Ball Obsession

[LondonQ]

My Yorkie just turned one year old last week. She is so amazing, but she has become ball obsessed. I don't allow her to play ball in the house anymore and she is only allowed to play ball once per day.

She shrieks like some prehistoric bird the whole way to the park. People just stop and stare. In all other ways, she completely listens to my commands and I have no other issues with her except for that. She even knows hand signals, etc. I never throw the ball until she stops crying, but no matter what I tried she will make these sounds all the way to the park. Any advice?

[Lovetodream88]

I'm wondering why you dont play ball in the house? Callie is 16 pounds and we have a kinda small house but we still play ball in the house I just throw it down the hall (the longest part of the house). Its great on rainy days or days that are just to hot to be outside.

[DvlshAngel985]

Originally Posted by Lovetodream88

I'm wondering why you dont play ball in the house? Callie is 16 pounds and we have a kinda small house but we still play ball in the house I just throw it down the hall (the longest part of the house). Its great on rainy days or days that are just to hot to be outside.

We do the same. Kaji however doesn't make a peep. He will do these crazy monkey sounds when he knows we're at our friend's house. If he's loud, we wait in the car until he is quiet. He's learned it takes longer to get to my friend's house if he's noisy. He calms himself down quicker now, and is better on the leash when he's not excited.

[Perrella]

No advice, but I have to tell you....Zhoie is ball obsessed to and we play in the house several times a day. It's her favorite play of all. She will carry it around with her even if I don't stop to play. Heck, sometimes she is sleeping with it....in her mouth, LOL

[kjc]

Tinkerbell is ball obsessed... or was, just still her fav toy. I got a bunch of different balls (different sizes and textures) for her and just gave them to her all at once. I used to limit her time with any ball, which didn't work too well at stopping the obsession.

When I gave her a bunch of balls, and allow them all in the house, mixed in with her other toys, she has become better about balls, bc she knows she can have them anytime she wants them.

She was kind of crazy the first few days with multiple balls, but then calmed down about them. Now they're only a little bit special to her, and she does choose other toys on many occassions.

[LondonQ]

I should clarify - I stopped letting her play with her yellow tennis ball in the house because she wouldn't interact with any other toys or want to do anything else. She still plays fetch with her other toys, but they don't produce this crazy reaction. She has another soft ball she likes. I had to laugh at the monkey sound comment, because it does sounds like that too!! I am just worried that it isn't healthy for her to get so excited and anxious. She starts spinning when she sees her yellow tennis ball.

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by LondonQ

I should clarify - I stopped letting her play with her yellow tennis ball in the house because she wouldn't interact with any other toys or want to do anything else. She still plays fetch with her other toys, but they don't produce this crazy reaction. She has another soft ball she likes. I had to laugh at the monkey sound comment, because it does sounds like that too!! I am just worried that it isn't healthy for her to get so excited and anxious. She starts spinning when she sees her yellow tennis ball.

I think if you just put the tennis ball in with the other toys she has the excitement will die down.

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by DvlshAngel985

We do the same. Kaji however doesn't make a peep. He will do these crazy monkey sounds when he knows we're at our friend's house. If he's loud, we wait in the car until he is quiet. He's learned it takes longer to get to my friend's house if he's noisy. He calms himself down quicker now, and is better on the leash when he's not excited.

Luckily Callie is a very quiet dog. Sometimes when some one comes to the door I joke about putting a bell on her tail because she will not make a sound but wag her little tail like crazy.

[Britster]

The good news is you can use that ball as a reinforcer. That's obviously her form of "currency" or money so use it to your advantage when it comes to training, etc. Work on impulse control. I agree, letting one become OCD about one toy is not a good thing.

[MikaTallulah]

My Roxy is ball/toy obsessed. If it can be thrown she will get it til she can't breath. If I don't want to play with her she will go up the stairs drop the ball/toy and run to retrieve it.

[Denzilla]

Toby and I play a game where he stands at the top of the stairs while I stand at the bottom and toss the ball up to him. He catches it in his mouth then drops it so it will bounce down the stairs to me. Big time fun.

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by MikaTallulah

My Roxy is ball/toy obsessed. If it can be thrown she will get it til she can't breath. If I don't want to play with her she will go up the stairs drop the ball/toy and run to retrieve it.

That is pretty smart

[kjc]

Originally Posted by LondonQ

I should clarify - I stopped letting her play with her yellow tennis ball in the house because she wouldn't interact with any other toys or want to do anything else. She still plays fetch with her other toys, but they don't produce this crazy reaction. She has another soft ball she likes. I had to laugh at the monkey sound comment, because it does sounds like that too!! I am just worried that it isn't healthy for her to get so excited and anxious. She starts spinning when she sees her yellow tennis ball.

I also had the same concerns with Tink. She came to me toy obsessed at first, and would get aggressive when playing with toys. I got her a Hide-a-Squirrel, it comes with 3 identical plush squirrels, so she learned when I got the squirrel there was always two more, so we could each have one, at the same time. This lessened her anxiety to a point where she stopped being aggressive about it. Prior to this there was no way to reason with her to get her to calm down.

I just tried different things until I found something that worked with her, from elimination, to closely supervised, to mass immersion, lol!

[LondonQ]

Thank you all for the great comments and ideas! I am glad to know that I am not the only one who faces this problem. Just want Q to be happy and healthy! Had many dogs in my life, but never one so smart and human-like.

[dtrahan511]

Ha ha! I hear ya! Sophie is ball obsessed too!!! She goes wild for balls of any size! Sometimes she gets so worked up we have to put the ball away just to get her to calm down! Look out if the kids are playing in the pool and take out a ball!!! She will run back and forth barking the whole time to get to the ball! Sometimes she actually jumps in for it like she just has to have it!!!! She has a few balls in the house to play with that are mixed in with her toys too.