A ball was very useful for Rory when he went through his eat anything stage. I got one with a squeek and it worked well as a distraction but I never threw far and not often. I was very careful as im sure you will be. My dogs physiotherapist loves ball chuckers as they are so good for business. "Bad for dogs good for business". i've never used one for this reason I think the temptation is just to through to far for too long. A springer near me has been totally destroyed by his owners constant use of one. He can't walk properly and his muscle are just weird. Its muscles have developed into parodes of a normal structure His owner stands at the gate of the park with 2 to 3 balls and justs chuck for about 20 mins. The dogs not that old but it moves like a dog in pain and its back legs joints have become lke flappy hinges. It makes me wince to see him. Walking seems difficult for him and he just moves at a hoppy canter. He reminds me of someone who wear high heels and can't manage on flats anymore. the owner can't seem to see that he's made his dogs life painful, i just feel sick when i see the poor thing with his unnatural gait and strange muscle developments.
I have done that as well, thrown one...and when Benson ran out..thrown a second ball with a 2 pip whistle. He then changes direction but already out. I have also used it to help with a stop whistle. As he expects something fun to happen when I blow it, and his reward is another ball thrown, this works better than trying to chuck a treat at that distance!
I use a ball chucker. I throw the ball into long grass and when it drops she goes and finds it. I always have another ball or dummy that I hide when she's retrieving the other one, so when she comes back she has to find it. We do this about 5-10 times on a walk and she loves it. She is ball obsessed, but won't pick anyone else's ball up, and doesn't mind if another dog picks hers up. We do also throw the ball for her to chase, but not very often. We rarely use tennis balls now as sand/mud were coarse on her teeth......we use chuckit balls which are great. When she was younger I did use it to get her attention......for example, if she was just about to run to another dog or a child we didn't know, I would get the ball out, wave it around, run off with it and if she followed I would throw it for her to catch/find. It really helped us as she isn't really interested in food when on a walk - I use the ball in the same way others use food.
I did that with Will especially when he was soaking wet from the sea - for some reason people don't care to be 'greeted' by a large, wet dog.
