The Best Dog Balls for Whippets and Sighthounds
Every dog ball size chart on the internet, including ours, is organised by weight. For a whippet that chart is wrong, and the error runs in the dangerous direction.
Short answer: size up. A 14kg whippet needs the 3-inch large Chuckit! Ultra Ball that a weight chart would give a 30kg Labrador, because a sighthound's long narrow jaw takes far more ball than its body weight implies. A 2.5-inch medium is a genuine choking risk for an adult whippet, and greyhounds should be on 3.5 inches.
Why the weight charts fail this breed group
Ball sizing charts use body weight as a proxy for mouth size, and for most breeds that works well enough. Sighthounds break the proxy. A whippet weighs about the same as a cocker spaniel and has a jaw perhaps forty percent longer, so it can take a ball the spaniel physically could not get behind its canines.
That is exactly the geometry that causes ball asphyxiation: a ball small enough to pass behind the canine teeth can seat against the back of the throat and form a vacuum seal. Our ball safety page explains the mechanism. The practical consequence is that a well-meaning owner following a weight chart hands a whippet a ball one full size too small.
Sizing for sighthounds
| Breed | Typical weight | What a weight chart says | What we recommend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian Greyhound | 4-5kg | 2 inches | 2.5 inches |
| Whippet | 11-16kg | 2.5 inches | 3 inches |
| Saluki, Borzoi | 18-27kg | 2.5 inches | 3 inches |
| Greyhound | 27-40kg | 3 inches | 3.5 inches |
| Lurcher (varies) | 18-32kg | 2.5-3 inches | 3 to 3.5 inches, measure rather than guess |
| Deerhound, Wolfhound | 34-70kg | 3.5 inches | 4 inches |
Do not take our word for it - do the physical check. Hold the ball at the front of your dog's open mouth. If it could sit entirely behind the canine teeth, it is too small. The method is in our size guide, and it takes about thirty seconds.
The mixed-household problem
Sighthounds are frequently second dogs, and a whippet living with a terrier means 2-inch balls in the toy basket. For the whippet those are dangerous. Every ball in a shared house has to be safe for the longest jaw in it, and the small dog will cope with a large ball far more easily than the sighthound will cope with a small one.
1. Chuckit! Ultra Ball — Best overall
The Ultra Ball is the default recommendation of almost every trainer we have spoken to, and after six weeks of testing it is easy to see why. It is a solid natural rubber ball with a slightly tacky surface that dogs find easy to pick up, and it is the reference size for Chuckit's own launcher range - a 2.5-inch medium drops into a Sport Launcher with no fiddling.
What sets it apart in practice is the bounce. Dropped from two metres onto paving it returned to roughly chest height, where a used tennis ball managed barely half that. On a beach or a park with hard paths that unpredictability is most of the entertainment. It also floats high rather than bobbing half-submerged, which matters more than you would think when a dog is swimming out to find it.
Durability is the honest caveat. Our Labrador's medium ball came through six weeks essentially unmarked. The Staffordshire Bull Terrier's split along the moulding seam at nineteen days. This is a ball to throw, not a ball to leave lying around.
What we liked
- Bounces noticeably higher than a tennis ball off hard ground
- Floats high in the water, so it stays visible on a river or lake
- Fits every standard launcher, which is why most people end up owning several
- Five sizes, so it scales from a spaniel to a mastiff
- Cheap enough that losing one in long grass is not a disaster
Where it falls short
- The seam can split on a determined chewer within a month
- The high-visibility orange fades to a dull salmon after a summer of sun
- Not a chew toy - it is a fetch toy that some dogs will destroy if left with it
Verdict: If you buy one ball, buy this one. It is the best balance of bounce, visibility, buoyancy and price on the market, and it is the ball every launcher is designed around. Just do not leave it in the crate with a chewer.
Check price: Chuckit! Ultra Ballon Amazon2. Chuckit! Air Fetch Ball — Best for flat-faced breeds and hot weather
Sold variously as the Air Fetch Ball and the Breathe Right Fetch Ball, this is a rubber ball with large openings cut through the shell so air can pass through it while a dog is carrying it. For most dogs that is a mild convenience. For a brachycephalic dog it is the difference between a game of fetch and a dog standing there panting with its mouth full.
Flat-faced breeds already have compromised airways, and a solid ball held in the mouth blocks most of what is left. Our terrier cross could run and pant simultaneously with this ball; she could not with a solid 2.5-inch. The same logic applies to any dog on a hot day, which is why this ball has a place in a Labrador owner's bag too even if it is not their first choice.
What you give up is distance and durability. It weighs a fraction of an Ultra Ball, so a launcher throw that would carry forty metres carries maybe twenty-five, and once a dog gets a canine tooth through one of the lattice openings the tear propagates quickly. Treat it as a consumable.
