That is a very good point but dogs can become obsessive over many things. Teaki is over her squeaky toy, it doesn't leave her site most of the time and she will cry and whine if it is taken away (when she has growled at the other dog for getting near it, etc.). When she was little she used to have 3-4 different squeak toys that she had to have with her at night before she would go to sleep.
So I think it is all control and knowing your dogs behavior. We don't use it all the time (Ziggi wouldn't mind if we did) only when it is raining outside or he has alot of energy and can't go running (like recently with his bad leg). They know as soon as we get it out because they can hear the trigger click but so far Ziggi has never had a problem with being able to stop. We don't use it every day, not even every week just when he is really wanting to go out and play and can't. Not sure if it is different because we use the nerf gun and he can see where the light comes from and knows to follow it back to the gun so he isn't just hunting for the light and never finding it.