Built because Huckleberry needed a job
Huckleberry is an Australian Shepherd × Border Collie cross, the kind of dog that needs work rather than entertainment.
In August 2020 the Santa Cruz Mountain wildfires forced our family out of the house. We were displaced for six months, in a rental with no yard, with an anxious working dog pacing a room and nowhere to put her energy.
We wanted something big enough that she could not bite it and tough enough to survive her trying. Nothing on the market was both, so we made one ourselves.
What we ended up with
Inside, an inflatable ball with a needle valve holds the air and the shape. Outside, a cover in 1680 denier ballistic fabric takes the teeth and the claws and whatever surface the dog drags it across. The seams are double-stitched with heavy-duty nylon thread, and the zipper has a detachable puller, so once the ball is closed there is nothing loose left for a dog to work at.
Two layers, and the useful bit is that they come apart. Each layer can be replaced on its own, so one worn part never means a new ball. A sealed gym ball offers nothing like that: one puncture and the whole thing is waste.
If you want the full breakdown, it is on what a herding ball is and how ours is built.
The original, and the copies
We launched the first fabric-covered inflatable herding ball in June 2021. The first copies appeared on Amazon that November, and there are dozens now.
We take that as the compliment it is. But it is worth knowing what you are comparing. Most of what we have seen sold as a herding ball is a single sealed layer with a printed pattern. The shape got copied, the two-layer build did not, and that is what decides whether you are buying something once or every few months.
Since 2021
The design has not fundamentally changed since the first one we made in San Francisco. Over 1,000 orders worldwide, and a community of 61,900 on Instagram at @_collieball, mostly people posting videos of their dogs doing exactly what we hoped they would.
Coming to Europe
We will ship in Europe from a warehouse in Zagreb, Croatia. That warehouse is not running yet, which is why nothing on this site can be ordered today. It will be the same product and the same build we have been sending out since 2021, designed in San Francisco and dispatched from Croatia once we go live.
Join the launch list and we will write to you on the day that changes.
How far the durability claim goes
We will not tell you the ball is indestructible. Nothing a determined dog can reach is. What we can tell you is what it is made of: a ballistic fabric cover, a separate inflatable inner, a double zipper. The inner is sold on its own, so a repair costs one part instead of a whole ball.
It is built for the toughest chewers we have met, and we would rather tell you exactly how it is built and what each part costs to replace than make a promise we cannot keep.