Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This device is intended for people who want to teach their dogs to put a ball into the machine, have the machine throw the ball a controlled distance, and then when the dog has chased the ball, have the dog able to return and drop the ball again into the machine - it's intended to be a self-fetching machine. This is not a self-fetching machine for dogs. I ran the machine for a few trial runs in my family room. The engineering is poor for the following reasons: Most significantly, this machine has been designed to work on battery, so when it is plugged in, it is really only in "charge" mode. That in itself is not a big deal - but the machine has been designed to aggressively protect battery life - so after about 60 seconds, if the machine has detected no ball, it turns itself completely off. What this means in doggie life is that if your rover doesn't get that ball and drop it in the machine in 60 seconds, and you aren't there to push the small power button, the machine ceases to work, and doggie is just left facing a machine that isn't doing anything with a ball stuck inside. The second major engineering flaw is that, while this machine uses tennis balls as its ammunition, it uses two spinning wheels as the throwing mechanism. If you, like me, have a dog who likes to chew a ball before getting to the next throw, the ball will eventually have some puncture holes. These holes change the resistance of the tennis ball to the throwing wheels so instead of creating pressure to throw the ball very far, the machine limply burps the ball out only a few feet. Ultimately, using solid balls would potentially solve the wheel/deflated ball problem - but the "instant off, no recovery" power problem is a deal killer. My intention was to set this thing up in the basement family room, and on a rainy day, give my puppy a treat by taking her down there, turning on the machine, pushing the button and letting her do her thing with the ball, return, chase loop (with training). You CANNOT use this device for dog "self-entertainment" -- the power will go off and the dog's game is over. The auto-off timer is a GRAVE flaw and made this a return item for me.