Reviews of some products we have tired.
Nite Ize SpotLit

With the arrival of the dark nights there is less or even no daylight on early morning and evening walks.  Our two dogs are dark brindle and in the dark we have to listen for the noise their collars make when they run to work out where they are when off lead.

In the past we have tried various collar or tag type lights and have found most to be unexceptional but did work over short distances.  This winter we decided to try the Nite Ize SpotLit, which comes in Red, Blue and White Colours.  There is also the Nite Ize SpotLit Disco which changes between various colours.

The SpotLit is easy to turn on by pushing the centre of the light on one site, one push turns it on as a constant light, a further push puts it a blinking mode and a third turns it off.  The small carabiner type clip, although stiff is easy to clip onto the loop on the collar.

We've so far tested the light up to 250 Meters and found it to be very visible over that distance, the blue being very slightly brighter than then red.  Durability is also something these lights seem to be built for, our ever wrestling hounds have carried on their usual rough and tumble and the lights have survived very well.

Hyperdog Ball Launcher

This is a FANTASTIC toy we got as a gift while in Canada,  It is basically a sling shot or Catapult which has been scaled up to let you fire tennis balls and fire them very well.  This is as much a boys toy as it is for dogs.   ITS A GIANT CATAPULT!

The dogs were a little unsure of the ball launcher at first but any chance to chase a rapidly moving ball over a long distance is an easy thing for them to get comfortable with very quickly.

We have the four ball launcher which holds four tennis balls and has a hands free pickup design saving the knees from the work of bending when you need to retrieve the balls.  The documentation for the launcher details it is able to launch a ball 220 feet, we have made the ball go this far and possibly further.

There are a number of suppliers for the two and four ball launchers prices seem to be from around £20

http://www.hyper-products.com/products.html

Nylabone Durable Bone

We have one dog, who if he is not exercised to the point of sleep when left alone will find anything to chew and destroy.  To combat that we tried various chew toys but found with the exception of the Kong most were demolished in at most a matter of days by the jaws of our Staffordshire bull terrier cross Loki.

Not wanting to keep feeing raw hide on a more than daily basis we started to look for a more durable toy.  This is when we discovered the Nylabone range of products.  In particular the Durable Bone impregnated with bacon flavoring has worked out well for us.  Despite the fact they have long since stopped looking remotely bone shaped and are not fun to step on, the dogs keep returning to them over and over.