I wasn't sure how this would work out with the mixed reviews, but I have to say we love it! I bought this for Christmas 2017 for our one year old lab. We've only had it for 2 weeks so I can't tell yet how it will last, however, we use this every single day to throw anywhere from 25 - 100 balls. There's no sign of it not being able to take this heavy constant use, hopefully it'll continue to last. I'm very uncoordinated, so it took a day or two for me to quit throwing it at the ground 20 ft in front of me! Once I got the hang of it, I'm able to launch it 100+ feet. We run our pup in increments of 25 throws; he gets so excited when he realizes it's time to go back out to get the balls. Best thing I did when I bought this was to also purchase 3 kong balls. The Chuckit ball didn't last a week; first it split in half on the seam, that it became chunks of pieces all over my floor. All 3 kong balls are in use and still work and squeak. One has a little bit of a rip where our pup tried to tear a hole into it; he wasn't successful! Definitely happy with the purchase.