I do not have any bile, I am merely asking a logical question.

I am not aware of any vocabulary that is a) not man made and b) that is restricted to animal behaviour.

Plus I am not the person who accused other posters of being "sloppy".

Therefore I believe I cannot be the only one who would appreciate some clarification of your views!

Ok Sweetie?!

Or is your post a prime example of Kellys Theory of Personal Constructs?! It would appear to be.

I've only ever met one dog that was truly 'obsessed'. Totally distressed when the object of the obsession was out of sight and oblivious of anything and everything around it when it was. This I would class as 'clinical obsession'.

Ball 'obsessed' as usually used in the training sense is perhaps better described as a switch of focus from one thing that 'drives' the dog (ie sheep chasing, etc etc etc to focussing on the ball instead, thus satisfying the 'drive' need).

As others have said, it's important to have an 'off' switch so that the dog has relaxation time as well as excitement time

Agree with all of the above, there is a difference between a diagnosis of clinical obsession and when obsession is used in the vernacular.

(hopefully these human words used to describe a characteristic that can be both canine and human are neither misleading nor a sloppy way of viewing animal behaviour)

The Viszla is pretty obsessed with the small animals but she is learning to switch off to them a bit. I have had collies visit who were fixated by the gerbils. One friends dog we made up a little aquarium and put it on the floor and wiggled our fingers under the sand every now and then---it stopped her from jumping up and knocking the real ones down!

Polly was fixated/obsessed by the chinchillas until she went blind. She would just lie and watch them all the time.

All of those dogs could be called away for food or a walk or an interesting time in the garden.

I suppose true obsession would mean they wouldn't leave them at all. It is more of a hobby for them really

rune

This describes Jessie perfectly.
If a ball is present, even out of sight in my pocket, I cannot get rid of her and she is constantly under my feet. She wont go and do the normal things she does like chase squirrels and rabbits so I try not to take a toy out too often. If I dont then she's dropping sticks, plastic bottles, bits of debris at my feet.
She had her ball today and had dropped it at my feet and backed up. I was doling out treats to the other 2, offered her one and she totally ignored it in favour of fixating on the ball.

I think obsession is a useful tool as long as you dont feed it too much and can control it. Thats why all toys at home are placed in a dog proof area otherwise Jessie would have them all in her bed and be badgering me to play everytime I went in the kitchen.

No I dont think obsession is a good thing
But I guess it depends what you mean by it

I know a dog who is obseesed by chasing shadows, when there are any shadows he will happily charge at them and keep doing so until they go away, then he crys for them
He is never settled, his entire life is chasing them

I also go out for group walks with some dogs (collies Im sure you would have guessed) The whole walk for these dogs is trying to crouch in just the right position infront of them so the ball is magically chucked

I heard one of them fetched untill he fitted on a hot day

Then dont sniff, play or see anything else around them for the full walk

I wish mine were a little more toy motivated - but I dont want them obsessed

I prefer to say Tilly is ball focused.
Her other thing I call a fixation , which is feet. We've thought we've got rid of it/trained it out of her so many times, but then the trigger changes & it comes back & we have to start again.
It's hard work trying to understand her at times!