[Woody Taylor]

I wanted to test this out for a few weeks before I said anything...

http://www.chuckit.com/products/ultraballs/ultraballs.html

Not sure if many of you do fetch with your dogs, it's a daily thing with Annie and me. That and some harder tug sessions are about the best pressure valves she has.

Annie is a professional tennis ball crusher and whatever flavor of regular or "dog safe" tennis balls I use are usually dead or at the bottom of the lake after four or five throws. And my Orbees don't fit that nice Chuckit launcher (my shoulders are useless now for throwing balls a long distance over and over). I picked this set of two ultraballs up for about 6 or 7 bucks at the Petsmart a few weeks back.

They are as advertised, at least in my case. Float well, haven't taken a dent, and they have crazy bouncing action. Annie loves it. Couple it with one of those Chuckit launchers and you can get really nice 50-75 yard sprints.

So, IMHO, a nice buy if you have a dog with a ball fetch jones. Her favorite all-time toy is the Fetchit flying squirrel (http://www.chuckit.com/products/squirrel/squirrel.html) but as she's gotten a bit older...12 months now...those are not holding up for daily use. I'm saving them for occasional variety and those nice MN winters we have...balls have a bad habit of disappearing in the snow and we're usually doing fetch in the dark here that time of year. I refuse to dig through snow for a damn ball when it's early in the morning and -10 degrees out.

 

[Nancy Jocoy]

I like the thing too, but I got frustrated at the company's response when I sent them an email asking if they would consider making a bigger ball with lower bounce.

I would rather play with a bigger ball as I have heard horror stories of tennis sized balls getting stuck in their throat.

 

[Woody Taylor]

Not everybody wants a big rubber ball that smells like dead people, Nancy! :lol:

I actually thought of you when I bought these. Didn't know if this would be something you could scent instead 0of tennis balls?

 

[Mike Schoonbrood]

Cujo's a ball crusher too, he chews them n within, like you said, 5 throws, a ball is suddenly 2 halves of a ball. Kinda annoying, never really cared enough to find an alternative... the flying squirrel holds up pretty well for me, I needa buy a 2nd one though so I can 2-squirrel it lol. The only way I can get him to bring it back to me instead of dropping it 6ft away from me is to throw it, then as soon as he's got it in his mouth, I run around the corner of the house n he chases to find me without dropping the toy... the 2-ball thing I have tried before but he doesn't seem to understand that he doesn't get the 2nd ball if he drops the first n he doesn't care about the first enough to go get it again, so the game ends after 1 throw.

 

[Woody Taylor]

Annie goes prey nuts on that squirrel. Shakes the hell out of it and those rubber endcaps get frayed and then the tubes pop out. Dead fake squirrel. My local awesome pet supply shop just dropped prices on theirs...$7 for the small, $9 for the big...so it's not as painful but I'm getting really sick of dropping so much dough on the dog. Had to convince my wife to let me have my birthday present early (as opposed to December :lol to get the ecollar last week.

Try out those Ultraballs if they like ball fetch, Mike, they seem quite nice. And being able to get in 15 or 20 long sprints is a nice way for me to start off my spaz on a workday morning.

 

[Mike Schoonbrood]

Bass Pro Shops has the big squirrels for $10 in their hunting dog section. Cujo carries the flying squirrel by the end cap, I dunno why, he has a really bad grip on it, then when I get it he bites deeper to play tug with it... that's the only reason mine don't last long... if I didn't play tug they'd last a while, n I'm only on my 2nd one because the first one he got ahold of when it wasn't playtime, n he's a destroyer not a carryer, he puts his paws on it n shreds it to pieces lol.

 

[Woody Taylor]

You think the squirrel messes with their grip at all? It's pretty thin, I always wonder if it might develop a softer mouth. I haven't noticed anything with Annie and the guy I do work with occasionally likes her grips, but just curious.

 

[Mike Schoonbrood]

Lÿka has a full mouth firm grip on anything she puts in her mouth, I think a dog can differentiate between biting in bitework and biting a retrieval toy though.

