October Barkbox

It's Waggin' Wednesday here on Coppertop Thoughts! Wouldn't you know, the October Barkbox was delivered to my door just a bit ago.

Barkbox is a subscription service that brings a box full of goodies directly to your door/mailbox for your four-legged friend every month. Each box typically comes with two toys, two bags of treats, and a chew for them to enjoy until the following month. Most of their products are sourced in the USA, with some sourced from Canada, South America, New Zealand, or Australia. To start you simply visit www.barkbox.com and click "Get Started" in the upper right hand corner. From there you will simply choose what weight category your dog belongs in, decide how long you would like your subscription to last (the longer you subscribe the cheaper it is per month), if you would like to upgrade your box to a premium one for a few extra bucks more per month, and then set up your account. From there you will make your payment and you first box ships out soon!

Each month there is a theme, this month being "Household Horrors."

Opening the box up, I was greeted by an adorable haunted scene printed on the "wrapping paper" in the box.

On the flip side of the paper is a comic strip-like scene that shows us how the dogs are reacting to all of these household horrors, presumably in the haunted mansion.

This was followed up by a card that invited us into the haunted mansion, with doors and windows opening up to show a few comical dogs inside. The popup book feel to it was a nice touch this month!

Now let's get onto what the dogs are really concerned with, what's in the box for them.

TOYS

Our first horror is the Rocket Monster. This horror is typically found around the 4th of July, or as dogs know it, Terrible Loud Boom Bang Doom Day. This toy features a tug rope as a fire trail, perfect for those tug of war games that our fur kids like to play so much. The top is a standard plush toy with a squeaker located in the lower half.

Our second horror is one of the best toys that I think we have ever received in a box, Rain of Terror! These toys within a toy is a clever way to keep dogs entertained. The raindrops are typically safely tucked up in the rain cloud toy. There is a small Velcro attachment on the back that the dog must open before working the two raindrops out. The rain cloud is made of a very soft fabric that crinkles as they play with it. The raindrops are a typical stuffed toy that feature one squeaker a piece.

TREATS

Snacks are kind of a big deal around here for both hooman and doggo alike. This month's box featured the standard two bags of treats, so let's hop right in.

"Spooky Pooch" dog treats, made by the Healthy Dogma company, were a delightful addition to this box. These treats are a product of the USA. The packaging is adorable, very festive and really goes along with the theme this month! These round and crunchy treats are made of healthy, easy to read ingredients. These ingredients include barley, bacon, oats, peas, tomato pomace, canola oil, cranberry, carrot, sweet potato, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, and watercress.

Our second snack pack is Superfood. These treats are made by USA Pet which are also made in the USA. The packaging didn't have anything to do with the theme this month but they were a hit with Toran. These donut shaped, crunchy treats are made from all natural ingredients. These ingredients include chicken, chickpeas, sweet potatoes, tapioca, chicken meal, glycerin, flax seed, chicken liver, natural flavor, vinegar, sucrose, blueberries, kale, green tea extract, tumeric, vitamin E and rosemary extract. These all offer antioxidents, omega 3, with immunity boosts added in there.

CHEW

Finally, our chew! Every month there is a chew of some sort included in our box.

This month the chew did not go along with our theme but I haven't seen many in the boxes that I have received go along with them. This duck chew is made in the USA and features ingredients such as rawhide, duck, caramel coloring, and salt. I do not feed my dog rawhide due to some of the research on dogs digesting rawhide. However, that doesn't mean that you don't so I will be adding this to a giveaway stash!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, my dog and I really enjoyed this box. The theme and the toys were the best part of it for me, while I'm sure ripping apart the toys in the next few days will be his favorite part.

The toys were as cute as can be! The only down side is that they were both stuffed toys, which typically do not last all that long around here. I have learned over the last several boxes to let him play with them for a short period of time only. I typically hide them in a box in a room and reintroduce him to them several times before they are torn beyond repair. The awesome thing is that BarkBox has a "Destroyers Club" which allows you to text pictures of the torn apart toys from the boxes to receive credit for new toys in the future.

The treats were nice, especially the first bag. Again, I really enjoyed the packaging on this one. The ingredients were nice, the texture was good, and I really think they will get his tail wagging! The second bag is nice as well with quite good ingredients and plenty of health benefits.

The chew I was a little disappointed with just because it does contain rawhide. It's not the end all and going to make me second guess BarkBox whatsoever. Many people give rawhide treats to their dog as a snack and a boredom buster. This is simply a personal preference for me.

If you think that you might want to give Barkbox a try, they did include Halloween "candy" slips for me to share in the box this month. I will put the picture below . There are unique codes on each one that offer a FREE box with a 6 or 12 month plan. This is for first time "pupstomers" to BarkBox.

Or you can simply follow this link:

https://www.barkbox.com/r/QPIP9YLS71

If you have made it this far, I would just like to say thank you for reading my first post in the Paws page. I have been so excited for months to get this started and it is only the beginning! My dog and I are very excited to see where this goes and we can't wait to review more products for you. Stay tuned!