Diego's Birthday Bark Bag

In June, Diego turned three and his gift this year was the awesome Bark Bag Birthday Edition! Yes, this post is long overdue but I was beyond busy with #300kmJune stuff, and then getting back into the swing of normal life in July. You would have seen Diego posed oh so nicely with his Bark Bag on our Social Media channels, but now I will give you more of a chance to see what we got and our final thoughts on the Birthday bag.

First off, let's just say that the packaging of this is amazing. It came in some boring external packaging where all the postage stamps and addresses could be placed, but inside is where it really came to life. The box was originally wrapped in gift wrap (which you will see opened in an upcoming video) and then inside that layer was the signature look of the Bark Bag. Such a sleek design of the white box, with a black ribbon and card. I am a sucker for good packaging, and find that it makes any product 10 times better, so this packaging really sucked me in. The contents of the box are then wrapped in a black tissue paper, with a Bark Bag sticker and all the wonderful treats are inside.

We got the birthday box which is $45 and that includes shipping within New Zealand. This is the same price as if you purchased a singular Bark Bag but comes with a few extra goodies. If you sign up to a monthly subscription you can get each Bark Bag for $39. To make the Birthday Box more festive it came with a party hat, happy birthday banner and a cup full of a range of different little treats.

Firstly, we got a plastic tyre toy attached to a rope made by MasterPet. When ordering the Bark Bag I did say that we needed more durable toys for Diego as he is known to destroy his toys and this was obviously an attempt at meeting that need. Unfortunately, this would last less than five minutes at the hands of Diego if we were playing together. It would last even less time if I let him have free reign on it so I have put this one aside to give away to someone with a less destructive dog.

For the treats we got some ZiwiPeak 'Good Boy Treats' which we have tried before when we got them a few years ago in a Bow Wow Box. Diego likes these little treats and I find them perfect for trick training at home. They are a decent size if you have a bigger dog, or are super easy to break into smaller pieces if need be. I also find that they don't leave much of a residue or smell on your hands after working with them which is always a bonus if you are using them outside of the home. 

We also got a pack of 'Waffles' from Superior Farms which we have also tried before from a Bow Wow Box. Diego does love these, and I also fed some to Chico while he was staying at our house and I haven't seen him that excited for a 'dry' treat ever. They are obviously not a good training treat, but also don't take long to eat so won't keep a dog entertained for long. I find it hard to use these types of treats because my two uses for treats are training or entertaining and I don't generally like to fill Diego up with too many products in one day. I will try and find a way to stuff these into a Kong hehe.

Next up we got a pack of Lamb Lung which is a Bark Bag branded product. These are just pieces of lamb lung which I know Diego loves. These are easy to stuff into his Kong, or other boredom breaker toys and they make these toys last a lot longer. I have been bringing a couple of these on walks as well as a high reward treat for when practicing recall and good manners. 

Another Bark Bag branded product are these Beef Paddywachs which is dried Beef Neck Tendon. These for some reason don't seem to spark Diego's interest. I gave him one as a quick boredom breaker while I was cleaning the house and he ignored it for a while before slowly chewing it. He didn't show much enthusiasm which is quite unlike him. However, Chico found one and was hurriedly chomping it down. He made light work of this treat, and looked for more once he was done. This is obviously a preference thing, but seems like a great treat if your dog does fancy it!

 Lastly for treats we received this bully stick which is one of Diego's firm favourites. This was a decent sized stick for Diego and it took him a fairly long time to get through it which I liked. In the party cup we got an assortment of little treats ranging from liver, to lung and some chicken jerky. This was perfect to put into Diego's training treat jar as all these were fairly small treats which we used to train the trick 'pray'.

As I love to do with subscription boxes, I done a very rough tally of the costs of each individual product to see if there is value in the box. This is a bit more difficult because of the Bark Bag branded items, but I took a rough shot at the prices of those based on similar products I have seen and found on the market. I am going to take a guess at the box's total being roughly worth $57 and that is not including the birthday banner, hat or cup full of treats. It also doesn't include postage or the amazing packaging that this comes in. I definitely think you are getting your moneys worth.

All in all, I absolutely love this product and the brand in general. The amazing owner of Bark Bag donated a box for our #300kmJune giveaways and we were meant to meet up in Auckland during June. I am disappointed that didn't happen but you can just see what a well thought out brand this one is. She has thought about everything, right down to the little details like writing Diego's name on a birthday card, and trying to personalise each box to the dog receiving it. I am very interested in getting some more boxes in the future and seeing how good they are at getting a range of different products and brands for us to try out.

Have you tried Bark Bag yet? How did your dog like it? Leave us a comment below