I know a bunch of you out there are just as dog-obsessed as I am and this is just one of the many reasons I think you guys are the jam. Dogs are the BEST and I never could have imagined just how much joy and laughter Sadie would bring into my life everyday when Ryan and I first picked up our timid little puppy. (Timid? Oh how times have changed.)
When BarkBox reached out to me to see if my crazy dog would want to try out one of their boxes, I thought it would be a neat way to indulge Sadie a bit with some new treats and toys. Sadie is the kind of dog that basically pees herself over a brand new stick, so I could only imagine how thrilled she would be if she got a package in the mail filled with new treats and toys just for her.
So what is BarkBox?
BarkBox is a monthly box filled with treats, toys and goodies for your dog that is delivered right to your door. Each box contains four to six full-size products, with goodies ranging from creative toys and gadgets to all-natural, healthy treats and more.
Any edible products found in a BarkBox do not include formaldehyde and are made with minimal processing, no glycerin whenever possible, organic ingredients whenever possible and are gluten, soy, corn and filler-free whenever possible. Subscribers can also opt for an allergy-friendly BarkBox for dogs that may be sensitive to beef, chicken, turkey, gluten, wheat, soy and corn. (Users will just need to email support@barkbox.com once they’ve purchased their subscription to get added to the allergy box list.)
The toys and treats are almost always sourced from small local vendors that are not easily found in major pet stores and plans tailored to your dog’s size start as low as $18/month.
Sadie’s first BarkBox included the following goodies:
- Barkworthies Junior Bully Sticks
- Harry Barket Tug n’ Toss Toy
- Complete Natural Nutrition Cheese Please Snacks
- Baker’s Best Salmon Maple Glaze Treats
Her favorite treat was definitely the Cheese Please snacks!
She gave me the pitiful puppy eyes the minute she caught a whiff after I opened the bag!
The sole ingredient in the treat is cheese, so I knew Sadie would flip for the cheesy little discs when I opened the package. (She’s a cheese lover just like her mama.)
She also had a blast playing with the Tug n’ Toss toy and threw it all around our apartment trying to entice us into a game of tug of war. (It totally worked because we are suckers.)
The treat I wasn’t sure Sadie would like in the box was the Baker’s Best salmon maple teats because at first glance they looked like biscuits. Sadie doesn’t like biscuits and typically gravitates toward meat and cheese-based treats, so I didn’t think the salmon treats would go over well, but she flipped for them!!
She couldn’t get enough!
Now it’s time for a giveaway!
One PBF reader will win a free six-month subscription to BarkBox!
To enter this giveaway, please leave a comment below answering one (or both) of the following questions:
- What was the first trick you taught your dog?
- What is one trick your dog could never quite master?
I will randomly select a giveaway winner on Friday morning. Please note that this giveaway is open to readers in the US and Canada only. You must have a US or Canada shipping address to receive a BarkBox. If you would like to try BarkBox for your pup, BarkBox is also offering 10 percent off to all PBF readers if you click this link. (The coupon will automatically apply at checkout.)
Good luck!!!
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Disclaimer: While this post is sponsored by BarkBox, the links included within the post are not affiliate links and I am not earning commission or credit from any boxes purchased.
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The first trick I ever taught was sit because I think it is the easiest. However she can’t master lay down. She will do it but only after I make her “stay” while laying a treat in front of her for more than 5 seconds!
The first 2 tricks we taught our dogs were 1. Sit and 2. “Pound it” (just like humans fist pound) haha.
One thing we never quite mastered was
Rolling over!
The first trick we taught our lab puppy was sit! I miss those puppy days!
Our pup never mastered roll over…. he used to roll over on his own when he was about 8 weeks but as soon as he got a little older, he never would roll over no matter how much we tried to teach him!
Sammy can open the door to go outside; unfortunately, he has no interest in learning how to close the door behind him:-)
Ahhh this is so awesome! I love spoiling my dog, Luke. He is currently 12 but still acts like a puppy. My first trick I taught him was to jump on my bed. Since then he always wants permission to hop on.
What an awesome giveaway – I’ve been meaning to try Bark Box!
Tricks? Oh man, I have beagles, and they’re not-so-big on the learning tricks game. They do know sit, down, shake and up…but when we try to get them to do one they do them all at once!
So usually, it’s something like: sit-down-sit-up-sit-shake-down-sit-up-shake – all just because I’m holding a treat nearby!
My 5 month old puppy, Ara, learned “sit” first.
She is still struggling with stay…Ara sort of thinks she needs to be *right* next to people all the time!
My dog (Calvin) first learned sit. He has never quite stay! We can make it about ten seconds 🙂
sit was the easiest! he still doesn’t know how not to jump on people – he loves everyone, but unfortunately everyone doesn’t love dogs!
