ball obsessed dog

globe · Post by **globe** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 2:05 am

Hi

My dog is obsessed with balls. Go down the park with the ball chucker and will not interact with anyone or thing, just stares at the ball chucker till the ball gets chucked. This is fine but it also means she snaps at other dogs when they come near her as I presume she thinks they are trying to take her ball away.

If we go down the park without our ball chucker she races after other dogs balls.

Any ideas how I can tone down this obsession ? thanks

ps. she is a three and a half year old huntaway x am bulldog.

MaiasMom · Post by **MaiasMom** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 1:27 pm

Some dogs are just ball driven. I see this all the time at the off leash. In the long list of things a dog can be obsessed with, this is not so bad. I see many dogs at the off leash that will focus on a ball rather than play with other dogs. Is the issue more that you think your dog should play with other dogs or that the ball is just more interesting to your dog than the other dogs? This could be a good thing when it comes to training, use the ball as a reward for a task done.

Kai will either steal another dogs ball or find some nasty ball he wants to bring home. I have to take another dogs ball from him, hide it behind my back and give it to the owner and walk Kai away to distract him from going to get it back.

MaiasMom · Post by **MaiasMom** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 1:29 pm

PS, my daugther had a dog that was so ball driven she bought a tennis ball launcher, used and loaded it up with tennis balls so her arm would not fall off throwing the ball for him, she wore out ball chuckers also. The only down side was that she had to go pick up the 50 + balls to restock the thing.

Leigha · Post by **Leigha** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:33 pm

I somehow missed your post earlier--Bruiser is really bad with balls, sticks, and pinecones at the dog park. It starts fights because he'll get grumpy when someone comes near him when he has a ball or he'll go try to steal a ball that someone else has.

We pretty much just follow him around and try to distract him so he leaves the balls alone, or try to keep him away from the areas where other people are throwing the balls.

Mattie · Post by **Mattie** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:46 am

Don't let your dogs play with sticks, they are very dangerous and can kill your dog. Balls and frisbies are much safer.

Have a look at this http://www.colliecorner.com/stick-to-toys/home.htm, you won't thow sticks for your dogs again if you read it.

Leigha · Post by **Leigha** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 4:58 pm

Oh we don't LET him play with sticks--I take every last one of them away, he just happens to like them.

globe · Post by **globe** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:30 am

MaiasMom wrote:Some dogs are just ball driven. I see this all the time at the off leash. In the long list of things a dog can be obsessed with, this is not so bad. I see many dogs at the off leash that will focus on a ball rather than play with other dogs. Is the issue more that you think your dog should play with other dogs or that the ball is just more interesting to your dog than the other dogs? This could be a good thing when it comes to training, use the ball as a reward for a task done.

I do not mind her being ball obsessed but what I do not like is that she snaps and gets grumpy when other dogs come up to her when she has a ball - as often other dogs in parks off leash do. She often shows no interest in them which is fine but I would just like to lose the aggression towards the other dogs.

DOn't know if it makes any difference but she is exactly the same with sticks also.

Leigha · Post by **Leigha** » Wed Nov 04, 2009 6:14 am

I still haven't gotten Bruiser to not be "into" balls, sticks, and pinecones, but I can tell you what's helped us (I'm not saying it's the best solution, but it's what has kept us from having another dog fight). We learned drop it in puppy school--so we get him to drop it, then distract him by doing something else. Usually Jason will run around and let Bru chase him, or I'll hide it and we'll make some "ooh, let's go!" excited noises and walk away, and he'll follow, or we'll run him through his commands and he'll lose interest in whatever I've just taken. We don't just get to sit back and relax at the dog park. We are constantly walking around following our dog to monitor what he's got and what he's doing. Which I'm fine with as I don't like the dog parents who have no clue what their dogs are up to.