Puzzle Toy Review: Kensington Kennel Club Cones Dog Intelligence Toy

The box repeatedly refers to the pieces of this Kensington Kennel Club Dog Intelligence Toy as cones, but they are clearly pegs. There was a chihuahua on the product box, and the puzzle is quite nicely sized for little Ru. It's an easy puzzle, lifting the pegs out of the base is the only skill required. However, Ru has a tiny brain. This puzzle provided him with tons of mental stimulation.

Photo by Erin Koski

Kensington Kennel Club is a trademark of Ross stores, which is where I found both this puzzle and our first Dog Intelligence Toy. I have since spotted a couple of other wood puzzles, all bearing the same name. This is the only tiny one.

There just aren't that many puzzles sized for toy breeds. Most of the time the pegs are to big for them to pick up with their mouths, so all a tiny dog can do is dig furiously and hope to dislodge one. Each peg has a hole in the top too, so the dog can tell what sort of tasty goodness is hiding under there.


Puzzle Toy Review

Capacity: 1/5
The six treat nooks hold...six treats. That's ok though, this isn't a meal-feeding toy.

Loading Speed: 5/5
I mean, how long does it take to stick six little pegs in the base?

Unloading Speed (standard dog): 5/5
Ru spent close to ten minutes getting two treats out of this thing, and he was so close to getting them that he stayed interested the entire time.

Unloading Speed (superdog): 2/5
I think after one round of emptying this thing out, Brisbane has already figured out how to pick up two pegs at a time with his teeth.

Size: 1/5
This is a small toy for small dogs. My 30-45 lb dogs have some difficulty using it correctly.

Durability: 3/5
Tiny dogs aren't really known for destroying things, but this is a supervision-only toy and not made to hold up to chewing. It will, however, stand up to an infinite amount of frantic but ineffective digging and pathetic whining.

Noise: 5/5
Stick it on a towel or bit or carpet and it's dead quiet. I can't imagine an itty bitty dog launching this thing into a wall or anything.

Locatability: 4/5
Supervision-only means I only have to go looking for the pegs when they roll away. The puzzle even came with a little drawstring bag to keep the pieces together.

Washability: 2/5
There aren't inaccessible nooks, but it's made of wood and not terribly well-sealed wood. Definitely a dry-treat-only puzzle.

Versatility: 2/5
The lack of easy sterilization limits who I can use this with. However, I think it would be fun to try with small animals of all sorts. Bunnies, rats, maybe a bearded dragon...

Total: 30/50