[playswithfire]

Looks great. You can use any type of toy you want (there even was an Aussie who jumped because it liked water without a toy being thrown). Most people use a wubba, dead fowl trainer/bumper or some sort of tennis ball item. Whatever your dog likes, you can use as long as it floats, the dog can retreive it, and isn't edible and has never been alive.
The dock and pool are both 40' long as Tinka's mom said, but you can use as much or as little of it as you want. There are also many techniques on jumping you dog, the chase and place and send are just two. It doesn't matter what you use, as long as you don't push your dog in (that doesn't seem like it will be a problem with your dog)
Hope that helped, and hope to see you in Santa Rosa (there will be lots of practice time for a newbie during the 2 weeks that Splash Dogs will be there).