iFetch Automatic Ball Launcher for Small Dogs – Ball Thrower Launches Mini Tennis Balls

I gave the iFetch five stars because it is exactly what I expected. I bought it for my 10 year old toy poodle, Archie, and he learned how it works in about three minutes, and loves playing with it. There are two minor issues I have with it that aren’t big enough to take any stars away and overall it’s a lot of fun and we LOVE it. Sometimes I have to put it up at bedtime so that we know it's time to be done playing, and the next evening when I get home from work we immediately ask for it to be gotten out again. :) Shipping was fast and it comes nicely packed. I ordered batteries that arrived with it. I already had a few packages of the Kong extra-small squeak balls that also work in the machine, also available on Amazon Prime for $2.99 a pack. The iFetch runs on either 6 C batteries, or it comes with an adapter that can be plugged into the wall. The batteries lasted a couple weeks that included a solid 1-2 hours of play each day. The electric cord works great and fits the plug well. This is where one of my two complaints come in, and that is the cord is four or five feet long which would seem generous, but I have found it difficult to find a place to plug it in and have it sit in the middle of the floor as is necessary in both my house and two friends homes. We had to use an extension cord, but it’s not a major issue. Since we have only played with this in a small apartment we only use the lowest setting which shoots it about ten feet. The machine is a little more powerful when running on electricity, so keep that in mind when choosing a setting. Sometimes Archie likes to stand in front of it and try and catch it (bless his heart, he never does) and it has hit him in the chest, nose, head, and has never caused more than a shake of the head and a sneeze when it hit him directly on the nose. Each next higher setting shoots it about another ten feet, which increases the force the ball comes out with. My only other issue, which really isn't a product problem, is Archie usually drops the ball into the toy from a few inches above it. Because of the bowl design, the ball will frequently swirl around the edge and pop out. A deeper design wouldn't allow that to happen. I highly recommend this toy for those little dawgies that love to fetch. It’s easy to train, but you have to know your dog and what it will like as well as how it needs to be trained to use it. To see video of Archie learning how to play with the iFetch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFAc4vuseRg To answer some of the critics whose poor ratings made me hesitate to purchase the product.: Too noisy: My dog wasn’t in the least bit phased by the noise, and now the increasing pitch and click of the ball release indicates to him that the ball is about to be launched. I don’t think it’s noisy at all. I’ve posted a video, so you can check it out yourself. Ball shoots out too hard: I’d say it depends on the setting. I would recommend that you make sure your dog isn’t struck by the ball until he/she has been fully trained and understands getting hit with the ball isn’t part of the game. Then, if she does happen to be struck by a ball and it hurts, she will quickly learn to stay out of the way. Balls get stuck in the machine: The tennis ball type covering can get a bit frayed after a lot of play. I just grab a scissors and trim off around the balls and we’re good to go for a few more hours of play. Archie doesn’t drool a lot so the balls don’t get that wet. Balls are too small: This product was designed for small dogs and even so, a large dog is not going to choke on the balls. Dogs are not like toddlers and although they might eat a ball, they won’t choke on it. My toy poodle likes to play with marbles and grapes…..has never choked. However, it looks like there is now a toy for large dogs called the iFetch Too.

I got this for my 8-year-old male Shih Tzu. He is very smart and loves to play with balls...so I figured this would be a no-brainer. Well, I was wrong. He didn't like the texture of the fuzz on the balls, he is more of a bouncy ball kind of guy. My female Shih Tzu was a different story. She usually doesn't like balls, but LOVES this toy. I haven't been able to teach her how to drop the ball into the unit, but she will come running when she hears the motor "whirring" and excitedly wags her tail waiting for the ball to go flying when I drop it in. (Sometimes I have to cheat and trigger the mechanism to get her to return with the ball...hence, the whirring when she hasn't brought it back yet....) The three distance choices are great, I have a large recreation room and I have used all of them...and even worked at ricocheting the balls off different walls to keep her guessing. My only complaint is that she is a naughty little chewer and has managed, after a few months, to destroy the covering on the balls that came with the unit. I was able to save them for as long as I did by taking putting them away when she gets tired of running. She only has access to the balls when we are using this unit, they are not her "play" toys so to speak. I have ordered more of the ifetch balls, even though I have read in reviews that the Kong ones work. (I have not tried them so can not say if they do.) Anyway, I figure it is a small price to pay to keep her busy and the boys watching her running around keeps them entertained as well. I took off the one star for the balls being so easily destroyed'....otherwise a great product. Update: I did try the same size bouncy balls from Oriental Trading company, and they will not work, they get jammed up in the machine. (Maybe something to do with the weight? Just an FYI that size isn't the only consideration when choosing balls) Update #2: I have provided a video of the iFetch and my female Shih-Tzu. She really enjoys playing with this. I hope this provides more insight for those considering on buying this device.

