Not terrible and soome became my puppys preferred game over shredding our limbs lol.. Only negative for this mega chew tug toy is that the handle is not durable. I have a 16 month old puppy and with an hour my little terror SHREDDED the handle! So now our tug time results in mild palm dermal abrasion... rog has stood sturdy as well as the braiding so that's something.Got a new dog, and we never tried a rope toy with him, well the way he LIT UP soon as I pulled out the new toy was the cutest thing EVER! I've never seen him get so hype for any toy before like this one. Instant match made in heaven for him!I really love this toy for several reasons. 1) it is long enough for my dog not to accidentally grab my hands when we play 2) it has a nice handle that does not hurt my hands when my dog pulls real hard 3) it is sturdy enough for my dog not to chew it up (at least not right away)Our puppy is 30 lbs and he has some difficulty grabbing onto the thickness at this size. However, when he does, he is strong. My husband loves the handle, as it allows us a strong hold without grabbing a saliva rope!My large dog loves playing with rope toys. This toy has a rope that is long enough to make it fun for him while keeping your fingers a safe distance from his mouth. The handle makes it easier on your hands during games of tug of war. He doesn’t hesitate to rush over to this toy and pick it up when he wants to play. Hopefully it will be able to hold up under his rough play since the knots are fairly large.We have a lot of rope toys, all of which my dog loves, so I'm not sure why he's not keen on this one.Typically he prefers to pull it out of our hands and gnaw on the plastic handle. So we had to put this one away. Maybe in the future he'll be more into it.