Friday, April 17, 2015

When Volkswagen Made a Dog Toy


 
Did you know that the Kong started out as part of a hard rubber rear suspension bump stop for a Volkswagen Bus?

Joe Markham invented the Kong in the mid-1970s when he tried to distract his German Shepherd, Fritz, from chewing rocks and threw him some left over rubber parts from a VW bus he was working on.

The picture at top is not a Kong -- it's a rear bump stop from a 1964-1979 VW Bus.  They can be ordered from a car parts store for $6.99, but most folks are picking up their rubber Kongs at their local pet stores or online.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I bet some of my car finance customers would love to know that! Haha! Although I'm pretty sure that the ones you can buy in the pet store have been treated so that they will be pet safe in comparison to something that is meant to go on a car.