I have had the iFetch for a week, and my Toy Rat Terrier loves it. It seems well-made and sturdy to me. My dog learned to feed the ball in himself in just a short time, though he does likes it better if I play, of course. The chute does get slobbery, but I have wiped it out after each play session and all is well. I have always had to put those little Kong balls away after play or they, too, get shredded, so that is not an issue I blame on the iFetch. Once a cover has lifted even a little, though, the ball will no longer work in the iFetch. I like the 3 distance settings. The wind-up does give my dog time to get in front of the machine, and he occasionally catches it right out of the shoot, but this doesn't have enough force to hurt him and he likes that, too. I have another toy dog who is a lot softer than my terrier, and no way she would play with this machine, even though she likes fetch. Some dogs would be intimidated, I am sure, so know your dog before you buy. UPDATE:Still going strong after 3 months of almost daily play. My dog gets so excited when I bring the IFetch out! Some pieces of advice, though. After a bit, even with daily cleaning out with spray cleaner and a paper towel, the slobbery fuzz will build up in the tube and around the launcher wheels. You need a long-handled tool to get this cleaned up. I recommend a bottle brush. Another thing that has happened -- my dog has learned that if he pokes the ball in hard, it will sometimes do a premature launch ... he loves this, but the IFetch does not, and it often jams. As a result, I have to baby-sit every throw.. I am going to experiment with a funnel device to make the intake tube longer, so he can't do this, and I can enjoy more remote play. Still love it!

I don't ordinarily write negative reviews, but decided to warn future potential buyers of this product. I will start with saying that despite some of the unfavorable reviews on-line, I went ahead and bought the iFetch for my fetch-obsessed Jack Russell Terrier. It looked like it had potential so I figured I'd give it a go. BAD DECISION!. Although it arrived in a timely manner, It was packaged in a extremely dirty and damaged box. Didn't think much of it at the time because the product inside looked fine. Within minutes of turning it on it spontaneously turned off. After about 20 minutes I was able to restart it, but it continued stopping suddenly just when the fun was starting. This on and off again business made it impossible to train my very smart dog to use it. she loved fetching the ball once it was working, but it rarely stayed operational for more than 15 minutes at a time. After a few days of trying to use it everyone in the family was frustrated, including the dog. I should have trusted the negative reviews on line and saved my money. The real kicker is that when I re-packaged it in the original, dirty, damaged box that it came in to ship it back, I peeled off the "ship to" sticker so I could put the return address sticker on and found a previous "ship to" sticker with someone else's return label! Leads me to assume the iFetch people shipped me a previously returned, damaged product. Burned me up!!! Especially because it cost me my time, as well as $15.00 to pay for return shipping (which they refused to refund). So essentially, I paid $15.00 so they could ship me a damaged product that frustrated my entire family and wasted my time. It's a shame that the product didn't perform the way it was designed because it has real potential to be a ton of fun... My warning: think twice before you purchase the expensive iFetch and don't dismiss the negative reviews like I did. WHY??? Because you'll probably end up with the broken one that I returned! Now please excuse me... I have to go play fetch with my dog!

I wanted to get this for my miniature schnauzer puppy since the day we got him. He's now about to turn 1 year old and I decided this would be his birthday present and was so excited! I read some of the reviews here about how dogs got shot in the eye and was horrified at some of the stories so I wanted to be extra careful. The toy is pretty sturdy itself and high quality like the other products (we have a iDig). The tennis balls are actually really small, like maybe 1" in diameter. Smaller than the small tennis balls you usually find in stores. So anyway, I get the toy set up, set the lowest setting and fire off two shots. My pup comes over to see what's happening, so I let him sniff the launcher , set the distance to 20ft then let him see it in action. He was cautious as it spun up, but then chased the ball after it got tossed. The second time he jumped away from me as it was spinning up and got like 5-6ft in front of the toy and got a ball launched into his eye! Omg I just became one of those owners that let this happen. I'm so regretful. I've been kicking myself the last 24hrs. I should have turned the toy, I should have put my hands in front of the launcher, I should have never upped the distance to 20ft, I introduced it all wrong. I wanted so much for both of us to love this toy but now I feel aweful. He was really afraid afterwards. He didn't cry but he was shaking afterwards and his eye was like half closed so I knew he was in pain. I was hoping that after a good night's sleep he would be ok, and it's still a little twitchy. I've gotten hit in the eye with a racquet ball and I know the pain. I'm hoping after a few days things return to normal but otherwise I'll be needing to make a vet visit. I'm so sad, this toy is awesome. As another reviewer suggested there probably should be a motion detector or something that prevents the launch if something is detected within 7ft or so to prevent these issues, though I do recognize it would raise the price, I think it would be well worth it.

