Dog ball advice

GinnyWeasley

GinnyWeasley

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Hi, I’m new but was hoping somebody could give me some advice.
So I have a (completely bonkers) Labrador who is infamous for losing dog balls (however no walk would be complete without playing fetch). Most recently he managed to drop the ball down a badger hole, and that was our last one (we started the summer with 5).
So the balls I used to purchase on amazon- unsure of name but were half blue half yellow have now been discontinued unfortunately and amazon now seems hellbent on getting me to buy chuckit balls- so really my question is are chuckit balls worth the money/does anyone have any ball recommendations.

(Any ball would have to be pretty tough and also quite bouncy to survive a play time)
-I’ve also included a recent photo for enjoyment, he wasn’t too happy to be sharing his back seat with a friend 😂F1710CC4-4060-4E79-8CC1-887EEA5CBCF3.jpeg
 
We buy Dunlop or similar decent tennis balls and never give up looking for them! We’ve lost a couple that floated off down river, but we almost always find them. It’s a great game.
 
One of our terriers loves tennis balls. Fortunately, friends of ours walk their two labradors near tennis courts and they are forever finding tennis balls in the bushes that have been hit out of the courts and not retrieved so they pass a lot onto us. Hector goes mad when he sees them coming with a bag full!
 
The secure dog field I use buys tennis balls from a local tennis club? They are ones which have lost their bounce and are sold off ‘cheap’ apparently!

I’m a bit of a saddo and I worry about my dogs choking on balls (however I phrase this it doesn’t seem quite right 🙄) so I try to get them the super-size Kong balls which I know are ‘too big’ for them
 
I really rate the chuckit balls-we have them all-the squeaker in the squeaky ones doesn't last long but the actual balls do-particularly like the glow in the dark one in winter :D

tennis balls are a bit small for Quarrie so we always get the large/xtra large chuckits.
 
One of my dogs lost a Very Expensive Ball down a waterfall/ravine. I preferred financial loss to certain death (he was pretty keen on getting it back) so I sold the matching one for a fiver.

Actual tennis balls blunt teeth pretty badly (it's either the glue or surface material, can't remember which) and on possessive dogs, like Mr I Lose Expensive Balls will crush a tennis ball in one flex of his jaws.
What you want to do is get a ball that they DON'T EVER WANT TO LET GO OF and I would recommend Starmark Durafoam/swing and fling. I've waited a long time for the tide to come in ;)
 
I really rate chuckit balls. They stand up to a hell of a lot of chewing and float nicely. They are more expensive but Daisy has yet to kill one, unlike any tennis balls I bring home from work which last all of two minutes 😂
 
This is interesting, I occasionally use tennis balls (I have loads as next doors spaniel is forever losing them and mine find them) but some trainers (gundogs) say they aren't good as they can squeeze them, you want a ball with no give. I don't think it has made a difference to the soft mouthedness of mine but are chuckit balls like tennis balls but unsqueezy? I like mixing up dummies sometimes, and I am (marginally) better at throwing balls.
 
Clodagh said:
This is interesting, I occasionally use tennis balls (I have loads as next doors spaniel is forever losing them and mine find them) but some trainers (gundogs) say they aren't good as they can squeeze them, you want a ball with no give. I don't think it has made a difference to the soft mouthedness of mine but are chuckit balls like tennis balls but unsqueezy? I like mixing up dummies sometimes, and I am (marginally) better at throwing balls.
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they are squeezy-well one of the squeezes them the other doesn't! I don't really think they are expensive but then I have ones that at 4 years old and still going strong. I can't be arsed carrying a ball on a walk so I have little canvas disc thingies.
 
I can't walk with a ball or I have four hysterically overexcited mutts tripping me up, so I do only ever get them out for set training. If squeezy they are probably no improvement, and my pilfered tennis balls are free, although when I get over 20 I do take her a load back. :-)
 
I get free tennis balls at my dog training club. One of the members works in a tennis shop at a country club. I also use Jolly balls in the backyard but they die pretty quickly. My dogs will still play with Jolly ball carcasses so they aren't a total waste.
 
Another vote for the Starmark swing and fling. Mine covet them over all other balls. If they lose one we turn it into a (sometimes extremely frustrating!) game of search for the damned ball - even if I have to go back day after day 😂
 
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