Puzzle Toy Review: Kensington Kennel Club Dog Intelligence Toy

The Kensington Kennel Club Dog Intelligence Toy is a wood board game style puzzle toy for dogs. This is a house brand found at Ross stores, and so far this is the only puzzle toy in the product line. It consists of several treat holes and several wooden circles that slide on tracks to cover the treat compartments.

Photo by Erin Koski

This is the only wood puzzle toy I currently own, and I'm a little uncomfortable calling it "wood" because it's the base looks like particle board to me. Still, it is very sturdy and has held up to being flung across the room.

This is definitely one of the most difficult board game puzzles we have, and Brisbane tends to get frustrated to the point of yapping at it. There are no air holes in the round circle covers, so the dogs cannot immediately locate the food.

Photo by Erin Koski

The covers slide fairly easily, but they're tough to open accidentally. Briz can't just kick this toy all over the room and have it magically eject food. Opening the covers requires either careful scratching or nose nudging. So far Ulysses and Ru haven't figured this toy out yet.

Puzzle Toy Rating

Capacity: 1/5
Not even a quarter cup of kibble, more like 2 or 3 pieces per compartment.

Photo by Erin Koski

Loading Speed: 5/5
I can only put a few treats in here anyway, doesn't matter if they go in one by one.

Unloading Speed (standard dog): 4/5
My less-than-brilliant dogs still haven't figured it out. I'd rate it 5/5 if I didn't get tired of supervising after awhile.

Unloading Speed (superdog): 5/5
For the amount of food it fits, this toy probably delivers the highest ratio of time spent.

Size: 4/5
Ru could use this toy if he could figure it out. A very large dog could still use this toy safely with supervision.

Photo by Erin Koski

Durability: 5/5
Short of taking a bite, I can't actually figure out a way my dogs could damage this toy.

Noise: 3/5
The lack of non-skin anything on the bottom of this toy guarantees it will be scraping across the floor.

Locatability: 5/5
Supervision only means it never gets lost.

Washability: 1/5
I would be afraid to get this toy wet, it might disintegrate if I tried to scrub it. If the wood got too wet, it might swell or warp to the point where the toy no longer worked.

Hoardability: 1/5
Briz can't lift it or even pick it up. He's not taking it anywhere.

Total: 34/50