Method

How we choose a fetch toy

A fetch toy is judged on five things, and not one of them is a matter of taste: the size of the dog, the distance that is actually useful, what goes in the mouth, what the toy is like after a month, and whether the parts fit together. Here is how we settle each one.

Our five criteria

1. The size of the dog, before anything else. A launcher is chosen on the mouth that will use it, not on how hard it throws. Ours takes 2-inch balls: a cocker, a bichon, a border collie or a poodle picks them up without straining, and that is exactly the range of dog it was built for.
2. The distance you will actually use. Ten, twenty or thirty feet. Those are the ranges that work in a hallway, a living room or a city garden — the ones where the dog goes back for the ball instead of losing it over next door's fence. One button changes the setting to suit the room.
3. What goes in the mouth. Soft rubber for the flying disc, textured balls for the launcher. A rigid disc arriving edge-on knocks teeth; a ball that is too hard tires the jaw. Material is judged on what it does to the dog, not on how tough it claims to be.
4. What the toy is like after a month. This is the criterion no product page ever gives you, and it is readable in the reviews written after the fact rather than on day one. We read those one by one and note what they say about wear — it is what has kept some products out of our range, and it is why we quote buyers rather than adjectives.
5. Whether the parts fit. Replacement balls have to drop through the launcher's chute, or the range does not hold together. We check the diameter before adding a product, not afterwards.

What we check before putting something on sale

The measurements published on this site are taken from the product's technical documentation and cross-checked against buyer photographs, which show the object in real use and next to familiar things. The rating and the number of ratings come from reviews of the exact model we sell, and the written ones are published on our reviews page with their star count and their text. Every order is covered for thirty days, full refund: the risk of the first try is ours, not yours.