It's a daft question but ... I have bought lots of kongs and nylabone teething rings for my pup but no balls. I read somewhere, or maybe in a few places, that balls were dangerous so I decided against them. And if I wanted to do gun dog training there was a question mark over mouthing. However, I also see that lots of Labradors enjoy having balls! Do you all have balls? Am I being mean? :-\
Re: Who has balls? I use tennis balls a lot in hunting training my spaniels. But I never leave the balls with the dogs to play with. They are for training purposes only.
Re: Who has balls? My Labrador loves tennis balls, he does mouth them but that hasn't made a difference to his dummy holding. I would never leave a dog alone with a ball, use them purely for training as a hunting, or retrieving exercise and for a reward.
Re: Who has balls? Same here, we use tennis balls and he does mouth them a bit but he's never left with them and he doesn't mouth dummies. They're very useful if you train on your own as you can get a tennis ball chucker and get several balls out at once and quite far distances....also helpful if, like me, you can't throw! As with most things you can give it a try and make a judgement if it's working for you.....we and our dogs are all different
Re: Who has balls? Penny is a bit neurotic and so has a few obsessive tendencies - balls is one of them so we had to take them away from her. She's also not allowed to play fetch (physio's orders) so I felt it wasn't fair to have them and not play with them with her. She also used to pluck tennis balls and then peel them
Re: Who has balls? Lady loves retrieving tennis balls. She used to mouth them when she was a puppy but she doesn't anymore. I only use real tennis balls. Not the cheap ones you can get in pet shops because i think they are potentially dangerous as the dog can easily chew them into bits and swallow them. Been there and got the t-shirt when Lady was a puppy! I must say I don't actually buy any tennis balls. The river nearby spits a few out into the field every time it floods and a quick wash and they are as good as new. Lady finds them for me. ;D
Re: Who has balls? I would definitely agree about the quality of the tennis balls - with the exception of the kong tennis balls(which squeak horror of horrors!) the ones I've bought in pet shops have been useless.
Re: Who has balls? Me! Sorry, couldn't resist your title set up; well, someone had to do it. For me, balls for fun, dummies for training. The dog seems to get the difference. And yes, good quality tennis balls. Or in our case, polo balls we find (jokes welcome) when we're out and about. To add to being the butt of some humour, yes - we live in the Cotswolds. Word of caution though, polo balls are heavy and very hard, so a complete no no for a young dog.
Re: Who has balls? I buy used tennis players/coaches proper tennis balls off EBay 50 balls for about £10.00 and they are way better than the pet shop ones. We only keep Charlie's ball for "retrieving" and no other time is he allowed it Although Charlie does like the Kong larger size squeaky ball, but I don't care he can squeak away as far as I am concerned ;D
Re: Who has balls? Oh yes, when we did used to give Penny balls it would be the proper tennis ones or the kong ones as the pet shop ones broke after ten minutes.
Re: Who has balls? Harley is also obsessed with balls....we also buy tennis balls or kong as pet shop ones fall apart
Re: Who has balls? The Kong tennis balls are all we use with Dexter. They last...if you can put up with the squeaking!
Re: Who has balls? Loads of balls - bouncy balls, rubber balls, footballs on string balls, rattle balls, squeaky balls, rabbit skin balls (special occasions only). No tennis balls though - I find they get impractically wet, dirty and gritty (which can grind on teeth).
Re: Who has balls? Tatze can't be bothered with balls! I throw them and she loses them, so I gave them to my friend whose lab LOVES them! When the Guide Dog supervisor came she said the puppy must never play with balls, so I told her we don't have any as Tatze wasn't interested. The supervisor said 'She clearly knew her destiny' One thing to watch - tennis balls and sand - very bad combination, it wears away the enamel on their teeth really quickly. I didn't know this with Gavin and his teeth were very poor in old age due to it
Re: Who has balls? Slightly off the point, but the other day I met a very attractive man in the park with his collie. He'd lost a tennis ball in the river and his dog wouldn't go and get it. Imagine my pride and happiness at being able to send Vespa into the pond to get it. She brought it back beautifully and delivered it perfectly despite only retrieving dummies normally. I was chuffed..but didn't get his phone number. Next time ;-) As I say, I only use dummies for training but can't avoid balls altogether as they are all over the place wherever you go. Vespa plays with them and I sometimes kick them for her which ought to be disastrous but she seems to know when she's training and when she's just playing. Maybe that is creating a false sense of security but once commands and signals are involved she seems to start concentrating and do as she's told. I don't know!! Is this nuts? Does it create huge problems further down the line?
Re: Who has balls? [quote author=JulieT link=topic=6005.msg77968#msg77968 date=1400262033] No tennis balls though - I find they get impractically wet, dirty and gritty (which can grind on teeth). [/quote] Compared to some of the things that Labs put in their mouths I think a tennis ball is fairly innocuous.
Re: Who has balls? [quote author=Hollysdad link=topic=6005.msg78018#msg78018 date=1400267847] [quote author=JulieT link=topic=6005.msg77968#msg77968 date=1400262033] No tennis balls though - I find they get impractically wet, dirty and gritty (which can grind on teeth). [/quote] Compared to some of the things that Labs put in their mouths I think a tennis ball is fairly innocuous. [/quote] A gritty tennis ball is really wearing on teeth apparently. I ditched the tennis balls after reading a report from a vet dentist. I'm on my phone right now, but I'll try to find the link later.
