Anything you throw for a dog near water is on borrowed time unless it floats, and a soaked plush toy usually goes straight in the bin afterwards. The lobster floats, comes back out of the pond or the sea, and then goes through the washing machine. It is long-limbed too, which gives a dog somewhere obvious to grab and gives you something to swing on a beach without catching yourself with it.

Tuffy's construction is what puts it a class above supermarket plush: several layers of material bonded together and then stitched through in multiple rows, with webbing sewn along the seams where teeth get purchase first. A standard soft toy has one layer and one seam, so a single failure empties it in an evening. Here a dog has to work through layer after layer, and most lose interest long before that. Wash it and let it air dry.

• 10.2 x 25.4 x 38.1 cm
• Around 270 g
• Multiple bonded layers with several rows of stitching
• Protective webbing along the seams
• Floats for water play
• Machine washable, air dry
• Made in China, shipped tracked to the UK

Tough is not indestructible. Given long enough on its own, a determined dog will get into any plush toy, this one included. Keep it for supervised play, check the seams from time to time, and retire it once an inner layer is showing rather than waiting for the stuffing to come out across the carpet.

Who it's for: Dogs who fetch in water and owners tired of fishing sodden toys out of a pond only to throw them away afterwards.