The first trick i taught my dog was to sit. And now she pretty much cannot master any of them, she does what she wants!
Artie, my three year old frenchie, seems to know sit, but not much else. He only pays attention if he knows that there is a treat or food involved. 🙂
omg! My dad’s dogs (aka my sisters!) would love this!
The first trick I (yes I, not my dad:)) was to have them sit BUT
The one thing I cannot master is have them STAY. Once I walk away, they follow. Hoping I still have a chance with the younger one who’s not quite 1 yet:)
The first trick my dog learned was sit, and the one she will probably never master is stay! She’s a stage 5 clinger so she always has to be right by our side 🙂
The first trick I taught Buster was sit. He mastered that with no problem. Stay is the one command he cannot and will not do. He has to be right beside me, no matter where I am or what I am doing. Long gone are the days of going to the bathroom alone. He is like having a big shadow, but I wouldn’t want it any other way!
The first trick I ever taught my dog was “sit”, because it was simple (and he was only about 10 weeks old at the time). There aren’t many tricks that I’ve taught him that he hasn’t mastered, but “off” is hard for him, especially when people come over to our house, because he just gets so excited and wants to see them. He’ll listen, but then jump back up if he gets excited again. Honestly, that one is partially my fault, because since he’s a small dog it doesn’t really cause any problems if he jumps up with his front paws on guests at our house…I think if he was larger, I would be more consistent with it.
The first trick we taught our crazy boxer Crawford was to sit. He’s caught on to most of his training but he cannot seem to figure out fetch… or at least stay interested in RETURNING the ball enough times to make it interesting for anyone.
We first taught Georgie to ring a bell by the door whenever she needed to go outside as a puppy. Now she can give great high-fives but still hasn’t mastered the art of rolling over.
My dog is awesome at most tricks when she wants to be so I guess the first trick we taught her was selective hearing! haha!
I think we taught her how to shake first – but she’s since moved on to down, wait, dance, and belly rubs (I don’t think this last one counts as a trick).
She’s GREAT at heel in the apartment when you have treats, but she’s the WORST at heel on the street … especially when there’s a cyclist or jogger for her to “herd” (she’s a corgi/jack russell mix).
She’s spoiled rotten so I’m sure she’d love all the treats and toys!
Besides the obvious tricks (sit, lay down, etc) the first trick we taught our dog (also a vizsla) was to high five. We can’t quite master the treat on nose trick. Some day!
The first trick we taught our little love Izzy was to sit. She never quite learned “up!”, which we try to tell her every time we want her to jump into the car.
Oh, I love this giveaway (and Sadie’s sweet face, too, of course)!
We (mostly by boyfriend) taught our sweet dog Bizzy to sit, lay down, shake, beg and spin. She’s really good at all of them. She can’t quite get “roll over” though.
The first trick we taught our French bulldog was to sit, which he mastered quickly. But our favorite we’ve taught him is to “high five” just like Koji Uehara does – the baseball player he’s named after!
The first trick I ever taught my dog Max was sit, which he got right away. Down has definitely been the hardest one for him master!
First trick – sit. She has since added shake, lay down, and rollover. She will usually do one big sequence without request if someone is holding a treat!
Can’t master……all the rest!
First thing we taught Roco was to sit. He picked that up fast. The one thing he hadn’t quite mastered is shake.
The first trick we ever taught Otis was to sit. Then we did down and shake. Now when you say “sit” he runs through all three tricks! 🙂
The first trick we taught both Annie and Jay Jay were to sit. I think that’s pretty across-the-board for dog owners out there. Jay Jay could never quite master rolling over (he’d get to his back, but no further), and Annie is still learning stay. She’s quite the impatient pup.
Oh my gosh my two labs would LOVE this! The older, Simon was definitely taught “sit” first. He will listen to me about half the times I tell him to “roll over”, usually he will roll halfway and stop for a belly rub! The younger, Henry had the toughest time learning “down”.. he would just scooch backwards everytime I said “down”! He’s the cutest.
I am so glad you did a review of Barkbox. I have definitely considered purchasing a subscription but wasn’t quite sure what goodies would be inside.
The first trick I taught my dog (Roxy) was to sit! She can also stand and balance on her hind legs for a very impressive amount of time, although, this is usually only when I hold up a treat for her to grab :). She’s very good at sitting but hasn’t quite grasped the “lay-down” concept!
My dogs know to automatically sit whenever a treat is involved, we barely had to teach them! One knows how to shake, the other hasn’t quite mastered that but gives us the puppy eyes so it’s always ok!
The first trick we taught our yorkie was “sit.” He still hasn’t quite gotten the hang of “paw.”
