Larry and the Ball

Last night while at the dog park, we were walking up the path with a dog trainer/walker who was there with a pack of dogs. She had a couple balls she was throwing for the dogs in her group. Naturally, Larry was interested.

She asked why Larry didn’t have his own ball. We explained that he did, but that at the dog park, he was rarely interested in his own ball- he was interested in other dog’s balls.

She made a couple comments about his Terrierness meaning he should have a high prey drive, and also something about how if we were excited by the ball, he would be more excited by the ball.

She’s not someone we’d ever met before, and we chose to not get into a deep discussion, but on some level, it was annoying. You may be a trainer, but you are not my dog’s trainer, and you really don’t know anything about him.

Larry has major prey drive- major. He loves playing fetch- well, he loves chasing after things. He doesn’t so much like giving them back. At home, he’ll run after anything we throw- ball, stuffed animal, tennis stick.

At the park, sometimes he is interested in his ball. He certainly knows what a chuck-it is. But more often than not, he is interested in the chuck-it held by another person, the ball thrown for another dog.

When he starts showing interest in someone else’s chuck-it, we will often pull out his, wave it in front of his face and be all excited. He doesn’t care. He is now focused on this other chuck-it and ball.

We’ll break his focus, get him away from that person/dog (so that the other dog can chase their ball in peace) and wave his chuck-it in front of his face again. Sometimes he’s interested, sometimes he’s not.

Maybe if we worked with a trainer, we could figure out exactly what triggers his intense desire to chase balls thrown by other people, but not by us.

My best guess is that when he gets another dog’s ball, it then results in the additional game of keep away, for which he gets a treat when he gives up the ball. The thing is, in trying to teach him to give his ball back to us, we offer treats to get it back as well, but maybe we’re not as dedicated to winning the keep away game when there’s not another dog who wants its ball back.

So here’s the deal. Yes, Larry has high prey drive. He does indeed love to chase after balls. But he would always, always, prefer to chase after someone else’s.