We had ordered a herding ball on Amazon that kept getting delayed. We were holding out that it would be delivered by 6pm on his birthday (even though I ordered days in advance) around 5pm I started to get nervous. My husband found this FIFA one at Petco and we dashed over to our nearest one—they were out of stock. Placed an online pick up at a petco 30 mins away and they had it! And, thank goodness, it came with a pump so we didn’t need to book it over to Walmart. ANYWAY, he loved it! I was so happy, especially since we were almost empty handed for his little birthday party (just family). It took him awhile to figure out how to move the ball in a straight line, but that’s why these balls are so tiring for herding dogs! My sheltie that can fetch indefinitely with a ball launcher was panting after 10 mins with this herding ball. As far as the other review, I’m assuming that either it wasn’t inflated fully (you should be fighting to get the zipper to close when fully inflated and no raised seams should be showing). Or the ball wasn’t appropriately sized to the dog. 18” herding balls are best for dogs in the 15-30ish lb range, like corgis or shelties. Or perhaps they left the ball outside unsupervised with the dog, instead of guiding the herding behavior in a controlled way. We were thrilled with this product, it’s honestly better than the one we ordered (it never came, they canceled the order so I suppose it’s lost in the mail system) because it has great colors, at least half of which my dog can actually see, versus the basic all blue ball I picked on Amazon. Plus, this one was cheaper ironically lol (by $2). Bottom line: sheltie was thrilled, we are thrilled, I expect this ball to last for many 15-30minute sessions for years to come.

My Australian cattle dog loves this herding ball. Unfortunately after only a few days of playing with it she was able to completely destroy the cover. I have a hard time finding toys for her and I had high hopes for this one.

I bought this a couple of weeks ago for my welsh terrier. Don't waste your money on this ball. Your dog will get his teeth on the flap over the zipper and destroy the cover. It's a nice concept but I'm so sorry I wasted $40.