The Dangers of Tennis Balls as Dog Toys

The tennis ball has long been a favorite plaything of many dogs and dog owners alike. They’re cheap, brightly colored and easy to find in stores, making them a popular and seemingly perfect dog toy.

What many people don’t know, however, is that tennis balls are also one of the most dangerous dog toys on the market today.

For starters, they come apart incredibly easily - anybody that has ever owned a fair sized dog will know that tennis balls split into two halves without much effort on the dog’s part. The older the ball, the more brittle the rubber becomes. Dogs frequently inhale, choke on, or swallow pieces of this rubber, often requiring expensive and dangerous surgery to have these pieces removed from the trachea, stomach or bowels.

The fuzzy outer layer on tennis balls is also dangerous for the same reasons. On top of posing a choking/insufflation/ingestion hazard, it also wears down a dog’s teeth extremely quickly. Not only is the fabric itself quite abrasive, it also picks up and holds sand and dirt which act as a very high-grit sandpaper against the enamel.

Perhaps most importantly, the glue used to fuse the two halves of these balls together is an extremely toxic compound which has been proven to cause oral, tracheal, and stomach cancers in dogs.

Please, if you see anybody using tennis balls as dog toys, pass this information along!

It could save their dog from the agony of painful and invasive surgeries and cancers, as well as save them a few thousand dollars in vet bills.

In lieu of tennis balls, I highly recommend chuck-it or orbee-tuff brand balls. They are much less prone to damage, non toxic, and dogs love to play with them. They float, too! They cost a bit more than your average tennis ball, (between $5 and $8 a piece) but the investment is well worth it if you consider how risky the alternative is. You also won’t have to replace them as often, because as I mentioned, they are very durable.

This has been a PSA by yours truly.

**NOTE**

When I speak of chuck-it balls, it should be noted that this company does make a tennis ball that is frequently sold with their ball launcher. I do not recommend them, as they pose the same choking hazard as a normal tennis ball.

I only recommend their 100% RUBBER balls that look like this: (They also make glow balls, whistle balls, etc. All of those are fine as long as they aren't the tennis balls.)