I have a morkie puppy who,thinks that she is a golden retriever! She LOVES to play fetch and is constantly bringing me balls to throw. Because I've had some health issues recently, it's difficult for me to play fetch as much as she would like me to - so, I bought this to try. I was worried because she tends to be startled a bit easy - and when I first tried to use it with her, she was scared because of the noise. However, I just got some of her favorite treats and while the toy was making noise, I used the treats to coax her to come by the toy (I placed the treats in my open palm and rested it on top of the toy. I did this several times - I didn't shoot a ball out of it at first - I just let it make the noise. Then I started shooting the balls out while,still,giving her treats. It didn't take very long for her to be relaxed around it. I was concerned after reading the reviews (and seeing photos) where dogs had been injured while using this toy. You have to supervise your dog when he/she is learning how to use the toy - Ella was very interested in looking into where the balls shoot out of when we started. I trained her to not do so by saying "get ready" - and she would then start running prior to the ball being shot out in order to avoid injury. She loves the toy! I did buy some little yellow kong balls (as suggested by other reviewers) to use with it as the little blue ones sold by this company are a bit pricy for tiny tennis balls. They work absolutely fine with the toy. I have about 12 balls that I rotate while playing with her - maybe that's why I've not had any issue with the balls getting stuck after being drooled on (also, she drops them pretty quickly and isn't a big drooler. I'd recommend the toy. Just make sure to supervise when initially using in order to avoid injuries! The balls do shoot out with some force so you don't want your dog looking right into it. Even with supervision, Ella has been hit a few times with a ball but has not been injured (and it didn't seem to really phase her at all - and as I've already said, she's a bit of a "scaredy cat" at times).

I was very apprehensive about purchasing this as I have tried these ball launchers before for our dachshund. Everytime they break or don’t work from the get go. This launcher has been wonderful so far. He loved it from the moment we took it out of the box. My husband did t realize it would shoot so far and launched it from the kitchen all the way through the house into our den! The poor dog didn’t know where the ball even went because it flew so far. Now we just have to work on getting him to put the ball in by himself instead of barking at us to refill it for him!!