I taught Otis how to sit and shake first, but he can never lie down no matter what I try!
We adopted a six-year old lab, so he’s not the greatest with tricks or learning new ones. But right now, he’s very good at sit and stay! We’re having issues learn to shake his paw though…I think he loses his balance trying to do it 🙂
I’ve been wanting to give Bark Box a try, for my little girl!
The first “trick” that I taught her was “sit.” She still only does this when she thinks she is getting a treat. The funniest trick, however, is when I pull out my camera to take her picture. Every. Single. Time. I. Take. It. Out, she will find a toy, lay down, with her head on it, and look at me with her big brown eyes. It’s hilarious!
The one trick she never could catch on to was “shake.” She just sits there looking at us funny.
My dog could never master roll over, but she’s pretty good at “come,” “sit,” and “wait.” Plus, she’s cute.
For our vizsla, sit was the first thing we taught him. He doesn’t really know another other tricks lol. I try to teach him “shake” but he just kind of stares at me and “talks” back to me every time I say paw…ohhh vizslas, so special. My Boston/Beagle mix however, knows sit, down, rollover, paw with both hands, speak, etc. He’s my little overachiever 🙂
This is great!
The first thing my puppy learned to do was shake! But she has never quite figured out the whole “stay” business. Especially if it means staying inside the house while my husband or I are going outside…. or if there’s an animal in our yard she wants to chase
The first trick we taught our puppy Lulu was to ring a bell thats attached to the door knob when she has to go to the bathroom. She’s mastered sit and down but has never caught on to roll over. BarkBox looks so fun!
I picked up Luna two weeks ago. Being a ten week old labradoodle, she has yet to “master” a trick. However, she is house trained(a full week without an accident)! Which, I consider the best trick. There are many tricks she has yet to get, but I hope with time and lots of encouragement she will be able to learn lots of them!
Feel free to follow this little fluff ball on insta luna_the_labradoodle
The first trick I taught him was to shake! I mean – he doesn’t always do it without a treat in hand but I’ll take it! He can’t quite master rolling over, but hopefully one day with enough treats he’ll get it 🙂
The first trick we taught Ari was sit and we eventually worked our way up to this little skit: Me: “Stick em Up!” Ari: Sits, Front Paws in the Air Me: “BANG!” Ari: Plays dead.
I got my dog when he was one, so he already knew most of the sit/stay/come tricks. So I taught him to shake and high five. Right now we’re working on teaching him to put his toys away!
When we first got Charlie from the foster dog parents he already knew sit, so we taught him to stay even with food on the ground. No matter how close or far we place the treat he waits until we say okay and its adorable when we put his treats on his nose using the same trick and he waits until we let him have it.
We have tried over and over to teach him “bang” means laydown but it is the one thing he doesn’t want to do – he always rolls over instead!
The first trick we taught Mr. Blue, the first of our two Boston Terriers, was to shake or give his paw for a treat. He now shakes each paw as requested.
The one thing I still can’t get him to do, even as of last night, is to bark or speak upon request but he seems to do it just fine when I don’t want him to bark! Lol. Figures!!!
We got Frankie at 7 months so he already had the basic commands down, but the first trick that I taught him was “Go to bed.” Originally it meant go into his crate, but now that he has graduated from needing one, it means jump onto the couch or bed. He of course is happy to oblige. The trick he cannot master is roll over. He is a 70 lb Boxer/Am. Bulldog mix so flipping his body over on command is just not fun for him. He prefers the double high five. 🙂
I’m similarly obsessed with my French Bulldog puppy and have debated signing up for Barkbox before, so this would be perfect! He LOVES new toys and we’ve been working on his fetch skills (his pursuit enthusiasm is fine.. his retrieving & bringing it back to me? Not so much…) and he’s fully mastered “sit” and “crate” for bedtime!
PS: I just signed up for Stitchfix last week after your latest posts about it & my fix comes Friday – so excited!
We taught Chloe to sit… but my favorite trick is a tie between “praying” (she lays her dead down flat on her paws until we say “amen”) and “playing dead” (she rolls to her back and puts her paws up without moving). She is so stinkin’ cute!
Despite her ability to do all those – she doesn’t quite get “put toys up”. If only she did so I wouldn’t have to follow after her so often.
Hope you are enjoying Charlotte – that is where both me and Chloe pup were born and still live!!!!
The first trick Atlas learned was “sit”. He never quite learned “roll over”, although that one is more fun than anything so I’m not complaining!
The first trick we taught our dog was “Bang!” Then she will roll over and play dead. However she has not mastered rolling over.
Addie’s first trick was a combo of sit and down. She still can’t quite master coming when called unless a treat is involved!