What we liked
- Open lattice lets a dog breathe freely with the ball in its mouth
- Very light, so it is easier on a small dog's neck and jaw
- Genuinely the right answer for pugs, French bulldogs and boxers
- Also the better choice for any dog in hot weather
- Floats, and the open structure drains rather than holding water
Where it falls short
- The lattice tears once a dog gets a tooth through one of the openings
- Noticeably shorter throwing distance than a solid ball - it is too light
- Picks up grit and mud in the openings and is a nuisance to rinse out
- The lightness that helps small dogs makes it feel flimsy to big-dog owners
Verdict: Not the ball for a Labrador, and completely the right ball for a French bulldog. If your dog has a short muzzle, or you are playing fetch in real heat, the airflow through this one stops being a gimmick and starts being the whole point.
Check price: Chuckit! Air Fetch Ballon AmazonWhat else is different about sighthounds
They are sprinters, not retrievers
Whippets and greyhounds were bred to chase, catch and stop - not to carry something back and hand it over. Plenty of them will chase a ball with spectacular commitment and then simply stand over it, or trot off with it, entirely uninterested in the returning part. That is breed-typical rather than a training failure.
If you want a reliable retrieve, the two-ball method in our fetch training guide works better with this group than anything else we have tried, precisely because it never asks the dog to give something up.
The speed is a genuine risk
A whippet reaches roughly thirty miles an hour in a handful of strides, and a greyhound faster. At that speed a hard turn or a stop on wet grass is how cruciate ligaments go, and sighthound skin is famously thin - a collision with a fence post or a bramble that would bruise a Labrador opens a whippet up. Practical consequences:
- Throw along the ground, and throw straight. A rolling ball produces a run; a high ball produces a leaping twist and a two-legged landing.
- Check the ground first. Rabbit holes and hidden debris are a much bigger deal at thirty miles an hour than at fifteen.
- Keep sessions short. These are sprinters with very little body fat and poor stamina by comparison to a working breed - five or six good runs is a session.
- Mind the cold. Minimal coat and almost no fat means a shivering whippet in a winter field is genuinely cold, not being dramatic.
They are gentle on toys
One piece of good news: sighthounds are rarely destructive chewers. Most whippets will carry a ball indefinitely without trying to dismantle it, so there is no need to spend on a West Paw Jive or a KONG Extreme Ball for durability. Buy on size and visibility instead, and spend the difference on a decent coat.
A note on ex-racing greyhounds
Rehomed racers often arrive with no idea what a toy is. They have chased a lure, which is a very different thing from playing, and many need weeks before a ball means anything at all. Start by simply leaving one where the dog can investigate it, roll it rather than throw it, and do not read early indifference as a personality trait - it usually resolves. Many ex-racers also have significant dental wear from years of kennel life, which is a further reason to avoid abrasive tennis balls. Our page on why tennis balls are a poor choice covers that.
Frequently asked questions
What size ball is safe for a whippet?
Why do sighthounds need bigger balls than their weight suggests?
Do whippets like fetch?
Is fetch safe for whippets and greyhounds?
What ball should I get an ex-racing greyhound?
How we test
Every ball on this site is bought at full retail price with our own money. Nothing here is a sample sent by a brand, and no manufacturer sees a review before it is published.
Testing runs over a minimum of six weeks with four dogs chosen for genuinely different jobs:
- A Labrador who fetches hard but chews gently - the volume tester. If a ball survives him it has survived a lot of repetitions.
- A Staffordshire Bull Terrier who destroys most things within a fortnight. He decides every durability verdict on this site; the other three rarely mark a ball at all.
- A whippet who runs flat out and catches in the air. She is the reason we care about how a ball behaves in flight rather than just on the ground - whether it tumbles or flies true, whether it is light enough to catch cleanly at speed without jarring, and whether the surface gives enough grip for a dog to take it out of the air rather than bat it away. A ball that is fine to pick up off the grass can be genuinely unpleasant to catch, and nothing else in the group would have shown us that.
- A twelve-kilo terrier cross used to check whether smaller mouths can carry a ball comfortably, and whether the weight is manageable over a full walk.
We record bounce height from a two-metre drop onto paving, whether the ball floats in still water and how much of it sits above the waterline, throwing distance with a standard launcher, catchability in flight, and the physical state of the ball at two, four and six weeks. Balls that split, delaminate or lose their shape inside six weeks do not make the recommendations regardless of brand.
Where we have not tested something, we say so on the page rather than inventing a verdict. That currently applies to the automatic ball launchers, the light-up ball category, and some of the squeaky and treat-dispensing products - each carries a visible notice.