Feeling very down. Rory always had a real problem with football's or balls made from a certain type of rubber/plastic. This type of petrochemical product drives him insane hes so very excited by it. I trained him to leave them as he has colitis and he eats the balls and they make him ill. He's been doing really well giving them up when he gets them or finds them and not eating them either. He'd got to the stage were He would play we'd have a nice game and give it back. Last friday we had a visit to the vets he has a growth on his eye to be checked a injury (deep long cut) to his leg to see and his vacinations. He was stressed so I walked him back over the park so he could play a little gentle retreave and relax. He found a football in the hedge and went crazy galloping around and jumped on me he knocked me over and everytime I tried to get up he jumped on me to show me the ball, he and knocked me down again. After the 3rd time i stayed down and just grabbed him as he could have run onto the road in his excitment. He refused to drop the ball completely and could not calm down so I clipped him onto his lead and walked home. I wasn't happy and very bruised. When I told him firmly to drop that f**king ball he dropped it immediately . He seemed a Little upset too he clearly had found it all too much too. I left him in the kitchen to rest and calm down and took the old girl out. He's been a bit flighty all weekend so it's been calm walks and lead walking. I've also been rewarding drop it. Today he stole another dogs rubberized ball of type he likes. He got way way over excited would not drop it and headbutted me and kept leaping at me. I just sat down got him to lie down asked the man and his pup to move off as Rory was just too excited. i used huge handfuls if treats get the ball back to gave to the man apologised kept Rory on his lead and took him a Moo home. I left Moo at home and took him to do a cool walk. He found another football. He clearly wanted to try to knock me over but i I just kept give a handful of treats getting him to drop it and then throw it out for him again. I kept repeating this and HE calmed down and played for a while . I let him carry it home then got another football out and just kept swapping them without letting him get too excited. Then I took one away then took the other away and he was fine. What's the best way to proceed he clearly finds football's and some balls to exciting. Do I take them off him altogether? Which is impossible as he could find one in a desert or carry one all the time and just get him to give em back until he's bored with them. He really loves plastics and some rubbers its always been a problem for him.
Well that sounds like a tough day!! I hope you've had something restorative I think you're right in that you can't totally control his access to balls so you'll need to train through it. I would carry a beloved ball or toy for emergency swaps. In the meantime carry on training him to deliver the balls without wiping you out in the process. I'd work on a drop at my feet with rewards thrown away from you to keep him off you.
Oh dear, you poor soul , I can empathise to a point . Sam used to be totally obsessed with tennis balls , which at the time was great because I could use this as a training aid , and it worked fantastically , to the point that I was able to walk him through the middle of a load of ducks without him glancing at them , because I had a ball ! However , this began to get out of hand , he began to steal balls from other dogs , and even chomp them up if I didn't pay him enough retrieving attention . I took them away , and just carried one in my pocket , as a bargaining tool ! I also think that , for Sam anyway , he had to learn that ball games were on my terms and not his , and carrying a ball worked really well , a kind of Russian roulette , he might be given it or he might not ! It did calm him right down . Hugs for you , sounds like you need them x
Oh I do hope you're okay!! I agree with @/bbrown, I think the best option would be to carry lots of treats and his favourite toys. My lab is slightly the same where she finds stray food and will get excited and try to eat it (and as you can imagine it's always very very unhealthy things that she should not be having!!) - what I try to do is distract her away from it or give her a treat so she is more interested in that than the food on the ground. If he already has a toy he'd be more interested in than the ball maybe that would tempt him away, as well as continuing the training. Taking them away from him may be effective but it'd only work temporarily I'd say, as there is the chance he will find them out and about.
Can you find a smaller ball that interests him? In your initial training I'd play ping pong recall with two balls of equal value. (I'm ignoring double entendres screaming in my head right now!) At the end swap out for the best food reward you can find. Create a cue for throwing the reward. I use 'ready, ready, ready!' and crouch like I'm about to throw. It's luring but that's ok to start with.
Boy, bet you were feeling that a day or later yourself. I wonder if Rory might like Treibball? He could push the ball around instead of knocking you over. At the very least it might be an alternative pushing and shoving action you could reward him for and transfer him to the ball, instead of you?
Its only football's I'm afraid it's the way they smell . There's an inner layer which is rubberized and he wants it. If he smells or sees a football he will drop anything else he has. I thought about some tug games too
I don't have any advice but just wanted to say that I'm sorry you had such a hard day and are feeling down, I hope you can have a nice relaxing evening and feel better soon.
Oh @SwampDonkey , I do hope you are alright. Oh Rory what were you thinking. Ok not thinking. Cassie's hormone laden rhino charges have been bad enough but at least I've not been rendered horizontal yet. I think you've had some very good advice, I've found that deflecting her by throwing a ball or tug toy seems to just check her enough. I've also had immediate response by using the f*** word
It was funny because we all know each other and yesterday someone dared pluck up enough courage to ask me why I was lying in the park with Rory sitting on my chest with a football in his mouth. They wondered if It was a new training method. Apparently we were the talk of the park on Friday we'll get through I just grateful for the support and more good ideas
So kind but I'm feeling much more positive and less like strangling him and thinking about ways round it. Just having a little sit down for a bit
Aah @SwampDonkey, no advice but sorry you were knocked down - bad enough once but three times!!! You always manage to find humour in the grimmest circumstances and I really hope you are ok.
Aw so sorry. Sounds like you really took a bruising. Interestingly with Snowie, when we had to go cold turkey (no balls while recovering from slipped disc), he stopped chasing and stealing other dogs' balls, and it has lasted to this day. Could this be an option - to stop all footballs? My understanding is you need to treat it like an addiction.
We've tried stop football's but there are too many in the environment and he can smell em miles away. I'm looking to away to control the football freak out to lessen the excitement. I would be frightened he would steal there football's of others
