It's that time of year again, when the western world goes crazy for buying lots of stuff, not just for the humans in their lives, but also for their pets.  After all pets enjoy gifts as much as people - well, ours do!

We tend to buy our two Jack Russels lots of little chews and treats, then one big toy and maybe a cuddly toy each, so I thought I'd share some good value toys that we've bought over the last few years.

 We bought this toy for both our dogs last year, but Archie seems to think it belongs only to him.  We bought him the Babble Ball which makes animal noises rather than the one which says cute phrases.  He has never become bored with this toy, and plays with it every single day.  The downside is it's quite noisy, as not only does the ball make animal sounds, but Archie feels the need to talk back and sing to it.  He usually plays with this when we're watching TV in the evening, usually in the closing minutes of a programme, so that we never hear what happens in the end!

it's a pretty robust toy, as we have solid floors and it's really been knocked about, plus the fact that when not playing with it, he's trying to gnaw his way into it to find out what's making the noises.  In the last year we've had to change the batteries once (it takes a camera battery) and that was really easy to do.  We couldn't face Archie making puppy eyes at us because his toy didn't talk!

We bought this toy for our dogs a couple of years ago, and it's as much of a hoot for the humans as the dogs, and caused hysetrical laughter in the back garden on Christmas morning (not sure what the neighbours thought). 

You fill the tank with flavoured bubbles, we have chicken and bacon flavour, fill the machine with batteries (it takes 4x1.5v), then at the flick of a switch it pumps out bubbles so that the kids, big kids and dogs can race around the garden snapping and chasing to catch them.

It's easy to use and the bubble solutions are easy to find, but it's a bit fiddly to clean after, and the tank uses alot of bubble solution.

Like all Kongs, this one is robust and will take alot of wear and tear.  The joy of this toy is that because of its flying saucer shape, it bounces and moves unpredictably, and Russels love to have something a bit unpredictable to chase.   We stuff it with peanut butter, or coachies and it keeps the dynamic duo amused for a good half hour, or so, but not as amused as they are with the vacuum cleaner, which must be destroyed at all costs!

 My dogs nearly always have a packet or drum of these in their Christmas stockings.  They are their favourite; small heart shaped treats, great for dogs with sensitive stomachs, which terriers seem to have.  Because the treats are tiny, they're good for stuffing into toys, without piling on the calories for your dog.  They also make good training treats, as the name suggests.

 Archie has very fine fur, and feels the cold easily, so both dogs have a dog jumper from Equafleece.  They are Polartec fleeces, designed for dogs who love the outdoors.  Both jumpers for Zebedee and Archie have polo-necks, Archie's fleece is bright red, and Zebedee's is purple with a leopard-skin collar, just right for winter on Dartmoor!  we've never found other dog coats which fit quite as well as these, yet allow the dog unrestricted movement.  Because they're fleece, they wash and dry very well too.

Equafleece also do fleeces for humans and horses too.