Ruffwear Gourdo

As I mentioned recently, I picked up a new toy for Ebon at a favorite store of mine. It's a Ruffwear Gourdo, a toy which currently only comes in a bright shade of orange.I mentioned I would give my impression of it as a fetch toy, so here it is.

The look he gave me as soon as we went out the door. If you can't tell, this is his "throw it pretty please" face.

I love this toy. That's the short version. The long version? Ebon had a Ruffwear Lunker years ago and he loved it...a bit too much. My father had picked up the toy for the dog on sale. Also thanks to my father's tendency to let Ebon do anything and everything he wants, including chewing on things he shouldn't, it ended up shredded. Pieces ended up all over the yard and we're still finding them. I liked the concept of the toy and Ebon absolutely adored playing with it while it was whole. When I spotted the Gourdo in the store, I thought back to the similar shape and style of the two toys and decided it was finally time to get a replacement of sorts.

This toy is super durable. Though it's not meant to be a chew toy, the rubber feels a lot like what's used to make the red Kong toys. It should handle a lot of rough play and even some chewing without any ill effects. The rope part feels almost like climbing rope. It's nice and thick and strong, but not likely to hold up to chewing, unlike the rubber side. I didn't realize this until now, but there is a hole in one end that can be stuffed with treats, making the toy just that bit more special. Since the rope isn't chew-proof I don't think this would be an ideal kennel toy, though. So, supervised treat-giving only. For Ebon's size, the large Gourdo is absolutely perfect. It's a good weight and he doesn't have any difficulty with catching or carrying it. One down side? I think it would sink like a stone in water.

Thanks to the weight of the toy and the length of rope, it's really easy to throw this toy quite far. With little effort, I could do this:

Ebon and I are both happy, so this is a great addition to the toy collection. However, this can't quite beat Ebon's absolutely most favoritest thing ever: the tennis ball. It's definitely on par with Frisbee-type toys for how excited it makes him, though (which is pretty darn excited).

A tired Ebon and his Gourdo after a nice play session