Shaggy Dog Stories

Honestly, you’d have to have been living under a rock at the far end of the world’s deepest cave to not have heard of Angry Birds®. Even if you don’t indulge in computer or cell phone games yourself, it’s hard to ignore the presence of cackling birds, taunting pigs, and slingshots everywhere from Late Night with Conan O’Brien to a public square in Barcelona to the men’s sleepwear section in Target stores. Angry Birds are everywhere!

I admit to being guilty as charged — I’ve succumbed to the lure of the game, and have spent the occasional evening playing Seasons on my iPhone while Greg plays Classic on his computer. I even have the Angry Birds theme song as my ringtone. My twin niece and nephew hone their pig-smashing skills on their mother’s iPad 2. We spent a good deal of time in conversation discussing our favorite Birds and their destructive properties. They’ll thank us later when they have to calculate trajectories and study parabolas and hyperbolas in math class.

It was really only a matter of time before our pets got the chance to join the Angry Birds craze. Just before the holidays, I was walking through Wal-Mart and came upon this…

Woohoo! Hartz® now offers lines of Angry Birds toys for both dogs and cats! When Hartz asked me to review some dog toys and give some away, I just had to accept.

Our very favorite toy! There's a pig on the other side.

I selected the Tuff Stuff Flyer from the package, and then grabbed my camera and my most biddable model dog, Seamus. The Tuff Stuff Flyer, a double-sided throwing disk made of ballistic nylon, looked to be durable enough to withstand the kind of play that my two youngest dogs inflict on all the toys.

I figured I’d get a nice photo of Seamus holding the Tuff Stuff Flyer, and then we’d toss it around for a little while. Then this happened…

"Hey Big Brother, whatcha got there?"

Dinah discovered the Tuff Stuff Flyer, tugged on it with Seamus for a minute, then stole it and ran off with it, and with Seamus in pursuit. This is the sign that a toy is a “keeper.” Both want to play with it, and it’s still in one piece after they’ve played tug with it! I believe that they’d give it Eight Paws Up.

The Tuff Stuff Flyer, besides being engineered to stand up to rough tugging, has a squeaker in the middle, and features a red Angry Bird on one side and a Pig on the other. It floats, too!

You can easily find the Tuff Stuff Flyer and other Angry Birds toys for dogs and cats at Wal-Mart, CVS, and other retailers — or online at Amazon.com.

So… Does Your Dog Want to Play Angry Birds?

Thanks to Hartz, we have a bunch of them to give away! Some are even for tiny-sized dogs. Here’s what you could win…

• An Angry Birds Two Heads™ plush toy, featuring the black bird on one end and a pig on the other. This one comes in the 17″ version for larger dogs, though you can also buy a 7″ version for smaller dogs.
  
  

  Really, what dog wouldn't love to carry this around?

• An Angry Birds Hard Heads™ toy, which isn’t hard at all (as far as your dog’s teeth are concerned). It’s a nice, squishy 4″ latex squeaky ball filled with polyester fiber to give the ball “substance.”
  
• A red Angry Birds Plush Ball with a sound chip, in the 2½” Tiny Dog size. When squeezed, the chip plays the sound the red bird makes when flung. Squeeze it again and you hear the birds cheering.
  
  

  This also comes in a 4" size for larger dogs.

• A yellow Angry Birds Plush Ball with a sound chip, also in the 2½” Tiny Dog size.
  

As always, we have a few Wicked Simple Rules to follow for this giveaway…

Wicked Simple Rules

1. Visit the Hartz Angry Birds toys website and let me know which toy there is your favorite.
2. If you have a small dog, let me know so you can win a Tiny Dog toy.
3. If you’ve played Angry Birds, what’s the highest level you’ve ever achieved?
4. Like the Hartz Angry Birds Toys promotion page on Facebook.
5. If you aren’t already a fan, please like Shaggy Dog Stories on Facebook.

As always, we draw the winners using a random number picker. Tiny Dog toys are in a contest-within-a-contest so they don’t just go to a Great Dane automatically. Entries close next Friday, December 23.

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