Playing fetch with your dog

[cgallery]

My pure black lab likes to fetch (and return), and also likes keepaway sometimes. His favorite time to get me is when I'm grilling. He knows I'm going to stand by the grill and listen to the radio, and he has almost my undevided attention for 1/2 hour.

[charliex]

Our Lasa, (Mac ) thinks that if you throw it you can go git it.

[Ed62]

Her older sister loves to fetch, but has a heart condition, so she is only allowed to play for a few minutes. [/IMG]

Have you had her checked out thoroughly? We had to take ours to Purdue School of Veterinary Medicine because of what was thought to be a heart problem. They found something in the tests, but it wasn't clear if it was a heart defect or not. After watching her closely for about a year, she went back for more tests. What they saw the first time was still there, but they were not concerned with it. They told us to follow up with our local vet. Now we're about 3 years later, and she seems to be in perfect health at 4 1/2 years old.

Shultzie could be Layla's identical twin sister.

Ed

[JeffG78]

Have you had her checked out thoroughly?
Shultzie could be Layla's identical twin sister.

Ed

Unfortunately, yes. She has Sub-Aortic Stenosis. She was diagnosed when she was 8 weeks old by a cardiologist. Her condition was rated as severe and she was given less than six months to live. She is now 3-1/2 years old.

We have plenty of experience with this as she is the second GSD we've had with the same defect. No, they weren't related, nor did they come from the same breeder or even the same state. Our last one lived to be 8-1/2. After she died, we did tons of research and interviewed breeders until we were sure the bloodlines were completely clean. The breeder we went with was more shocked than we were after our new puppy was diagnosed with SAS. The cardiologist assured us that these things do happen even if there was never any history. Since the dad had produced dozens of completely healthy litters over many years and the mother was very likely to be the carrier, the breeder immediately had the mother spayed and gave her away to a friend as a pet. She then gave us another GSD from the next litter with a different mother. We expected to have two dogs for only a few months, but Shultzie is still doing well.

Our third dog Elsa was found wandering down a country road for about a week. The lady who found her tried to find the owner and after she had no luck, she gave her to my wife's boss who rescues GSDs. Try as I might to avoid taking her in, LOML brought her home. Now we have three female GSDs - all about the same age.

I have no money, no free time, and lots of dog hair.

[LCHIEN]

Did someone say Ball? Archie loves the ball, and will always bring it back. If we are inside he'll set it in your lap (not too great when it gets all slobbery). Outside he will put it in you hand if he's not tired, he lets go about 90% other 10% he plays tug of war. If he is tired, he'll stop and rest about 3 feet away. He'll drop the ball and nudge it so it rolls towards you when he is ready to go again. Starting to walk away gets him going again also.

Cool! To me that's how a dog should play fetch.

[Uncle Cracker]

I tried many times to play fetch with my dog, but I simply cannot teach him to throw a stick...

[maxparot]

My dogs are somewhere in between two answers.
They bring the ball back and allow me to grab it while in their mouth to play tug but will release if I say "Give".

[scmhogg]

My female Standard Poodle is a ball nut. She is good at fetch and return. When we are not playing, she still likes to carry a tennis ball around in her mouth. While doing this, she is very vocal. Its sounds like she is trying to talk while growling. Her brother is only interested in the ball when he can keep it away from her.

One of my friends had a huge white shepherd, that was the best catch I have ever seen. My friend would throw a tennis ball at the dog as hard as he could and the dog always caught it in his teeth. He could also catch a second and third ball, thrown equally as hard, in his mouth, at the same time.

On one occasion, I heard a clicking sound out by my friend's pool. The dog was dropping a golf ball out of his mouth, on the cement, and catching it, over and over again.

Steve

[LCHIEN]

...

On one occasion, I heard a clicking sound out by my friend's pool. The dog was dropping a golf ball out of his mouth, on the cement, and catching it, over and over again.

Steve

Was he dribbling?

[cabinetman]

Couldn't resist these pictures. Either all at once or one at a time would be a sight to see.
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http://snapshot.parade.com/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=517991&g2_serialNumber=

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http://farm1.static.flickr.com/101/316561107_a0f17b502f.jpg?v=0

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http://funny.picturepie.com/images/Dog_with_Tennis_Balls.jpg

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http://www.petsplace.co.za/boxer%20+%203%20balls.jpg

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http://www.4to40.com/images/recordbook/balls_in_mouth.jpg

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[jziegler]

No fetch for my dogs

Greyhounds have little interest in sticks. Balls only a little. Now if you throw a stuffed animal toy, they grab it and play with it somewhere else. I suppose being bred for the chase for thousands of years and then bred for racing for another hundred or so makes their game a fetch different from retrievers.

Now, if you want to play a game where a dog chases after you, greyhounds love that.

Jim

[dlminehart]

I have a mini poodle that loves to play tug-of-war with toys. He'll carry the toy up to you, nudge you with it, and then hold on as you pull at it. If you stop, he'll nudge you with it again. If you throw it, he'll retrieve it, come close, but wait for you to reach down and do the tug-of-war game.

Once you've started playing with a particular toy, that's the one that the current game requires. If you pick up another one and try to interest him in it, no dice. But 10 minutes later, that other one may be the "current" one. His choice. He has about 10 of them, that he'll distribute around the house and yard.

Favorite game, though, is soccer. We keep a couple light plastic balls (little bigger than bowling balls) in the back yard. Whenever we go into the yard, he heads for one of the balls, stands opposite it from you, and barks to entice you to play. If you come up to him and start to kick from the right side, he'll move to the opposite side of the ball from your foot, knowing the ball will be coming that direction. I have to fake, swinging my foot to the other side of the ball, to kick it past him. He'll then chase the ball, run right over the top of it, stopping it. Then, he puts his nose down and pushes the ball quickly toward you, moving nose from one side of the ball to the other to steer it. He'll stop close to you, stand across the ball from you, and bark to keep the game going.

Really funny to watch, since the ball is about half his size, and he can herd it rapidly all around the yard. And again, as with the tug-of-war toys, he ignores the second ball when the game has started with the first one, even if he's running past the second one repeatedly when chasing the first one.

[tfischer]

I could have voted for any of the final 3 (depending on Bailey's mood) but it's usually the second-to-last one. Then if I ignore him he'll drop it in my lap...

He's a (Golden) Retriever after all, so he certainly isn't going to ignore something thrown...

-Tim

[Russianwolf]

The lab will play fetch to a degree. Depends on his mood.

the huskies? they wonder why you are throwing stuff around the yard.

[mudder]

I lost both of my dogs in a six week period earlier this year but I have a little russian blue cat that will fetch a little felt mouse for hours on end. Does that count?