I started with the smaller chuckit and my dog fell in love with that toy!  We took it to the dog park and another dog ran up to us so excited b/c he loves playing fetch too and recognized the toy.  We have a very large yard and the small one let us throw it about 3/4 of the way.  I wanted to run my lab puppy even more so I bought this one and it is probably because I started with the smaller one, but I feel like it is awkward to use the bigger one and I can still only throw it 3/4 of the way down our yard.  It flies a lot higher and gives my dog more time to run down to where it will land before it bounces, but I prefer the small version of this toy.  But, it works as intended and my dog doesn't care which one I use, she loves the game.