Rabbit's New Toy

I broke down and bought an automatic ball launcher for Rabbit. It's not that I don't want to play with him, because it can be fun to play fetch with him. But if you've ever seen Rabbit and a tennis ball, you'll understand why I get tired of it. That dog is OBSESSED with the balls. He will run all day fetching, and when he lays down for a break, he'll only stay there until you go in the house, and then all of a sudden he's ready to go again. He will play with the ball until he chews it up, and then we play with the pieces of the ball. He gets crazed if he loses one under the couch or furniture - it's scary.

So . . . I plunked down $150 for the GoDogGo automatic ball launcher. It works well - he has to learn to put the ball back in the bucket, so it will keep throwing it for him (you can fill the bucket with like 20 balls, but Rabbit is one of those dogs that will only play with 1 ball at a time, no matter how many you offer him - he knows which one was the first one that day, and that's the only one he wants). The only complaints/problems are that it only launches 30 feet, which is about 1/3 of the length of the yard, and it doesn't work when balls get really wet. The instructions say some dog saliva is fine, but Rabbit likes to drop the ball in the nearest puddle or wading pool and get it soaked as a sort of intermission in the fetch game. At least this will keep him entertained for a little while and let me do something in peace!