Hey there, dog owners. Here’s a life-changing product. I alluded to it several months ago when I pointed out my top 10 favorite finds of 2010, but this item deserves special recognition… because it changed my dog’s life. I’m not even close to exaggerating about that.

Meet the Premier Busy Buddy Tug-A-Jug. Yes, that’s an affiliate link so I can earn .001 cents. And yes, this name sounds ridiculous. Keep up with me.

(Sidenote: I repotted the seedlings. They’re loving their new life in the warm sunroom.)

This toy serves two purposes: it’s a fun reward system that makes your dog work physically and mentally for his treats (a dog brain teaser, if you will), while slowing down the food consumption process to aid in better digestion (if your dog’s like any dog I’ve ever owned, he probably downs 2 cups of kibble in 5.4 seconds).

Cody’s purple toy was a thoughtful gift from a friend who has made productive strides in the dog show ring (pun realized, purposely not corrected). I brought it home and started using it by putting a small scoop of kibble into the jug, thinking that he’d access it eagerly as a nice treat (the same way dogs go ga-ga over peanut butter-filled Kongs) but the dog couldn’t catch on to how to maneuver the container to release his treats. For 3 months. He spent 3 long months staring at the food through the purple transparent container, looking back at me for help. Cody doesn’t actually use his Kong either; I’ve said it before, he can be kind of dopey.

But anyways, one magic day, he figured out how to operate the purple toy; and he was so pleased with himself that he began carrying it around with him all the time. ALL OF THE TIME. EMPTY. So much so that I began feeding him both his 2-cups of breakfast kibble and 2-cups of dinner kibble in the toy container. I literally stopped using his dinner bowl all together (which, in all honesty was just a glass mixing bowl because I keep things simple like that). Consequently, he went from eating his meal in 5.4 seconds to finishing in 45-minutes.

Note that mine shown above doesn’t have the rope stem in place. This is also his second jug in 1.5 years. The first one that was a gift came with a rubber stem, which held up really well for the first year (considering 2 feedings a day and regularly being dropped down the stairs). The rubber stem also cleaned really well, but understandably wasn’t meant to last forever. I splurged on a second jug at a specialty dog store, but the newer model is sold with a thick rope inserted as the stem (FYI – it’s also sold at PetSmart but not in any of the stores around me). The rope as a plug alternative seemed to get soggy and dirty (because I do let Cody take his toy to eat out in the backyard when it’s nice) so I removed it permanently and let Cody’s take to dumping the food out a few pieces at a time; it speeds up the process a little bit – it’s become a 5-minute meal on the hardwood floor or maybe a 10-minute meal in longer grass.

I tried to get some photos of him carrying it around, which he does all of the time, but they came out blurred since he’s pretty much giddy any time it’s in the vacinity. (I’ll fill you in on why those boards were on the sunroom floor at a later time.)

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One time, I caught him napping with it. Pretty cute.

And I don’t have one to giveaway, but I totally recommend you try this for your own dog; they make them in x-small, small, and medium/large (which seems like an odd sizing chart, why not small, medium, large?).

And speaking of giveaways, remember to go comment on yesterday’s post to try and win one of two wonderfully-pink safes, courtesy of SentrySafe! Winners will be announced on Friday!

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