Why Ball Obsession Can Be An Issue
Having a dog that is obsessed with a ball can become an issue when your dog views the ball as more relevant than you and anything around him.
This state of mind will essentially ensure conflict between your dog and others, many dog fights occur due to competition for high-value resources between dogs.
You also don’t want to make it a habit of being fixated and obsessed with the ball. Many dog behaviors start as voluntary but with enough repetition, the behavior becomes involuntary meaning your dog won’t be able to control how he responds instead it will be “auto-response”
Although having your dog being obsessed with a ball is an issue there are a couple of ways to combat these issues.
How Can You Tell If “My Dog Is Obsessed With Balls?”
Fixation when you pull out a ball
The first sign that your dog may be a bit obsessed with balls is if your dog gets fixated and you are unable to break your dog’s attention from staring at the ball.
Possessiveness
If your dog starts becoming a bit possessive towards the ball, showing behaviors such as avoiding you when he has the ball, growling when you get close, your dog may look at the ball as high value and can become an issue.
Anxiety
If your dog starts displaying signs of anxiety such as whining and vocalizing your dog may little too obsessed with the ball
Play fetch in a structured way, with time limits.
I tried to keep the hyped-up, mindless fetch throwing to a minimum. Instead, I made my dog take breaks, and I included structured rules or commands. For example, I would make Ace sit until I released him to retrieve the ball. And sometimes I had him wait while I hid the ball, followed by the command “Find it!”
You may want to try disc dog classes, flyball or other sports with your dog. Ace and I took a disc dog class for fun and he of course loved this. We also did lots of fetch playing in the water whenever possible.
Ball obsessed dog? DO THIS! Playing ball the right way with Paulie Walnuts and Maple.
Hands up if you have a dog who loves balls, sticks, squeaky toys and other innate objects to the point that it is now starting to drive you crazy? My hand is raised here and Darcy’s ball obsession is something that I’ve been working on with him over the past few months.
At first it’s all fun and games, but the impact that a ball obsession can have on a dog’s body does not bode well for them as they move into old age so, as hard as it is, the kindest thing you can do is keep jarring ball chasing to a minimum.
It can also become increasingly frustrating if your dog continually ignores you when they are in this ‘zone’ and hard to understand why your usually obedient dog has suddenly gone deaf to your please to ‘stop’.
We of course think it is the dog that has gone crazy with its obsession when, from their point of view, we’re the ones that have become totally unreasonable. Wasn’t it in fact us humans that first started encouraging them to chase the ball, stick, frisbee (aka a ‘prey’ like object) mindlessly for hours on end for no other purpose than to exercise the dog?
The truth is the dog is just being a dog and doing what biology is telling it to do (ie: chase prey to survive!). And, when a dog is in this prey drive it is actually experiencing a drug-like induced high as their body releases endorphins that make them feel good, which as we all know can be addictive and therefore explains why they keep wanting to do it despite us trying to ignore them, hide the ball or stick, shouting at them to stop and so on.
So, how do we help them fulfill this biological need and get all the benefits that come with a good game of fetch or tug, but also know and understand when it is time to stop?
If this kind of play is done correctly it will not only help exercise your dog, build stamina and strength but it will also help your dog to learn to focus and engage with you even when it is in prey drive.
It is all about it being on your terms, not theirs (this is the golden rule of dog training across many behaviours by the way) and it is also important that if your dog is pulling up sore, or is starting to age, that you shift to games that are more gentle on their joints like tug-o-war or treat treasure hunt to help avoid osteoarthritis and other joint pain.