Cotton Tails Store Skully Wag

Hello! I have been eyeing up the Skully Wag since Cotton Tails Store brought it out, however knowing the toy destroyer that Diego is, I decided it would be a waste of money. There is no point in purchasing a soft toy for Diego when the generally last less than ten minutes, with the squeaker generally destroyed in two. Maegan, the creative and talented lady behind Cotton Tails Store recently came down to Wellington with a bunch of her gear and requested Diego for a photoshoot. As you can imagine, I jumped at this chance for Diego to show off his modelling chops, as well as meeting Maegan.

During the photoshoot, Maegan requested Diego to model with the Skully Wag, which I was a little bit apprehensive about due to the above reasons. I had also been using a ball to keep Diego entertained during the photoshoot so was worried that he would completely ignore the Skully Wag in the presence of the ball. I couldn't have been more wrong. He was infatuated with it right from the start, was shaking it around while running, would give it to us to throw and then once caught would zoom off with it happily in the air. He would mouth it while he walked, making sure the one squeaker in it was constantly making a noise. Maegan was lovely enough to gift us this toy and Diego mouthed it the whole way home.

If you haven't seen one before, a Skully Wag is a doll shaped soft toy made out of recycled denim with a skeleton shape printed onto it. Not only is the outside made out of recycled materials, instead of using traditional stuffing, it is filled with more recycled material offcuts. This gives it a more unusual shape and texture for the dog to chew and many more smells for your dog to investigate. These are all handcut, and made by Maegan herself, and due to the recycled nature of the materials can differ in colour and texture.

Diego chews soft toys in a couple of different ways which generally mean they don't last long. He will put his front paws on the toy, and then pull backwards with his teeth. The other way, is that he will put the material, and a bit of stuffing in his mouth and he will just suckle on it. Between these two techniques, he will loosen the material and then rip it very easily. Due to the Skully Wag being made of denim, it makes it a lot stronger and can withstand some of this chewing. I also think that due to the use of recycled materials inside instead of stuffing, he cannot get as easy of a hold on the outside material to rip that separately. He seems to grab multiple layers of material making it harder to rip through.

As I stated above, Diego chewed this toy the whole way home from the photoshoot, and for many days after that. He managed to make the squeaker stop working within the first few days, and lick off the design within a weekish. However, there was no signs of the denim ripping. He seemed to focus his efforts where the squeaker was, as after a week of chewing it eventually made the little hole that is shown in the photo below. Instead of letting him rip everything out, I moved the squeaker up into one of the ears to see if that would entice him to chew elsewhere. This worked and he seemed to not even realise there was a hole in the other spot and started mouthing the ear. He has now had that hole in the toy for the past week and hasn't made it any worse or gotten any of the 'stuffing' out. I think the main reason it came about is because a piece of the squeaker was sticking into it while he was chewing. If you have a dog that isn't that bothered by squeakers, but is quite a chewer I would request if Cotton Tails Store could make one without the squeaker for you!

The next good point about this toy is that if your dog does destroy it, your house will not have stuffing everywhere, instead it will just be pieces of the material. This means for a lot easier clean up. The toy has also been well enjoyed by other dogs when completely de-stuffed and just used as a flat toy.

Do I think this toy will withstand the toughest of chewers? No.
Do I think it is worth it to try for a non-chewer to medium chewer? Yes.

This is the most long wearing 'soft' toy that Diego has ever owned. It is also one that I don't mind Diego trying to destroy as the denim material doesn't just disintegrate into his mouth like other materials. It also has the multiple uses once it has been destuffed. I wouldn't suggest it to be used as a tug toy, or the only toy for a destructive dog but when used in conjunction with harder, more boring toys I think it is an awesome product. I think this is one of my favourite soft toys I have ever used with Diego, and I will definitely be buying the Limited Edition Black Version as well.

Now is your chance to win one! You can enter via Facebook or Instagram as many times as you like. The winner will be drawn Monday 25th of June at 5pm and will be sent straight from Cotton Tails Store.

Facebook:
1. Go to this Facebook Post and follow the instructions listed

Instagram:
1. Go to this Instagram Post and follow the instructions listed

Easy as that!