Devise and play her own retriever games?

[Krista, Angel, and Toby]

Angel likes to make up and play her own games, and they're all using the retriever nature.  Her favorite game is "Hide the Ball".  She likes to take her ball and push it under things like the couch, or the entertainment center, or even under the cabinets so that she has to try to go back and get them.  She'll try to put her whole head underneath, and when she simply can't get the ball she'll bark and look at me and look back and bark again until you get down on your hands and knees to get the stinkin' ball! lol  

Sometimes she tries to just hide other toys of hers and then goes back to get them a time later.  I've begun to utilize this interest by playing a game of "Go Find It" with her treats.  I'll leave them here and there, behind things, under things, wherever she can get to it relatively easily just so she has the chance to use that nose of hers.,..

So...is your doodle particularly retriever-ish?

[F, Calla & Luca]

This is Luca's favorite game. He loves it, I hate it because of "when she simply can't get the ball she'll bark and look at me and look back and bark again until you get down on your hands and knees to get the stinkin' ball! lol"
I even had to have the bottom of one radiator cover screened off because he could never get the ball out and he was driving me crazy. The treat hiding is interesting though.

[Donna K & Quincy]

My next couch will not have space to push a ball under. I really don't like this game much either.

[BG and Gavin]

I have said this a hundred times! Under the stove is another favoured place. I have to take the drawer out of the bottom to get to the ball.

His other favorite game is carry one toy in the mouth (usually a stuffed toy or a squeeky) and use the nose to roll a tennis ball around the room to the nearest person. It is then their job to throw the ball to another location, where it will be retrieved with the nose roll technique. Extra points for squeeking the toy in the mouth at the same time.

[Ann Kendig]

As I am typing this Sheba is trying to get a ball from under the couch. This is a brand new game for Sheba. My husband and I have pulled the ball out from under furniture all over the house. First I hear a scuffling, then silence, then whining and then a demanding bark. Pretty soon I am looking under the furniture with my butt sticking up in the air along with two doodles looking under the furniture with their butts in the air. Sheba looks because she wants the ball and Duke looks because he just wants to see what's going on.
I also can do without this game!!! :))

[Debra Ference-Luongo]

Edgar also loves Hide the Ball, pushing it under furniture, spending a great deal of time in an effort to retrieve it.. Occasionally, when nobody is looking, he will "hide" the ball on top of the bed and than dig around looking for it. I've come into the bedroom to find Ed has thrown pillows to the floor and dismantled the bedding. I just love that one. On laundry days, he also uses the laundry piles as his hiding place. While it can be annoying, it is also pretty funny since the ball is usually in plain sight.

I like the idea of Go Find It with treats. We'll have to try that one.

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Gracie loves the ball under the sofa game. She pushes it under and then takes her big long front legs and tries to pull it back out. Some times she is successful and others not. She just pushes it further back. Then the moaning starts followed by a whine and then if we still don't respond, a bark. It is always so funny when we are down on our hands a knees or tummy, she is there right beside us on her tummy looking under the sofa with us and then turning to look at us..."do you see it?" We now have those long gripper things under all three sofas and under our bed. This way we don't have to pull furniture out to get the ball. She will do this over and over until we take the ball away. Such a silly Doodle. She just keeps us laughing all the time!

[BG and Gavin]

Okay, I just found a solution to the "ball pushed under the sofa thing." I went to the dollar store and bought a soccer ball for Gavin. No way is that sucker is fitting under the sofa! Hopefully he takes to it!

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Good luck with Gavin!!! Gracie Doodle only likes two kinds of balls. Tennis balls all the way but I have limited her time with them because they wear down her teeth!!!!! Also, tennis balls get all yucky, wet and foamy...not allowed in the house! She also has a squishy rubber yellow ball that I buy at our Doggie Wash which is the same size as a tennis ball. Gracie has an entire basket of every size and density of ball ever made and she doesn't give any of them a second glance!!

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Isn't amazing our our doods have taught us how to play fetch.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Oh yes! Peri will through the ball up in the air for herself while inside and then chase it.
Her biggest game is taking something out of the toy box, playing for a minute, then putting back in the toy box, then getting a new toy, then putting it back, you get the point! And she will stuff things behind the couch on purpose and then act like she can't get to them. Bark, bark, bark bark until we get it for her. Now THAT one gets annoying!

[Leslie and Halas]

Halas is always pushing stuff under the couch and coffee table, and then trying to get it back out. It's a game we have to play together, because I have to get it when he pushes it too far.