So my husband and I have been saying for a long time, IF ONLY a company would develop a toy that was shaped like a stick but durable. Our dogs LOVE to pick up sticks and parade around with them. Then the contest usually evolves into the dogs walking themselves with the stick like ponies hitched to a carriage. Did I mention lately that our dogs are more like little horses? Anyway, when I was at Petco today picking up some cat food, I took a peek in the dog toy aisle.
I found the Kong Safestix. Its a twisted rubber stick with two rubber balls at the end, EXACTLY what I had been looking for. I brought it home and the dogs seemed to really like it. Aside from the fact that our dogs don’t typically like toys and need to be encouraged to play with them, they seem to have fun with it. After about 20 minutes of fighting each other for control of the toy, they were defeated.
< ——————(see final pic!)
After I did a little online searching it turns out that the version I bought was only the medium version (20″) and that there is an even larger version (27″) that you can order, and they float! I may have to look into that! The only downside is that the rubber balls on each end can occasionally bonk the dogs in the head but our dogs are pretty thick skull-ed and they didn’t seem to be phased by it. Anyway, I definitely recommend this product if you are looking for a durable “stick” toy.
You can pick them up all three sizes here at Pet Mountain for about $12. What a steal!!
The Stubborn Hound 
I work at a zoo and our young sea lions love these toys!
This is by far the best toy I have bought. They LOVE IT and actually pick it up to play with all by themselves, which is a feat for my dogs.