I saw the trainers at the dog park with these and decided to get one. It's a fun toy for my dog that likes to play fetch, but I don't know how much different it really is than just throwing it. A nice feature is that you can pick up the ball without bending all the way down. And you can use a tennis ball which is good because the ball that came with it apparently is very tasty and is just about down to the bare rubber after a couple of days.