Cheerble’s Wickedbone is a fun smart dog toy with a mind of its own

Cheerble’s Wickedbone is the companion to their more basic Wicked Ball. Both are smart toys designed to keep your dog occupied by initiating and maintaining a teasing game of hide and seek (or is it really tag?). But the Wickedbone is both more advanced and more expensive.

The Wickedbone is, indeed, bone shaped—a cylinder with “wheels” on each end—and that makes me worry that dogs who are encouraged to chomp on similarly shaped chew toys may do the same with this expensive electronic bone. I needn’t worry about my own dogs though, because even when I brought the Wickedbone to the bed I share with two beasts, they completely ignored it even while I drove it around and into them as they tried to rest. They DID NOT CARE.

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But I was totally in love with it! Unlike the simpler Wicked Ball, the Wickedbone pairs with an app on your phone and allows you to drive. Although the print in the manual is microscopic, the setup is pretty easy. After the app (available for iOS and Android) is downloaded, you pair the app with your bone via Bluetooth by holding it next to your phone. The app has two separate modes: Drive and Interactive. In Drive mode, you have a variety of options on the screen, including rolling forward and back, spinning like a top, turning, hopping and more.

Even if my dogs didn’t care, I was like a kid with…a new toy. Interactive mode allows you to put your phone down, or take obsessive dog videos, as the Bone goes through its repertoire of movements, flirting with your dog to get its attention. The app also has basic settings for dog size, room size and flooring type. In the intuitive mode, you can also set a timer for how long you want the bone to play and how long to rest between games.

Credit: Apple App Store

I set off to consult my panel of less-jaded dogs. I stopped by to visit Pearl, a Catahoula/pit bull mix who was adopted by a neighbor during the pandemic. She was mildly intrigued but still thinking of and looking for a ball. Even a manual ball would be fine for her. But we were also able to test the bone’s ability to roll from room to room, up onto and off of area rugs. It maneuvered fine.

Next stop: eight-month-old CJ’s espresso bar. CJ may be the perfect age and temperament for a toy like this. He was intrigued and enthusiastic, although his barking was a bit much, if enthusiastic. This is something to anticipate: a dog might bark in excitement at first, but hopefully the barking will dissipate as the novelty wears off. Since we clearly had CJ’s attention, I started driving the bone, having it hop and blink for him, spinning it like a top. He jumped back in surprise, then poked his nose closer to suss it out. And since the Wickedbone also has an Interactive mode, I switched over to that, and watched as CJ and the bone established a more low-key game of pursuit and flirtation.

I enjoyed playing with it even more than my own dogs did.

Although I worry that dogs might assume this bone is meant to be chewed on, none of the dogs I tested seemed to think the way I do. They were more intrigued by watching the bone move. None took it in their mouth at all, though I still wouldn’t suggest leaving it unsupervised for a day. Even if you keep track of your dog on a pet cam, if you were to see him or her chewing the Wickedbone apart, you wouldn’t be able to stop them; the bone has a hard, durable plastic exterior, but it and its mechanics are not meant for chewing. (It also has a teeny rubber, bone-shaped stopper to cover the USB charger portal, which is hard to remove but easy to swallow.) But it is a great option for a novel play session, or for light babysitting while you focus on some other chores or work from home.

The Wickedbone is, to me, a bit pricey at $69.99. On the other hand, I enjoyed playing with it even more than my own dogs did. Nothing, not even a Wickedbone, will fully take the place of the thing that dogs truly crave: time and interaction with their owners and the shared pursuit of the things that matter: food, socializing and security. But, as with other smart toys, there is a place for something like this in homes with active, curious dogs.

Part of the “play” is the dog’s consideration of what exactly is actually going on and that includes glancing at their humans to measure their reactions or get positive reinforcement of some kind. A smart toy, if your dog finds it engaging, can be a big part of building that rapport.