IDOGMATE Rechargeable Automatic Dog Ball Launcher - Interactive Ball Thrower for Small Dogs with 3 Mini Tennis Balls | Perfect for Indoor & Outdoor Play, Training, and Exercise

We have not been able to train the dogs to put the ball in the launcher, so we have to do it. The "tennis" type balls will get chewed up and are not ideal, we found some yellow rubber balls by Idogmate that work better but they are not cheap. product seems durable enough.This will work but needs modifications. The included rechargeable batteries are laughable, I bought a 12v 6AH battery (fits perfectly in the housing) and wired a solar charger. Its useless without AC without a bigger battery. I keep the top just resting on it, so I can clean the wheels and trigger when it gets nasty. 80lb lab loves it, has slobbery tennis balls and will run it until it gets dirty. Then it needs to be cleaned up. It will throw the included balls about 40ft, but a regular tennis ball is shorter. It stopped working one time, but emailed the company and they sent another control board and has worked since.It does need maintenance and some mechanical know how to work consistently.We have a 1 year old border collie who is go go go 24x7. This was the best investment and totally worth the money. We've had it for a month and she has put about 200 hours on it so far. It didn't take her long to learn how to drop the balls back in and use it all by herself. We have it plugged in and set up to shoot down a long hallway. She plays with it all day and all night. It needs a good cleaning after all of the slobber and tennis ball fuzz but it's easy to clean. The balls that came with it were destroyed day one but we use normal tennis balls and the hold up well.It didn't work from the time we used it like they said it would. The balls hardly went far at all. I had high hopes for it to work because my labs love playing ball 24/7. I sadly ended up returning it.Within 10 minutes of opening the package and the balls, my German shepherd mix dog had torn the ball up. I tried to hold the other balls so he could not destroy them but my other GSD puppy had destroyed it within 15 minutes. The actual ball launcher is excellent and both have learned quickly how to drop the ball (the only one left). There are other balls that work with it that are not like "tennis balls" that the dog cannot tear apart. Why not provide those with the ball launcher?This was cool but my dog was not sure of it so he did not take to it so I sent back.I like the theory of this and my dog had fun chasing the balls, my problems is with the balls themselves. first day with the dog chasing and returning with the balls, they move it around in their mouth and 3 of them within and hour split open and were no longer usable. Since the opening hole is so small even the small squeeker tennis balls are too large to use. Would prefer it the holes were larger and the balls more interchangeableWorks well but doesn’t shoot super far. Dogs love itI paid for the original iDogmate expecting it to be sturdy and I liked the fact it had rechargeable batteries. Having used for one afternoon I put the unit on charge for a few hours.Today, the unit is not sending balls very far. I wiped the unit through with a moist tissue to clean it but it does not seem to have made any difference. Yesterday, balls were going 18 ft up the garden but today only approx 6 ft on No. 3 setting.The balls are useless, bitten into already so out of shape for the machine. As other people have suggested the little Kong balls or small rubber balls that I had seem to work well too.Definitely not value for money. I can’t see this lasting for very long so I am going to return as not fit for purpose once I contactseller.After a lot of research we chose this (small) ball launcher for a timid, ball obsessed JRT.We slowly taught her to retrieve, using the small balls that the launcher came with, then taught her to drop them in the hopper while the machine was off. Then got her used to the noise and let her watch the launcher in action, which launches very quietly. Now she's using it on her own and loving it. The remote control is useful too.The balls that come with this machine don't last. My dog has pulled them to bits. I read the recommendations for buying different types of balls. But the out layer of the balls are the same (like a tennis ball) therefore, don't last. I would highly recommend the "SPORTSPET MINI BOUNCE" NON TOXIC, 4 in the pack. They are the best in quality, fun, they haven't been destroyed, no fluff to tear-off and works perfectly with the ball launcher. Don't waste your money on anything else!The balls were missing and the ones we had were too big. My dogs already had a ball launcher but it got to the point it was not working as well as it did so we upgraded this one but it went backReally good fetch product. Charges easily and works really well. Like the adjustable distance. Balls are a bit fragile if chewed too much. Light and compact. Also has compartment for storing balls. Would recommend.