******UPDATE******* So, I've taken a star AWAY from the iFetch. I'm a little over 2 months in now, and I just CAN'T RECOMMEND this product at its price point. Its complicated. My dog LOVES this thing. LOVES it. She gets so excited when I pull it out for playtime, and she paws at it and nudges it when I put if away. She would play for HOURS if she could. The problem is, SHE CAN'T. As I mentioned in my initial review, the iFetch balls are TERRIBLE. After about 3 or 4 different iterations, the best balls (note: not GOOD, but best of the terrible options) are the Kong XS balls. But no matter what balls you use, you get about 10 firings before this stupid thing stops working. What I'VE seen to be the problem is; the "chute" that the ball travels through on the way to the wheels that shoot the ball, is PRECISELY measured to fit their balls. ANY AND ALL deviations from the EXACT MEASUREMENTS of the 15mm ball cause it to get stuck in the chute. Now, the ball is being chomped on and slobbered on by an excited dog, so its not going to retain its perfectly spherical shape for very long. The second the ball gets a little wet, or even slightly misshapen, it jams in the chute and doesn't fire. That takes about 10 fetches in my dogs case. After that, the iFetch COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY defeats its own purpose. If I have to force the ball through the machine, or fish it out and then throw it myself, why did I just drop $115 dollars?! And its like clockwork; you WILL NOT get more than 5 minutes of play out of this thing before it becomes an actual chore to operate, which is the opposite of its intended function. It sucks because I don't think there is a toy that my dog likes more. She really does love the iFetch, and WHEN IT WORKS, its absolutely awesome, but it is reliably bad and I totally regret the purchase. I really want to return it, but I don't know if they'd even take it back at this point. I've given it every chance to work, but its just either DESIGNED poorly or quality control is non existent. As great of an idea as it is, or as much as you think, "maybe it'll work for me," etc, etc, SAVE. YOUR. MONEY. This review is from someone who wanted NOTHING MORE than this thing to be awesome, and it just isn't. And its not just not awesome, IT DOESN'T WORK. Unless your dog will gently fetch the ball, and gently place it in the iFetch, without getting it wet or out of shape, avoid this. ****ORIGINAL REVIEW**** Ok, so I'm about 2 weeks into using this thing, and its got some good things, and then quite a few more bad things. I would rate it a 2 1/2 if it were possible. The Good: - Its quiet. It only runs when a ball is dropped in it, and stops after it shoots the ball. My dog isn't bothered at ALL by the noise, and gets excited hearing it wrrrrrr up, in anticipation of a toss - for MY house size, it throws the ball a perfect distance. Not too hard (my little dummy likes to stand DIRECTLY in front of the darn thing, catching a few balls off of her adorable snout), but far enough that she gets a good run chasing it down. Distance is adjustable too, with a simple button press. - Battery or AC charger powered. I keep mine plugged into the wall, but its nice to know that I can take it on the road if need be. The Bad: - Listen closely; the balls are USELESS. All three balls didn't make it a week. They fray, split in half, fall apart. They are the worst. And they have the nerve to be expensive to boot. They are also insanely small. I'm pretty sure this is purposeful to make sure you keep having to buy replacements from iFetch. I can't say enough bad things about the balls. - Mainly because of the point above, the unit is extremely "some timey." Once the balls frayed slightly, or got marginally misshapen or wet, the unit stopped shooting them. I had quite a few training sessions ruined because the dog did everything right, heard the motor go, got excited and anticipated a throw, then just looked at me as the unit failed to fire. As it stands now, I haven't been able to use it for about a week because it will not shoot the balls anymore because they have basically disintegrated and substitute replacement balls are hard to find because of their size. - The top bowl where the dogs need to drop the ball is inexplicably slanted backwards, away from the output hole. Having it pitched FORWARD would make more sense; even having it level would've been better. Basically, my dog has to go BEHIND the unit to drop the ball. Its an endless source of frustration for her, as she is just ready to get the throwing on the road. Its a weird design choice. - Did I mention how horrible the balls are yet? - The unit is very light. The slightest nudge or over zealous Jack Russell Terrier trying to drop a ball in the weird angled top causes the unit to tip over or go off line, shooting a ball into my wall, instead of down my hallway. - Not sure if I brought this up yet or not, but the balls are REALLY bad. My JRT has in inexhaustable amount of energy, and I got this so that she could wear her little hyper self out while I cook dinner or handle some business, but I was barely able to get her trained to properly use it before ALL THREE balls were rendered useless. She gets SO excited when I pull the iFetch out, but its been on the bench for a week because theres no ball that the unit will consistently shoot. I still like the thing, I just think I WAY overpaid for it, at $115.

Il prodotto va bene ma è il mio cane che è stupido e non vuole imparare ad usarlo o forse è troppo furbo e fa finta di non saperlo usare per continuare a stressare me continuamente con la pallina in bocca 😊

I ordered this on 02/12 as a Christmas present for my sister's terrier. It arrived poorly packed, it had obviously been dropped prior to packing and the blue rim around the top was missing, as were the balls. Very disappointing. However, Amazon's re-ordering was excellent and a fully functional, properly put together bit of kit together with the balls was delivered a few days later. The dog adores it. He hasn't quite got the link between him loading the machine himself and the ball launch - he still thinks he has staff for that! Other reviewers have mentioned the quality of the balls - they are very fluffy and a temptation for the dog to shred. My sister 'shaved' them. Think the iFetch is best used for attended play - it's fantastic entertainment for the dog and for his staff! Amazon's returns procedure was pretty useless. The courier who said they called for it, didn't. Once in process it seems that you can't alter the method of return (perhaps I don't use Amazon enough to know if this is the case) and I ended up paying £13.00 to return by good old Royal Mail.

Las pelotas son un poco frágiles, pero el lanzador si que es muy resistente. Habrá que buscar pelotas de mejor calidad.

Dog runs off with ball !

Comme sur la description ! Fait du bruit lorsqu'il lance la balle par contre ... Plus qu'à dresser ma chienne pour quelle y joue toute seule 😁