Dog owners - where do you play ball?

JennyBee78

We have a border collie and only play ball with him when we are on grass. I had a collie growing up and used through the ball anywhere - along paths, on concrete etc - she ended up with terrible arthritis and became pretty stiff quite young, so we're a bit paranoid now! Some of our fellow dog walkers do the same as us, but others really don't seem to bother. Are we over-reacting? Where do you play ball?

Free_Spirit_31

I never let my dog off the lead. If we do play ball with him, we do it in the back garden or in the house/hallway (mad I know!). Or sometimes, he does not need a ball, he just runs like heck in a circle, in the back garden .. with no ball when he is 'on one' LOL

krlyr

Grass will definately put less strain on the joints. Pavement isn't all bad - road walking will help build muscle in dogs, but I only let mine walk on pavements, if we go running it's on grass to minimise impact (I follow the same rules for myself!).

However, as well as the surface you exercise your dog on, I would consider the kind of exercise too. Fetch/playing ball can be quite harsh on the joints - dogs going from stationary to dashing after a ball can lead to muscle injuries or strains, the sharp turns and stops can put strain on the joints and lead to sudden injuries, and it also can raise adrenaline which can affect a dog's behaviour - fetch certainly made Kiki's separation anxiety worse as she'd get all that adrenaline in her system in the morning, just adding to her issues when I then went to work and left her.

I personally minimise how much I play ball with my dogs, and prefer to mix it up on walks. I might take a ball and throw it a few times on a walk, but we wouldn't specifically go to play ball and I wouldn't do it over and over. I'd perhaps mix it up - hide the ball in grassa and send the dog to 'go find it'. Similar with scattered treats in grass, or letting them follow old rabbit scents. A potter around the field, once they were warmed up we may have a little jog around to stretch their legs. We'll do some training too - randomly recalling the dog, it's both mental and physical exercise (and it's great to teach your dog to recall at any time - and then release them to go play - so they don't think recall = fun's over), some sit/down stays and so on.

sonas_baby

Sounds daft but I do ball/toy in house. I lead walk and some training on roads and off lead over the fields and rights of way so they can run and use their noses. I know I'm lucky living so rural but agree with krlyr that grass is far better for them running if possible.

trolleyrun

My dog isn't interested in a ball of any sort. She has a knotted rope she plays with at home. There's a playing field in the village which we sometimes go to, as this is the only place I can safely have her off-lead. She picks up a short stick and throws that about, amusing herself for quite some time She's a weird one though

con1888

We do it at grass/field. We use a knotted rope ball where the handle is integrated as have heard too many horror stories with dogs playing tuggy with the rope balls where the handle isn't integrated. Our fetch is a bit mixed up, sometimes it will be a fetch, sometimes we will play tuggy with the ball, to keep it exciting and different. He's on a long line atm as I don't 100% trust him but we usually let the end of the line trail, just means if he does decide he isn't coming back we have something to grab.