Toy:Kong Classic Dog Toy

Kong makes a popular line of dog toys, originally introduced in 1976. The classic Kong resembles a snowman and, like most of Kong's products, comes in four rubber types: red for average chewers, pink or blue for puppies, purple for seniors, and black for tough chewers. The toy is hollow for inserting treats.

The donor reports that several years ago this Kong dog toy accompanied friends visiting with their Australian shepherd/border collie mix, and stayed behind. The donor's pet, Charlie the Dog, a mini-goldendoodle (another mutt) who is a powerful chewer, liked the toy. But it proved too large for his mouth and maybe a little heavy, so he preferred the smaller, softer, red version. Constructed like a Michelin Man, with graduated spheres piled up and smooshed together, the toy bounces unpredictably when tossed. (The inventor said the toy looked like an earplug for King Kong. And the name stuck.) And so the toy presents dogs with a tantalizing, elusive target, which enhances play as pursuit, an instinct and emotion still very important to these domesticated predators. Our relationship with canis lupus familiaris, now classified among the wolves, demonstrates a remarkable bond established with feeding but strengthened through play. In fact the main difference between dogs and their wolf brethren is the persistence of juvenile behavioral traits�a personality that biologists call neoteny--playfulness measures neoteny. (Humans, too, are notoriously neotenous, playing throughout their life spans.) If you meet a wolf-mix, you'll find the animal almost indifferent to your presence. Dogs, on the other hand, love to please, they solicit attention, and above all, they want to play. Ethologists list object play as part of dogs' repertoire. The Kong toy features a cavity for hiding treats, an additional inducement. The toy is a perennial best seller in a pet toy market estimated to reach into billions of dollars annually.