The Dogby Discovery Kit Review
Introduction by Stephanie Keesey-Phelan, Ph.D., BCBA
You may remember from our blog back in April, that all of our behavior programs involve an assessment of a dog’s enrichment. More and more, dog guardians and dog professionals are understanding the importance of ensuring our dogs have enriched lives. Though it may seem new, the concept or enrichment originated long before we started considering it for dogs. Enrichment was originally explored in zoos and aquariums: in their guidelines around animal enrichment, The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) define enrichment as “a process for improving or enhancing animal environments and care within the context of their inhabitants' behavioral biology and natural history.” Applied to dogs, the idea is that we can improve our dogs welfare by ensuring they have opportunities to engage in a wide variety of natural dog behaviors.
I’m sure you can come up with some natural dog behaviors, as they are often the ones we find most bothersome in our human environments: chewing, digging, barking, lunging, chasing, scratching, tearing, and the like. In the 2019 book Canine Enrichment for the Real World, authors Allie Bender and Emily Strong provided a comprehensive set of enrichment categories with detailed examples of how enrichment may be provided across each category. They advocate not just for providing our dogs with a bunch of stuff to keep them busy, but an approach where enrichment items are provided and the impacts of enrichment are evaluated to ensure that what is provided is actually beneficial for the individual dog and is meeting that dog’s needs.
There are tons of homemade enrichment activities that a dog guardian could create and an even greater number of enrichment items that a guardian could purchase, with puzzle toys and feeders being common options. But for some dog guardians it can be challenging to figure out where to start and part of our behavior programs involves helping guide dog caregivers in the implementation and assessment of enrichment programs. Given the importance of enrichment, Ran and I were delighted when the creator of the Dogby Discovery Kits offered to send us each a free box in exchange for an honest review. This was particularly fun because as you may know, Ran’s dog Beacon and my dog Kerby, though fans of lots of the same things (e.g., chasing woodland creatures, peanut butter, the great outdoors) are very different dogs, and we were curious about how they would each respond to the items in the enrichment box we were sent. Check out our brief Instagram Reel about this experience, or keep reading below!
The Box
Ran and I each got a Dogby Discovery Kit that had a theme of “love'“. The kit came with a booklet giving background information on the topic and why it was chosen. The booklet then described each of the items in the kit and how to use them. Our kits came with: a Clik Stik, a Wild Knots Tug Toy, a paint kit, a Soda Pup treat-dispensing toy and baby food to go with it, and additional instructions about how the box the kit came in could be used for DIY agility. Ran and I both felt that everything that came in the Discovery Kit seemed thoughtfully curated and of high quality. We were very impressed with the value of the box.
The Booklet
Ran & Beacon
I’m going to be completely honest - I am not great at stopping to read through the instructions. The downside to this is that I don’t have a great overview of the booklet - but the plus side is that if you’re like me, I can confidently say that this kit is fantastic whether or not you engage with the booklet!
At a glance, I found the booklet packed full of information, and enough different choices and suggestions that even if you just picked one or two pages to read, you would get something from it! On top of that, the images were beautiful - both the photos and the drawings - and the quality of the materials is wonderful.
Stephanie & Kerby
I found the booklet to be incredibly comprehensive which was helpful when I had a question about the materials and activities but could also be overwhelming for a dog guardian who is new to enrichment. There were QR codes that linked to videos which I found particularly helpful for the painting activity.
Regarding the content about love and the dog-human bond, I enjoyed the background information though I found an occasional lack of nuance (e.g., in a section about eye contact, the text read: “... dogs gaze lovingly into our eyes and look to our faces for information and help,” although this may be true sometimes, it won’t always be the case. That being said, there was lots of cool information I didn’t know (e.g., “Studies show that dogs’ and their humans’ hearts beat in synchrony when they are together, which also happens among loving human couples.”) and overall lots of caveats for specific dogs (e.g., “Not all dogs communicate their affection in all of these ways, so don’t sweat it if your dog doesn’t check all of these boxes.”)
Overall I enjoyed the written materials that came with the box and referred back to them several times when using the box materials.
The Activities
Clik Stik
Ran & Beacon: I was absolutely thrilled to get a clik stick! I have been eyeing these for years but I am comfortable enough holding both a clicker and a target that it has never felt worth the purchase. That said, this was very fun to pull out! We typically use the target stick that comes with the Manners Minder (or Treat & Train, depending on the model), and it has a large, foam target on the end. This was a much smaller and harder target, which could be used for different things. Beacon was less likely to put the whole thing in her mouth with the Clik Stick, and we had fun practicing some targeting and movement. I also love that it has a little clip on it so I could easily attach it to my treat bag if I wanted to!
Stephanie & Kerby: We haven’t yet played with the Clik Stik due to prioritizing other skills and activities but I’m excited to see how Kerby does with this and could see it being useful for all kinds of trick training I have in mind for the future.
