Who cares?

Ap does lol

I felt like screaming at someone this morning when they appeared with the dog they've turned into 'ball obsessed' , have mentioned them before. Could've grabbed the 'chuck it stick' n wrapped it round their neck (sorry rant over)

If the dog is ball obsessed why is it a problem to you?

rune

one of the ways I teach people who have dogs with high prey drives some control, is to redirect their prey drive off cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, deer, joggers, cyclists, skateboarders and cars etc etc onto a ball.

Nature abhors a vacuum, stopping a dog chasing things you do not want it to chase will leave one, if you do not give the dog something else which is SAFE to chase.

You then have complete control of the dog, simple!

To add

With the BD fox scenario I was talking about my terriers reactions, not collies.

I have to say while my dogs do chase sticks/balls ect they do have a lot more enthusiasm for chasing real stuff (usually foxes)

Re what SB says. I have certainly found that if you have a dog that chases balls and (Insert inappropriate prey item here) when you stop its chasing of the wrong thing its ball drive (if you will) increases.

Whats the story with working dogs then? Do they loose ball drive the more they work sheep, retrieve birds ect.

Adam

The owners have trailed the dog around for up to nine hours a day for four years with nothing but the ball. They don't 'walk' the dog, it has had health problems in all this time, which i think is in part caused by the stress of the above mentioned. It cannot be good for the dog surely, it doesn't interact with any other dogs or people, just constantly waiting, crouching down n is aggresive on occasion if anyone approaches.

Hmm but that problem is, as usual, not the fact that the dog is ball obsessed per se, but overuse of it by the owners.

Anything can be abused, and this has.

As a matter of interest my dogs rarely interact with other people or dogs, does not make them "stressed" (one of them does not do stress anyway).......... IMHO.

Yes, it's not the actual ball but what they're doing with it. I think it is the overuse that is bad and causing problems for the dogs health. Up until three years ago the dog would engage with other dogs and people a little but not anymore, i don't think it's that that's making the dog stressed though but a consequence of what the owners are doing(if that makes any sense)

Meaning that chasing prey is a natural innate behaviour but we teach them to redirect, or utilise that innate behaviour into chasing something we find more acceptable & less potentially dangerous & it includes participation with the owner .

Many dogs happily chase a ball, if they are taught that it is fun, & do so as part of their normal repertoire of behaviours, then fine. But I have also seen dogs (usually collies) that have become so ball obsessed that they think of & do nothing else out on walks. I've known one collie that wouldn't even stop to toilet unti the walk was over & the ball put away. And IMO if the dog is so "ball obsessed, to the exclusion of all other normal behaviours, like sniffing, interacting with other dogs etc, then perhaps it is not so normal, & therefore not so healthy.

I've also seen owners just standing in the park with a ball chucker, maybe chatting to a mate, or on their phone, doing nothing else with the dog, & hardly moving from where they've parked their car ~ I struggle with that, as if that's all they do to give their dog physical exercise, then it's just lazy. But I could be doing thse people a disservice in that when I've seen them, perhaps it's just a quick stretch of the legs at lunchtime & they do other things as well.