Product Review: Chuckit! Indoor Ball and Launcher

The Chuckit! Indoor Ball and Launcher is a low-impact, super exciting way to play fetch without breaking quite as much stuff in your house. The launcher can pick the ball up off the floor without getting your hands slobbery, and incites the same feverish delight as the outdoor Chuckit! The indoor ball is made from soft chenille fabric and is light enough to bounce harmlessly off of walls, pictures hanging on the walls, pendulum clocks, televisions, glass cabinet doors, beer carboys, and lava lamps. Why yes, yes that is a very specific list. The Indoor Chuckit! collection comes in one size that is big enough for an enormous dog but so fluffy even a tiny dog can get a grip on it.

Photo by Erin Koski

The Chuckit! Indoor Launcher normally comes with a donut-shaped Indoor Roller toy, but I found mine toyless at a thrift shop so I had to get the ball separately.

I have to admit, when I first saw this toy concept I though it was kind of pointless. I mean, what's wrong with just hucking regular dog toys around the house, right? That sort of attitude is precisely why my parents' walls were covered with tennis ball marks for many years. Also, I'm sorry about that teacup, Mom. As an adult I'm still prone to lobbing various balls and stuffies around my own house, but I still cringe every time a throw goes a bit wild.

Photo by Erin Koski

With the Chuckit! Inddor Ball, every throw can be a wild throw. This thing has no mass and doesn't seem to be capable of flying with enough force to damage anything (except that teacup probably still could have been demolished). This gives me the confidence to lob it around my house with wild abandon.

So far I've managed to bounce it off the above-mentioned list of objects in my home without damaging anything, to my great surprise. Brisbane is not impressed, but Sisci thinks the short little Indoor Launcher is super fun and amazing. She also loves to carry around the indoor ball around when we're not playing. Overall it has been a much more fun and useful product than I expected.

It's worth mentioning that the original Chuckit! company, Canine Hardware, was purchased by PetMate sometime in the last two years. This is the same company that owns JW Pet and Dogzilla. I haven't yet noticed any decline in quality or toy construction, but it can be tough to tell. My original Chuckit! launcher is still going strong after 16 years so I haven't tried out the more recent ones.

Pros: Fun for dogs of all sizes. Mostly harmless ball flies with minimal force. Launcher is low-powered. Can pick up ball without touching the nasty thing.

Cons: Pastel colored ball looks dirty right away. Ball-launching capability may lead to lack of caution in users.

Bottom Line: As some point I should actually grow up enough to not play ball in the house, but that point has not yet arrived. Long live the indoor ball!