Kong Genius Mike Review

Hey! If you have read my blog before you will know that I spend a lot of time, and money trying to locate the best toys and treats to give Diego during the day while I am at work. Generally I want a long lasting toy/treat that Diego really enjoys but doesn't cause an utter mess throughout my house. Animates came to the rescue and sent me a bunch of amazing toys and treats to try out, and the Kong Genius Mike was one of those toys.

This Kong doesn't look like the traditional Kong you may imagine. It is made out of the same material as usual, however instead of the beehive shape that you are used to seeing, it is a long stick. It has three sections which kind of reminds me of a triple peanut, and the openings are at either end. On each end there are pieces that cover it so it's not a huge hole at each end. Same material, same thickness.

Great, now that super boring description is out the way, let's get to the part we all care about, does it do it's job?

We got this Kong Genius Mike in July, and Diego has had it in his basket of toys since then. It was used three times a week for multiple months and then slowly it has faded back to about once a week. This was due to no fault of its own, i'll explain further down why I faded it out. He does still have access to it daily, and it is often thrown around as a fetch toy, or he takes it outside where it is left for a few days. The toy is still in perfect condition, there isn't any pieces ripped, or gauged. There are a few surface marks from claws and teeth but not something you notice or that is going to affect the function of the toy. The pink colour is still bright, with no faded areas or signs of fading overall.

This Kong I have to use differently to my other Kongs, which means different foods and approach. We got the large size for Diego, which for durability and thickness is perfect but for him able to get food out of the very middle is not so great. He just can't reach that far inside. This means I have had to rule out any messy foods stuffed in it like peanut butter or wet dog food. This stuff just gets stuck inside it and I have to clean it out at the end of the day, which is not my favourite task. I am not 100% sure if with a bigger dog this would become a non-existent problem.

What I have been doing instead is stuffing it with a full raw carrot. The length and width of this toy make it perfect for this, and Diego is absolutely in love with carrot. He will eat when ends he can reach, then gnaw the outside til the carrot inside breaks. Once the carrot is broken up into little bits he throws it around the house, off the bed, off the deck so that it bounces the carrot pieces out. This makes it a more interactive Kong, he gets less naughty foods and it keeps him busy a lot longer than a normal Kong. If your dog doesn't like carrots, Kong has also bought out a treat that is perfect to stuff into it, or you could use Daisy's Doggy Deli Chicken & Turmeric Sausages.  These are treats we have used and Diego has enjoyed, but really any long treat will do the trick.

The problem with stuffing it with a carrot and giving this to him often was that he was eating a lot of carrot. Which I don't think is necessarily the worst thing, but because he was eating these in chunks, they were coming out the other end in much the same fashion. It wasn't good. That is why I started using other treats, reducing the amount of times he gets a carrot version and also grating the carrot and stuffing it in. The last option resulted in some horrible cleaning, but not nearly as bad as peanut butter.

For his daily meals I wouldn't recommend this toy unless you have saint-like patience. The flaps on either end are tough, and hard to move out the way. I found when trying to put kibble into the end, holding one flap open you could still only stuff a kibble or two through at a time. Two flaps open would hurt your hand and require some decent finger strength. Once the kibble was in, it was a good toy and took him a while to get every piece out. He already knows the great technique of throwing the toy off the bed so it did go a lot faster than when I gave it to Ollie who hardly ever gets those sorts of Kongs. He struggled and took longer but eventually got there. I don't have the kind of patience to be doing that every meal, especially when the Kong Wobbler is so quick. However, if you do have the patience, it's amazing for kibble!

As I was writing this and getting the links together I realised you can connect this type of Kong with the Kong Genius Leo toy that I have. I haven't tried that, but when I review the Leo I will definitely put that capability to the test.

I like the Kong Genius Mike. Diego likes the Kong Genius Mike. I would recommend it as a boredom breaker toy to have in conjunction with the regular Kong. I wouldn't recommend it over the regular Kong though. I think it has the different uses which are great, but nothing can really beat a regular Kong which is easy to stuff, and can be frozen with liquid contents. The Genius Mike is great for dogs that often get boredom busters so you want a range of different toys to stop them from getting bored. If you have the Kong Genius Mike, what are your thoughts? Let me know on Facebook or Instagram.

p.s If you want a fun drinking game, take a shot every time I have said 'Kong' in this post.