to lose around the house in a hurry!

To fill the ball you have to individually push the kibble into the gap. Whilst this is a bit messier at the outset, there is no way the ball could break open all over your carpet.

Both Labradors enjoyed the Trixie Dog Activity Snack Ball(paid link) for a time. It was a smaller size, and therefore they could easily pick it up and carry it, as well as pushing it around.

The main downside was that the kibble fell out easily. This meant it emptied quite quickly, and was not very challenging for the dogs.

However, over all this did not lessen it’s appeal too much. As it will provide additional fun as a ball toy, even with the treats dispensing at a rather rapid rate!

 Animal Treat Ball with Sound

The final dispenser was probably our dogs’ favourite.

This small, textured ball was very sturdy.

The designs on the rubber protruded to give the dog easy grip with teeth or paws.

It also makes a gurgling sound when they play.

The kibble was a little fiddly to get into the ball, but it fell out at a reasonably slow rate whilst our Labs played with it. It also fitted the larger-dog sized kibble nicely.

Both Labradors seemed interested in it, and enjoyed picking it up and kicking it around the kitchen. They were playful enough with it, that it was a little tricky to get a photograph of the action!

A potential downside of this toy for the owner, was the noise. You probably wouldn’t want to listen to it all afternoon, but for short periods of play it wasn’t too intrusive. The material the ball was made from was also far quieter on our wooden floors than the Busy Buddy ball.

The cheapest of the three,  we thought that  Treat Ball with sound(paid link) was great value.

What about chewers?

Treat dispensers are not suitable as chew toys, and we recommend that you supervise their use, and remove them if your dog attempts to eat the toy rather than what is inside!

For committed ‘chewers’  which includes many labradors under year old,  we recommend Kong toys for those times when you cannot supervise your dog.