02/04/2025
A much more practical approach to playing fetch with your dog.
❓️ If you didnt take a ball with you, how well would your dog listen to you off leash?
❌️ Fetch shouldn't be used as a means to bribe your dog to stay with you.
❓️ Can your dog respond to your cues with a ball in your hand?
❌️ Your dog still needs to listen to what you are saying, even with a ball present. If they aren't, your relationship may need some work.
❓️ Can your dog sit patiently until released when you throw the ball?
❌️ If not, this is a good way to work on impulse control and bring down their arousal towards the ball. Helping to create a less frantic mind.
🥎 In a nutshell, if your dog is mindlessly chasing that ball with no consideration for their body, mind or you as their owner. You may want to pop the ball away for a bit, focus on relationship building and reinvent the way you play fetch.
𝙁𝙚𝙩𝙘𝙝 🥎. The dog world on social media has lost its collective mind over the subject of 'fetch' and whether it is, or isn't, a "good thing".
And, like most things, the answer is "it depends"....which is less 'click baity' than dramatic posts which either pillory or praise but true nevertheless.
Fetch, played thoughtfully, can be a great activity for dogs. It provides physical exercise, it can build focus & engagement with their human, it can be a great way to train boundaries & self control and it can be a great reward for desirable behaviours like recall, disengagement from distractions etc. Not forgetting that, training aside, many dogs just find it a lot of fun! And our dogs need fun in their life.
Fetch, played mindlessly, can also be a great way to create a hyper, wired, frantic dog. Relentless, repetitive chasing can result (for some dogs) in huge overarousal and it also carries potential physical risk. If your dog can't function at the park without the ball, if they can't switch from playing with the ball to doing something else, if they chase the ball endlessly on their walk but are still bouncing off the walls when they are back home then I'd suggest that playing fetch probably isn't doing your dog any favours and you might want to have a rethink.
There's a world of difference between a human enjoying an occasional glass of wine and NEEDING a drink. There's also a big difference between a dog who can enjoy a game of fetch as one of many things and a dog who NEEDS the ball.
Fetch is neither inherently good nor bad. It depends how you play it and it depends on the dog. So take the black & white thinking with a pinch of salt and apply some critical thinking to both....
