Review: Tether Tug Outdoor Dog Toy

What Dog Doesn’t Love to Play Tug-of-War?

There’s no one answer as to why dogs delight in playing tug-of-war, but one thing all pet owners know is they sure do love it. Unfortunately, our shoulders and arms cannot handle much more than a few minutes of tugging, pulling, and fun. With the Tether Tug, dog owners give their dog the gift of tug-of-war any time of the day they want.

Today we offer a variety of Tether Tug products designed for keeping dogs healthy, happy, and entertained. From the UBER Tether Tug to the Indoor Tether Tug, and even the Puppy Tug, we know you’ll find a product that works great for your breed – maybe even two!

We’re excited to share our product line with you, and hope you enjoy the products we’ve designed. More so, we hope that you have the opportunity to keep your pet entertained, regardless if it’s snowing outside, cold and rainy, or your dog is indoors while you spend the day at work.

About

At Tether Tug, we are all about keeping dogs healthy, happy, and entertained.

Our small company is tucked away in the southwest corner of Missouri, where you’ll find a staff full of real animal lovers.

We started Tether Tug with a simple mission: To help people find a way to keep their dogs playing, having fun, and to ensure a loving bond between pet and owner.

Dogs need heavy amounts of activity to stay healthy. As a pet owner, you know that. However, the average arm cannot handle constant tugging and throwing – no matter how much we want to play with our playful pooches.

That’s where Tether Tug comes to the rescue! We are a USA-based company that loves dogs (and cats, horses, guinea pigs…you get the picture), and we want dogs to have fun, too. We have designed a toy that we know they will love, and your arms will thank you for.

The Tether Tug was designed by our father and son team, Roger and Adam. Inspired by our three-legged rescue dog, they set out to create a tugging toy that offered exercise and enough excitement to ensure a dog was never bored.

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Our Thoughts

I have a big dog.  Bella is an 80lb rottweiler with a crazy play streak.  She is HARD on toys and can destroy almost anything designed for heavy chewers. I have had other tug toys literally rip apart after she's chewed on them a few times. She does love to tug, and with the strength of most big dogs (especially her!), tugging is hard on the humans!  Tether Tug sent Bella the BIG Tether Tug for dogs over 70lbs. 

Understandably, Bella was pretty excited. She loves her toys!! And something she can tug with? Even better!

The Tether Tug consists of a base - a pipe with a flat end that gets pounded into the ground, and a long, narrower pipe with the stretchy tug toy attached at one end.  Installation's pretty simple. Use a rubber mallet (or hammer with a block of wood) to pound the base into the ground so the small holes near the top are close to ground level, then place the narrower long pipe into the base.  That's it, you're done!  (Be sure to pick an area in your yard where your dog has 360 degree access around where you want the Tether Tug; also be sure there are area of ground is safe for digging - you won't be digging per say, but you don't want the base to hit any buried wires or pipes.) You can watch Tether Tug's installation & removal video here. 

Our first installation was a breeze.  

The base was very easy to pound into the ground  . . . unfortunately, that was a problem.  It wasn't Tether Tug's fault by any means! Our ground was so, so, SO wet!!  After the frost came out of the ground this April, a snowstorm dumped approximately 18" of snow.  And then it rained.  And rained. AND RAINED. (And repeat!) Farmers couldn't get into the fields early to plant, and those that did, had some of their crops drown. 

June wasn't much better.  Neither was July.  We didn't get a full week of dry weather until AUGUST! Crazy! While all that rain was great for my garden, it meant that the ground was too wet, too soft for the Tether Tug to stay installed.  Bella could pull the whole thing out of the ground in 30 seconds. My husband even tried burying the base a few inches below ground level. We tried a few times over May, June, & July but had the same results. The ground was just too wet. (Tether Tug does offer a Stabilizer ideal for sandy, soft, damp dirt or anywhere your base may not hold as well as you would like, but I'm not sure it would have helped in our case as our ground was so unbelievably saturated for so long.)

PLAY!

After a few tugs, the base started to come out of the ground.

A few more tugs, and the base literally lifted up the ground around it about a foot in diameter, and came out.

Bella's a bit confused after pulling the entire unit out of the ground: "I don't think this is how it's supposed to work, Mom!"

I had to wait for dry weather.  Finally, in August, we had a week of dry weather.  Not just dry, but HOT.  Hot hot! Heat indexes in the high 90's to low 100's. The kind of weather you just want to stay inside next to the air conditioner. Everything got baked, and the grass started to dry up. Perfect time to try again! 

I had to laugh - the ground was now so hard that I could not install the base by myself.  I got it half way pounded in, and the edge of the base was destroying my rubber mallet.  I tried putting a block of wood in between the base and the mallet, and it destroyed the block of wood!  Granted, I had hurt my back so the pounding may not have been my best effort . . . at any rate, my husband had our sledgehammer and maul with him, so I had to wait until he got home.  He pounded it in with no problem, of course.  Ha. 

Now, onto PLAY!!!!!

Bella doesn't need much encouragement to play with the Tether Tug - just shake the rope at her a little and she's all PLAY!

And my personal favorite: 

In dry ground conditions, the Tether Tug remained installed no problem.  I let her play with it for a couple of weeks, and even after a few heavy downpours it still remained installed during play, although it has shifted a little bit. 

I love the 360 degree aspect of this toy because Bella is free to move around wherever she wants tugging on it. I also love that I can just pull the top part out of the base and put it away for whatever reason - mowing the lawn or inclement weather.  The rope portion of the tug toy will eventually break down, faster if left outside, but will still last a good long time.  It's fairly easy to uninstall the base, too. 

FACEBOOK GIVEAWAY!

Okay, now on to some fun!  Tether Tug is currently doing a giveaway on their Facebook Page.  Go to THIS POST to submit your entry to win a Tether Tug Toy! Hurry though, voting closes September 15th, 2018.