Tennis Balls Wear Down Teeth

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

I had heard that it was not good to give your Doodle a tennis ball because the excessive chewing or gnawing wears down the teeth.  The surface of a tennis ball is very much like a fine sand paper.  My Gracie Doodle is not even 3 years old yet and the vet said that her teeth no longer have sharp points but are rounded.  Gracie is totally obsessed with tennis balls and I have no idea how I am going to break her of the desire to chew on them.  I still plan to use the chuck-it and throw the ball for her because that is her main source of exercise, but after we are through, I have to take the ball away.  I figure at the rate her teeth are wearing, she will be on total liquids and have no teeth to speak of by 8 or so years old!  This sounds crazy but to me it is very serious.  I wonder how all of you other Doodle Lovers feel about breaking your Doodles of tennis balls and if their teeth are starting to show wear?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Nancie, Jack was much more obsessive about tennis balls when I first got him than he is now. As close as we can figure, his previous owner sat on the sofa or bed watching TV and constantly tossing a tennis ball to Jack; he was happy to just stand there a foot away from you and catch it in his mouth without moving, over and over. You could not sit down anywhere in my house without having a ball dropped in your lap. He also did that same thing with staring at shelves, cupboards, etc. when they were put away.
We eliminated the tennis balls indoors entirely, and put them out of sight. Then we substituted soft stuffed balls, those plastic squeaky balls with little bumps all over them, a big ball made of knotted rope, anything we could find that could be tossed or rolled. (And we play ball on our schedules, not his. He learned that demanding someone throw a ball for him gets him nothing.) Jack is still obsessed with catching and retrieving balls, but it doesn't have to be tennis balls any more. The only time he goes really OCD psycho over tennis balls now is when we're at the dog park; then he knows he's getting them and won't rest until he does.
The chewing thing, I don't know about, but I'm sure you can switch Gracie over to a different kind of ball with some patience and time. They are smart dogs, and if they know they can't play with a tennis ball, they'd still rather play with some kind of ball than nothing. I hope this helps a little.

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Thanks Karen for the great advice. I have printed it out to show my husband. He is the weak link with this tennis ball thing. Before I got my new refrigerator (3 months ago) he would sit in the kitchen watching TV doing exactly what you said Jack's previous owner did. He would bounce the ball off the refrigerator though I have to admit, it was a soft rubber ball and not a tennis ball because they might dent it. I also have been a culprit with playing toss with Gracie from 3 ft. apart. Interesting though, we just had the discussion tonight about removing the tennis balls. As Gracie guided him once again to the laundry room and pointed up at the cupboard, I told him that I was giong to remove the balls. He said NO...he will honor my wishes to not play with them in the house but it would dampen her spirit and cuteness if I were to remove them. I guess I will fill another basket with all the "other" balls and put them in the cupboard in front of the tennis balls. It is going to be hard to get her to accept them. I am going to try my best. I don't think it is going to happen overnight. Thanks again for the help :)

[Sue & Willy Babe]

I never heard of that I will have to see what my Vet says Wilson loves to catch the tennis balls but I must say I really don't see him chewing them

[shelly]

Wow. I never heard of that. Tori tears at everything. She wears down nylabones, that undestructible dragon toy, you name it. Tonight we gave her a very large pretzel bottle from Costco. It's so hard and in about 30 minutes was crushed like a tanker rolled over it.