I bought this launcher with the chuckit rubber tennis balls and my dog is one happy puppy.  This launcher can easily throw the distance of our backyard (roughly 150 ft) so I have to be careful not to over throw the fence.  I'd love to test this out when we have even more space to see how far it really can go.  Regardless my dog is getting in so much more running now that we are able to throw the tennis ball 2-3x further than we were before.  More running means a tired puppy.  And we all know that a tired puppy is a good puppy :)  My dog actually stopped playing fetch and took a rest - that has NEVER happened before!  My husband questioned our need for this.  When he was able to relax an read a book without the puppy climbing all over him he was sold on our need for this chuck it.  I also highly recommend the rubber balls.