Hope you can help as I can’t find anything about this on the website. Dibley, 2 years old black Lab is fixated with balls and anything else you can throw, she just sits and waits for ages (hours) for you to throw something for her. Is this normal? She also will not walk some days, and just lays down. If we take a ball she will walk and play with the ball but if we put the ball away she sits down and will not move or go home from the walk. Her younger brother is fine, but she won’t budge! (unless there is a ball involved!)
Hi Penny and welcome to the forum. It sounds like you need to do lots of work with balls becoming boring things. Just don't throw anything for her for a long time. At first, I would go on walks without a ball at all, and then, after some time of doing that, take a ball out but never throw it. It's like most behaviours; if she eventually gets rewarded for sitting and waiting, then she'll be prepared to sit and wait for longer and longer so, if it's something you want to discourage, you have to make sure you don't reward her, even (especially) after a long wait. My two love, love, love balls, but they only get them as a reward for something. So, they have massive appeal, and they're prepared to work very hard to earn them. It sounds like, once you've got her calmed down a bit around them, using them in this manner might be the best way to manage her exposure to them.
Thank you I will hide all balls for a while but I can't get her to walk without a ball, she plain refuses to move. Any ideas?
I think it's something you may just have to wait out. If she realises that she's not going to get a ball by refusing to move, she should get over it. It may take a day or so, but it won't kill her to do without walks for that short time. Just do some stuff at home with her instead - training or games or whatever.
Another thought: you could also try building her enthusiasm for a different type of toy - a tug toy, for example - and use that to enthuse her out and about.
Zaba, my friends dog, has been with us for three weeks - he is ball obsessed. It drives me nuts, so I just don't take one with us. It took a week or so for him to stop asking. Now, in my view, he enjoys his walks much more sniffing, hoolying and bumbling.
I think you're right, Mags, truly ball-obsessed dogs don't spend the time to smell the flowers along the way. They often seem really quite anxious. My two LOVE their balls, don't get me wrong, but they get them as a reward for giving me behaviours, then they get put away, at which point the dogs can switch off from them and carry on doing normal dog things.
She just wont move unless there is a ball so we are walking Deacon (our other Lab) and leaving her at home - just waiting it out!!
I met a lady in the park with her Daschund who was ball obsessed. Behaviourist said absolutely no ball, that it was like a drug to the daksie and that the more she got it, the more she'd want it. So they had to go cold turkey. It looked really, really hard for both of them. So I can imagine how you're feeling. Snowie hurt his back late last year and is now not allowed to retrieve balls. On our outing to the park or a big grassy area where dogs play with balls it was really difficult at first, he'd bark at me with pleading eyes, Where's my ball? After about a week we realised he wasn't asking for his ball. And instead, as @Boogie said, he began to engage with his surroundings and the other dogs more, looked like he was having so much more fun. He wasn't ball obsessed so I guess it was easier for us. But it was just so interesting how it didn't take that much time for him to get used to not having the ball anymore. He does love balls, though, and last week on a trail he spotted a tennis ball stuck in the river that he couldn't get to, poor boy tried desperately to retrieve it but couldn't (it was stuck in a very difficult to get to place), so I ended retrieving the ball for him! He was so happy to carry it all the way back to the car! (And then promptly forgot about it -- it's probably still there, rolling around under the seat.) I'll be interested to know how you get on with waiting it out!
I have a ball obsessed dog. If you have a ball obsessed dog, it stops being funny very quickly. I smile when I meet people that say their Labradors are ball obsessed - they mostly are not at all. These dogs are just very keen on balls, and when I see these supposedly 'ball obsessed' dogs it just makes me laugh that they think they have a problem. I choose to use balls with my dog - he gets a ball for behaviour that is 'normal'. I don't deprive him of balls, because I can't. He is a pet and surrounded by balls in his environment. So I use balls, but only as rewards. He never gets a ball but after behaviour that is not about the ball. This has been very successful, but hundreds and hundreds of hours of work....
Thanks MF and Julie - yes I agree, ball obsessed is actually BALL OBSESSED, not just she like balls! She is still sitting out the walks unless we go as a family so I guess she doesnt want to stay home alone. We have not taken any balls on these 2 walks and she has been ok in the main but then just sometimes sits and does not move (waiting for a throw!). My husband has spent separate time with her in the garden with ball throwing for a finite time every other day as I cannot just take it off her! What do you think of this idea?
Sorry I can't help you -- I don't know if cold turkey or weaning off is the better way to go. Will be interesting to hear how it goes for you and also what others say.
Personally, I don't give balls away for free - ever. Not with a dog that is ball obsessed. It's been a long, and painful road for us getting control around balls - and I need it, because we live in a busy place where other pet owners, golfers, football players, tennis players etc - all use balls. These days, he can even seem normal around balls, and even sniff instead of taking a ball, because doing other things has been reinforced so very much. I do not see the point of allowing a ball obsessed dog to indulge their obsession unless it is after behaviour that reduces the tendency to be ball obsessed. But, you know, I'm not so sure that there are hard and fast rules here, it depends on the reaction of your dog. If what you are doing is working, keep doing it!