 

[Nancy Jocoy]

Not everybody wants a big rubber ball that smells like dead people, Nancy! :lol:

I actually thought of you when I bought these. Didn't know if this would be something you could scent instead 0of tennis balls?

LOL I am sticking with the scent tubes - I think that washing them after each use makes more sense (though a lot of work) - and it is easy to prescent cotton washcloths. But we still do ball play - have to to live with them.

I will second the fact that they don't seem to pop so easy - I just wish they would not bounce so much - I want a "dead" ball that does not bounce when it hits the ground! I hate it when my dogs go vertical and try to avoid as much as possible. Anyone know of a *dead*,smooth surface (No tennis balls, they collect dirt and slobber and don't wash up nice) 2.5 inch ball? One of my dogs is a veteran ball crusher and he does not pop these on the way back.

 

[Connie Sutherland]

Not everybody wants a big rubber ball that smells like dead people, Nancy! .......

#-o :-s They don't??

 

[Bob Scott]

Not everybody wants a big rubber ball that smells like dead people, Nancy!

I want one! I want one!

 

[Mike Schoonbrood]

What kinda "ball" are we talking about now???

 

[Connie Sutherland]

What kinda "ball" are we talking about now???

No no, not that kind.

This time.

I don't think. :-k

 

[Woody Taylor]

What the heck is the fascination with balls on this site? :lol: It's context, folks, it means EVERYTHING. First rule of fight club: look for context when people say "balls."

Dog freaks, I tell ya.

 

[Mike Schoonbrood]

Hey man, you're the one bringing up a dead guys prosthetic balls.

 

[Nancy Jocoy]

Oh my I better get back to cleaning - last day off work.

This thread is just too racy for me.

 

[Woody Taylor]

Oh my I better get back to cleaning - last day off work.

This thread is just too racy for me.

Nancy, I would mod them, but they would get even. Darn mods (and the filtering stuff on this sight that prevents me from calling them &%@? mods.). :lol: With the flick of an edit key they can make me a table-training, Koehler-loving, GSD-hating, dog-fighting pit bull enthusiast. We call it Mutually Assured Destruction, keeps us all in line, like the Russians and the US in the Cold War.


You guys go and scare off a perfectly nice SAR person. NICE. :evil: Let the record show I was trying to be perfectly helpful. For once.

 

[Woody Taylor]

Nancy, ANYWAY, I want to say that this Penn Plax Glow Ball was something I had good luck with a few months ago:

http://thepuppyshop.com/umbrellaleash.html

It's semi-hard, held up well (Annie was only 5 or 6 mos at the time, though, but it seemed pretty tough). Not porous, no bounce. One drawback: glows light green in the dark. Didn't know if you'd want that kind of thing in a SAR object (unless you are tracking aliens). It won't glow if you don't expose it to light.

I lost mine. Or my kids hid it or something. My kids and these mods live to undermine my goals. :lol:

Edited to say it's 3" in diameter, though. You could always get one of those jai alai whiffle ball launcher things from Target or something, you want a 2.5" diameter to launch in the ChuckIt (I have no idea what diameter it takes other than "about the size of a tennis ball." ;-)

 

[Woody Taylor]

Before anyone gives me grief about jai alai whiffle ball equipment:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000BY9EP/104-3165840-3144713?v=glance&n=3375251

 

[Nancy Jocoy]

Thanks, Woody - not looking for it for SAR just to wear out my dogs so I can live with them...like the chuckit as my right shoulder is pretty shot these days.

The balls tend to bounce out the back fence and go into the woods - even if I skim them along the ground they seem to have a mind of their own and jump over the fence -- then I have to go out and gather them up. Could send the dogs out but the neighbors have an adult male BC who is always casting the evil eye our way and I never know when they are going to put him out. I like the way the chuckit picks up the balls.

The scent tubes are working fine - now I just chuck them and let them sit awhile - They are pretty invisible to the dog when covered with a dark brown sock. But I can't throw them far enough to make a good wear you out game and I don't want to be washing scent tubes twice a day.

If you go put it out in the woods, the dogs figure out quickly to trail to the object (so you have to stomp all over the place to not lead them in) so tossing it and letting it sit is good.