Braided fleece tugs.

[elegy]

Steve is a beast with a tug toy in flyball. I've yet to come up with the perfect match in design. He's not picky, but the Four-strand round braid ones stretch out really quickly, no matter how tightly they seem to be braided. The square braid ones don't stretch, but they hurt my hands. I'm not wild about the plastic handles, but maybe that's something I should look into?

I make them myself, but I'm not that creative when it comes to design. Anybody done anything or seen anything that's worked well for them?

[Dekka]

I have ONE I like. I bought it from BC rescue. Now with JRTs and whippets they don't like big heavy ones and they must be flexible. But not too much stretch in case we want to play with Sport.. Have you tried those cow milker tugs? People with tug a holics seem to love them.

ETA mine is a round braid, but its out of very soft material that has much less stretch than fleece ones.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Are you opposed to gloves? We just braid nylon cord and fleece. I don't run Flyball as often anymore but I use this same combo on my spring pole with success, it's not beautiful but works well.

How you ever bought from rush to tug? I hear their stuff is nice.

What is a cow miller tug? I'm intrigued!

[Dekka]

The black ones are the cow milker tugs. They are USED so they smell a little cowee.

These are from Crash Test Toys. Really popular by people who are serious about their tug toys.

ETA Elegy you might want to check out their web page http://www.axxent.ca/~crasher/ they have nice handles on their tugs to be kind to people.

[BostonBanker]

Gusto has their pocket sheepskin bungee ball, and thinks it is The Best Invention Ever. I doubt he hits it with the kind of strength and speed Steve does, but it is certainly kind on my hands with him.

[Shai]

I made a four-strand round braid with fleece strands wrapped around shoe lace material (it's what I could find, but any robust thinnish rope with a bit of give would work). Have been using for 6 months with all three dogs (Web and Mira both put their all into tugging, Kim tugs too but not as strongly) with virtually no stretch.

Oh and I love my leather/fleece tugs from Clean Run -- I had two sheep ones and a buffalo one. Lost one of the sheep ones at a trial, sadly. Soooo comfy on my hands, and the dogs love them.

[GSchnauzer]

Fleece doesn't last for us either. I have 3 dogs running flyball and all 3 run with something different. I've found these to work/last the longest for my crazy dogs. Even my little JRT likes them. http://www.elitek9.com/Synthetic-Tug...ductinfo/TS16/
I've just recently purchased a Crash Test Toy tug at a tournament. I've only used it a couple times but so far so good.

[elegy]

I wonder if he'd like that synthetic tug. It looks comfortable to hold onto.

He rips the cow milkers *eyeroll* He likes them on the flirtpole though.

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. I have a bunch of fleece here right now, so I'll keep messing around and use it up. Maybe I'll buy something completely different and see if that works better. The fleece is just so cheap and convenient and I can make his tugs in all kinds of pretty colors.

[Dekka]

Ya most of my dogs are too small to get really excited about the cow milker one (Sport begin the only exception) I haven't tried them.

The fire hose ones seem to be super durable from what I hear.

[smeagle]

Personally I love a good french linen or rolled leather tug - and dogs can really grip them well.