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Location: West Sussex UK
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 2,044
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I could write a book about Wilma & her tennis balls!!
She nearly always carries a tennis ball on walks because without it, in times of stress & anxiety, her default behaviour is to jump all over Barney & rag at his neck to get him to engage with her. Poor Barney puts up with it for a while, & does play, but there's only so much he can take! So I found that if Wilma carries a tennis ball, she doesn't do this to Barney, plus she's far more confident meeting new people when she's holding something soft in her mouth. And her latest trick is to walk up to any small children she meets, drop her ball in front of them & back off staring at her ball ~ I've not met a child yet who hasn't got the message "please throw my ball for me"
It works a treat & Wilma's absolutely fantastic at knowing where her ball is. She often drops her ball to chase rabbits, deer etc, to stop & sniff at things & when she greets other dogs. There's no problem with this as she knows exactly where she dropped it & will go & find it everytime. Even when she drops the ball in full flight after a deer, it's always dropped on the path & she always manages to sniff it out, even when it's rolled yards down a slope (or into a rabbit hole ~ which is a different story as my arms aren't always long enough to get it out!).
The only time I have any problems are:
- if she stops for a poo ~ she won't pick her ball up again if it's anywhere near a poo, either hers or another dog's ~ she stares at her ball, then at me so I have to go & get it!
- or when she drops it to say hello to another dog. Quite often the other dog will pick up the dropped ball. Now Wilma doesn't worry about this at all, she's not possessive or guardy with her balls. But it can be very annoying for me, especially if the other dog runs off with it, or I don't feel it's appropriate to try to take it back from the other dog. So many a time I've chased after other owners shouting "excuse me, please can we have our ball back?" I've never had a problem doing this & all other owners I meet are quite happy to return the ball, & many apologise for their dog's behaviour. I don't blame the other dogs ~ it's Wilma's fault for dropping her ball in front of another dog.
Sometimes the other dog won't give the ball back & the owner is embarrassed because he/she can't catch the dog to get it back. I'm quite happy to ask if their dog will swap the ball for a treat ~ this often works well. But if not, then I just have to allow the other dog to keep the ball ~ they're often covered in mud & doggy saliva by then anyway ~ not everyone's idea of a desirable toy!! I always carry at least 2 tennis balls because of this & have a bagful permanently in the back of the car.
My friend has a dog with very similar behaviour to Wilma ~ she carries her ball because she's a gobby cow who'll bark for attention so we stick a ball in her mouth to shut her up
. But Wilma & my friend's dog never quarrel over balls, they each know their own ball, & will make sure they pick the right one up. The only exception is when we throw the balls into the river. My friend's dog won't go out of her depth, so Wilma is asked to retrieve both balls. She tries to do this by fitting both balls in her mouth at the same time (now it's starting to sound like a porn story
) but is rarely successful. So I have to call her out of the water with one ball, then pretend to throw it back so she swims out to find the other ball ~ hence her nickname "The Ball Monitor"!!
As you can imagine, my friend & I get through quite a lot of tennis balls, especially in the winter when it's dark. But we've managed to secure a good free supply by asking at local tennis clubs if we can have any old balls that are no longer any good for playing with. One club (where my sister's family are members) have a large bin & balls that are no longer suitable for matches are put in there for any children to practice with. Once the children have finished with them, we've provided another bin, which we empty once a week/month, when we're passing ~ all for free
. Plus my sister's family go round the outside of the courts & collect any "lost" balls for me, plus I've got quite a few tennis-playing friends at work, who've all been "trained" to give me their old tennis balls. All in all, we've got an almost endless supply for free
.
I've tried the "tennis balls" they sell in pet shops ~ rubbish quality & only last 5 minutes as the dogs chew them up. Only the best quality Slazenger/Wilson etc for our dogs!