Whimsy Stick: A Heavy-Duty Flirt Pole for Large Dogs (Product Guide)

The four things that make a flirt pole good

Most people pick a flirt pole by how beefy it looks in the picture, or by how nuts their dog goes the first time, and neither one tells you much. There are a lot of flirt poles out there that I have tried, and I handed a bunch of them out to clients and watched what broke. They were too short, bulky, had a violent bungee cord, or were just too heavy. So this is what I check on any pole now, mine too.

1. Field of chase

Field of chase is just how far out the lure can get from your hand, so pole plus line. It’s important, especially for bigger dogs and different kinds of breeds. An Irish Wolfhound takes long leaps and a herding dog is quick and agile, and if the lure never gets far from your feet a big dog ends up running into your knees instead of running a circle.

The dot is you. These are rough numbers, it changes with how you hold the pole.

On the Rugged XL the rod is 46 inches and the line with the lure is about 4 feet, so call it 8 feet of reach. A big dog can actually stretch out at that distance and take the turns wide. That covers about a 16-foot circle, so you’ll want grass about 20 feet across, more if you’ve got it. I’d like the pole longer, but the cost of shipping anything over 4 feet goes way up. And the line being about the same length as the pole is on purpose, I call that pole balance. If the line is a lot longer than the pole it actually shrinks your field of chase cause the lure comes back to you.

2. The line: static, never bungee

I won’t use a bungee line, ever. Your dog grabs the lure and the bungee loads up, and when it lets go that lure comes flying back at you or at the dog’s face. A static line is kind of boring next to that, but it goes where your hand goes, and that’s what you want.

Both Whimsy Sticks use a static braided line. It’s Dyneema rated at 800 lbs on the Rugged XL and Kevlar rated at 450 lbs on the Standard, and those numbers are what the line itself is rated for. Lines still wear out, that’s why I sell replacements.

3. Keep the lure on the ground

Watch a squirrel run sometime, it doesn’t fly. When people wave the lure over the dog’s head the game turns into leaping and twisting in the air, and that’s hard on knees and backs. Low and wide keeps them running and cutting and stalking, which is what you want anyway.

A good pole should be lightweight and somewhat flexible, but not too flexible. Some people use a horsewhip, but it has a violent movement tendency as it flexes and snaps the lure up every time you change direction. The Rugged XL has some give but not a lot, so if you sweep low the lure mostly stays low. After that it’s technique, and using a flirt pole is an art on its own. The training guide walks you through it.

4. Built for the grab and shake

The hardest moment on a pole is the catch, when a big dog clamps down and shakes its head like it’s killing something. If you break a pole down into 2 pieces or make it collapse, you lose strength and pole integrity, and if you add metal fittings to get the strength back it gets heavy and isn’t user friendly.

So the Rugged XL is one glossy blue rod with no sections and no threads. It has two black foam grips spaced apart so you can choke up with your second hand, and a 3-inch silver ferrule on the tip with a split ring that the red-orange line is knotted to. The whole thing is about 8 ounces (the Standard is about 4), so ten minutes of play won’t kill your shoulder. In my own use it holds up to a 120-lb power breed.

Who it’s for, and who it isn’t

A good fit if

• You’ve got a high-drive dog that’s still wired after walks or fetch or puzzle toys.
• Your dog is 30 lbs or more, or grabs and shakes hard at any size. Right at 30, go Rugged XL.
• Cheaper poles have cracked or bent or snapped on you.
• You’ll actually get out and play with your dog most days for about 10 minutes.

Not a good fit if

• You want a toy you can leave out. A dog left alone with any flirt pole is gonna chew it, and that isn’t covered.
• Your dog is small and gentle and plays once a week. A cheap wand will do fine.
• You need a pole that breaks down for travel. This one is one piece.
• Your dog is under 6 months old, or has joint problems and no vet clearance yet.

Breed-specific advice: German Shepherds and Malinois · pit bulls and power breeds · Border Collies.

What Rugged XL owners say

These are copied word for word from the reviews page. Overall it’s 4.9 stars across 38 product reviews, not counting reviews of my training. The one 1-star review is on that page too, I didn’t hide it.

That’s fair, and I left it up. A really tall dog with a big reach can want more line than comes standard. I keep the line close to the pole length on purpose, cause a line that’s a lot longer than the pole actually shrinks the field of chase, but every dog is different and I’ll work with you on it.