Stuffed Toy
Ran & Beacon: Beacon is not a fan of toys. We are working on teaching her to tug and to fetch toys, but she is generally pretty apathetic. I couldn’t figure out why I kept finding the stuffed toy in different parts of the house from where I had left it - at some point, I realized that she was picking it up, carrying it around, and chewing on it! When I dragged it along the ground, she hopped right up and pawed at it. We played for several minutes - and we did so more than once! I was blown away by her engagement with this toy.
Stephanie & Kerby: Kerby immediately sniffed out and ran off with the Wild Knots Tug Toy despite my calling after him that it was supposed to be a cooperative toy for the two of us to play with together 😂. Kerby has always enjoyed any kind of plush or rope toy so I knew that would be a big favorite. What I didn’t realize is how much fun he would have taking the toy into and out of the box with all the brown paper squiggly wrapping inside which we did multiple times over the course of the first week with the Discovery Box.
Soda Can Puzzle Feeder
Ran & Beacon: Beacon has a ton of puzzle feeders, so why not add one more to the rotation? I loved that this came with a small stopper that I’ll be able to use if freezing something drippy or just trying to protect my counters while filling the toy. I have added this to my West Paw toy rotation for meals.
Stephanie & Kerby: The Soda Pup treat dispensing toy was also a big favorite. I first lined it with just a little bit of the provided baby food because Kerby has a sensitive stomach. When it was clear he enjoyed the baby food and his body tolerated it well, I mixed the baby food with kibble and put it in the toy in the freezer. Kerby already has a lot of experience with frozen feeders like this so I knew he would be ready for this level of difficulty. What I didn’t know is that it would take him much longer to get all the food out of the SodaPup compared to the toppl and bones that I usually stuff and freeze for him. Whereas those items will take him anywhere between 7-10 minutes, the SodaPup took closer to 20 (he is highly food motivated and quick!). It may be with more exposure he will get faster, we’ll see! This toy cleaned easily in the dishwasher and held up well to his chewing.
Painting Kit
Ran & Beacon: I was most excited about this! But immediately got overwhelmed by it and put it off for several weeks. We finally just tackled this last week after Stephanie sent me the video of Kerby doing his. I had been envisioning having Beacon lick the surface of the painting, but I was inspired by Kerby’s pawing at it, and so we went that route too. Beacon left some beautiful paw prints on it, but unfortunately they were pulled off when I took the painting out of the bag. Still - this was super fun and I absolutely love that I now have some art that my dog made! On top of that, the materials provided are of wonderful quality. The kit came with two canvases - we might try using a licking approach on the second one - and the bags that both the paints came in and that we used for the painting itself are fantastic quality, and I expect they can be reused again and again.
Stephanie & Kerby: The painting kit was what I was most excited about! All the necessary supplies were included: paint to blob on the canvas, canvas, and a silicone bag to put the whole thing in. Once it was sealed up, then it was my job to show Kerby how to interact with the silicone bag to make his painting. I followed the instructions provided and worked on having Kerby step on the bag which was taped to my dining room floor. My takeaways:
The way I approached this meant that the interaction between Kerby and I was pretty typical so it wasn’t quite as exciting to do as I thought it would be. That being said, we were provided two canvases so maybe next time I’ll try to have him bop the canvas with his nose or scratch it like a scratchboard to see if we can get more patterns!
I think I put too much paint on the canvas initially. Next time I’d use less so I can see more clearly how Kerby’s movements manipulated the paint
The paint was extremely washable and easily came out of anything else I got it on (read: my hands and clothes because that is my life).
Because the canvas is enclosed in a silicone bag, I couldn’t figure out a way to get the canvas out of the bag without smearing Kerby’s art along the way. Eventually I gave up and figured it was all part of the process.
Ultimately I think this came out pretty nicely and was fun for us to try something new!
Takeaways
Ran & Beacon:
This box was an absolute delight, and I felt honored to receive one. When we were first offered the box, I warned the folks at Dogby that one of our dogs might not like it. Lindsey agreed to send us the same boxes so that we could compare and contrast, and I was surprised that both of our dogs really enjoyed everything in the kits! As always, they definitely had different levels of enthusiasm: Beacon lay next to me and slept through my opening the box, while I believe Kerby was much more involved.
Each week after we received the box, we also got email updates about ways to use the box or tips related to the materials inside. Though the box was just one delivery, it came with reusable, useful, durable materials and ongoing support. I would highly recommend this box to anyone who is looking to continue to grow their collection of dog supplies and support their dog in new ways with new ideas.
Stephanie & Kerby:
My favorite thing about this box was actually not the items in it. It was the emphasis on finding new ways for me and Kerby to interact, play, and learn together. Although we haven’t yet utilized all of the activities provided, it’s nice sometimes to put down our long list of training tasks and try out something new. Although there are a lot of things I can do with materials I have around the house, I enjoyed having a pre-set list and supplies ready to go. The materials were high quality and Kerby had a blast with them.
Kerby pictured with his painting and what is left of his Bear Tug Toy