It’s all about instinct
The first reason harks back to the dog’s oldest relative: the wolf. Experts have noted that wolves had an instinctive urge to carry their successfully-hunted prey back to their families. It follows, then, that this natural canine behaviour is something that has stayed with our four-legged friends even though pet dogs have long since been domesticated.
What Makes Playing Fetch so Addictive to Dogs?
Fetch simply consists of a game where an object, such as a ball, is thrown at a distance away from the dog, and its primary goal is to have the dog go grab it and bring it back.
Most likely, for as long as dogs have been domesticated, there was a human tossing something out for the dog to chase. Perhaps it started with food, and then it carried over to toys and other objects.
For sure, many dogs seem to love it. In an ideal situation, fetch turns out to be a cooperative and relationship-building game, but some dogs never seem to grow tired of the game, playing to the point of exhaustion, panting heavily with their tongues lolling out and caring less about other life happenings.
“My yellow Labrador, Chester is a classical ball-nut,” a client of mine once explained. “Every morning when the sun is up, rather than finding a nice breakfast in bed, Ill wake up to a wet, slimy ball with Chester looking up at me with his tail wagging in anticipation. If I ignore him, Ill get a wet cold nose planted in my face, followed by barking if I happen to turn around and try to go back to sleep. It goes without saying hes the best alarm clock out there!”
As much as Chesters story may gather some smiles, things get more serious when you hear Chesters owner describing taking Chester to the dog park and him totally ignoring other dogs because “all he wants to do is play fetch” and his owner stopping play at some point because hes afraid “Chester would run himself to sheer exhaustion.”
So, what causes dogs to get so crazy over balls? To better understand the behavior it helps to take a closer look into a dogs past ancestry as a hunter.
The behavior of chasing balls becomes easier to understand once we realize that dogs perceive balls as prey. The act of chasing balls isnt much different than chasing rabbits and other small prey. Its a strong instinctive drive that has remained ingrained to a certain extent.
Sure, its true that nowadays, our modern domesticated dogs are fed food from shiny bowls, sleep on plush pillows and wear collars studded with rhinestones, but they still remain hunters at heart retaining their eat-on-the-run tendencies.
A tossed ball is therefore irresistible to dogs who have sharp senses meant to detect movements and bodies crafted for a quick chase. So while most dogs nowadays no longer need to pursue their meals, their “chase and catch” instinct remains deeply wired into their genes.
Chasing a fastball that is tossed is therefore an adapted form of their deep natural predatory instincts.
Certain natural traits in dogs have been accentuated over the course of centuries through selective breeding so dogs could make great working partners.
A dogs natural behavior of stalking and chasing has therefore been made more prominent and modified so that certain dog breeds would herd livestock with passion, yet without hurting the animals (herders).
The natural behavior of tracking smells of prey animals has been emphasized so as to produce dogs with a superior sense of smell that could have helped with hunting down prey animals (scent hounds).
The natural behavior of chasing after and picking up prey animals has been highlighted and modified so as to produce dogs who would retrieve downed birds and bring them back to the hunter carrying them with a soft mouth so as to not spoil the meat (retrievers).
Dogs breeds selectively bred to retrieve (Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers) may therefore be particularly predisposed to wanting to chase balls. Several spaniels too may become ball “obsessed” considering that they were also utilized to retrieve shot game to the hunter with a soft mouth.
Such dogs may find chasing and carrying a saliva-soaked tennis ball as exciting and satisfying as a downed duck would be.
Of course, it goes without saying that just because you dont own a spaniel or a retriever, your dog shouldnt show any signs of interest in the game of fetch. There are many stories of Rottweilers, Shih Tzus and even Pomeranians begging for a ball-tossing session.
A game of fetch in certain predisposed dogs may turn into an adrenaline-pumping ordeal and dogs may get addicted to that. This is due to its repetitive pattern.
On top of this, dogs who play too much fetch and get obsessed with it develop a narrow view of exercise and mental stimulation and therefore come to depend too much on it just because they havent explored other forms of play. These dogs risk living their lives constantly looking for a ball.
The same pattern takes place in dog owners who come to rely on only playing fetch to exercise and play with their dogs. Soon, this becomes the default way of interacting with the dog and all other better bonding opportunities are out.
When fetching games stop, dogs often become increasingly frustrated because they struggle since they feel there is nothing else to do as their world has been built all around fetch. The same happens to the owners who dont know what else to do to keep their dogs busy. Soon a vicious cycle is formed.
The dog gets frustrated because the game stops, so he tries to start it again. He may therefore start barking at the owner, or may grab the ball and push it on the owners lap as he backs away in hopes of having it tossed.
The dog owner, on the other hand, may initially refuse to give in to such requests, but when the dog insists and he can no longer take it, he may give in and toss the ball again and again. At this point, what is happening is that the dog owner is reinforcing “persistence.”
The behavior will therefore become more and more ingrained, and the dog will therefore become more and more insistent and “ball obsessed.”
Quality Time for You and Your Dog
Of course, underscoring everything is the fact that fetch provides some quality time for you and your Lab.
Enjoying extended play time with their owner as they get to chase after Frisbees and sticks really is a dream come true for many dogs.
Unlike games of tug-of-war or even training, fetch requires less energy from you, the human, so you can playfully engage with your Lab for as long as you like and until they get tired.
Fetch is an interactive game that encourages the bond between human and dog, cementing your position as the ‘alpha’ as you command your dog to retrieve objects for you.
Most people tend to play fetch when they’re out at the park, so you can combine this fun, active game with a long walk, or even with a couple of additional training exercises if your Lab is feeling particularly on the ball.
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Why Do Dogs Play Fetch?
Answer by Debbie Jacobs, Holds certification from CPDT-KA and CAP2, author of A Guide To Living With & Training A Fearful Dog and creator of the fearfuldogs.com website
There are certain patterns of behavior that can be found in all canids. One is that they will orient toward something they hear, see, or smell. If they can see it and it moves they chase it, catch it, shake and kill it and then shred and eat it. These are not learned behaviors, they come built in.Advertisement
Working dogs were selected in part based on the presence or absence or strength of the behaviors mentioned in the pattern above. Herding dogs orient and look at (eye) and chase. A border collie in the habit of biting and killing is not selected for. Retrievers will grab but are less inclined to shake and eat. We teach them to come back to us. Terriers follow the pattern through to the kill, though Im not sure if handlers let them shred and eat what they catch.
All of these behaviors are self-reinforcing, meaning they make the dog feel good. They dont need to be rewarded for the behavior. If you like playing football, you play football even if you dont get paid to do it. It just feels good to do it. Same is true for dogs. if you have a dog who in their genetic mix happens to be strongly predisposed to chasing and grabbing something, and at some point introduce them to the game of fetch, you can end up with a dog who wants to do it a lot. This level of drive or motivation might have been highly sought after if you were a hunter and didnt want a dog who decided they needed an afternoon nap in the middle of a hunt.
I have a personal theory, and its just that, I have no evidence to back it up other than anecdotal and that is that a dog who has less going on in their life is more likely to become addicted to whatever activity they do have access to, which makes them feel good. So a dog who spends upwards of 15 hours a day doing nothing, living either inside a house or out in a kennel, gets to do something rewarding for any amount of time, they are more likely to become obsessed with the activity. Also, given that the average healthy dog can walk or run for more hours than they usually are given the opportunity for, youre looking at a lot of energy to go toward doing something else, like fetching balls.More questions on