Dog Ball Obsession

[Amy Vansant Brunell]

From the Kid-Free Living Humor Blog by Amy Vansant

(Hm. Maybe I should rephrase that title…)

LOST: One tennis ball. Formerly yellow, now the color of dirt. Possibly slimy. Smells PERFECT. If found please return to Gordon the Labradoodle. Reward!

The thing I feared most has happened. Gordon lost the tennis ball we call “Number One.” Number One Ball was the only tennis ball our obviously obsessive compulsive prone chocolate Labradoodle would use.

Now, don’t let this make you think he is nonchalant about his ball play in anyway shape or form. Gordon LOVES to play fetch. Probably in the grand scheme of things his favorite things in the world are:

1. Treats
2. Playing fetch, going for walks or otherwise exercising
3. Shade
4. Mommy and Daddy

Yes, I think my husband I come just under shade. He gets hot easily while doing #2 favorite thing and would probably sell us into slavery for shade after that.

But as much as Gordon LOVES to play ball, it has to be with Number One Ball. No other ball will do. You could throw him 57 balls and he will sniff them all until he finds Number One Ball. You can throw him
Number One 10 times in a row, with him eagerly bringing it back each
time, then slip in what appears (to my stupid human nose) to be a
similar ball instead, and he will refuse to fetch it, and then sit in
front of you until you admit you have Number One.

He has been known to bring Number One into the house and sleep with it like a teddy bear. You’ll see him napping somewhere cool and then suddenly you notice there is a dirty tennis ball nestled between his
dream-twitching paws. You can be sitting at your desk, happily typing
along, and Gordon will bring Number One into the office and DRIBBLE IT
(dropping and picking it up repeatedly to get your attention) until you
go play ball with him. If you make him leave it outside when he doesn’t
think he was quite tired enough yet (Tongue on the ground? What
tongue on the ground, nooo… I’m fiiiine…
throwtheballthrowtheballthrowtheball..) he will sit and stare at it
through the sliding glass door.

Alas, Number One mysteriously disappeared. We’ve looked EVERYWHERE. For days Gordon refused to play ball and just wandered sadly around the yard, sniffing, searching for Number One. A week later, out of sheer
desperation, he’s resorted to playing fetch with an old lacrosse ball we
inherited on a walk one day, but it just isn’t the same.

Wondering if this was a Labradoodle trait in general, I posted the question on a Doodle Chat site to see if other Doodle’s were as in need of Lexapro as Gordon. Apparently, he isn’t alone. In fact, there’s
a Doodle girl named Millie out there who trumps him. Her mother Bev
wrote:

ABSOLUTELY! That is EXACTLY what Millie does.

Glad to hear there is another doodle who is as ‘weird’ as Millie!!…
AND to go one step further. She ONLY plays with balls that have
already been mangled/ripped by another dog already. IF the ball is
fully intact, she has no interest in it. She never chews up balls
herself and doesn’t further chew her current ‘favourite’, so it will
last for weeks and weeks but eventually becomes so ruined that it is
useless and it has to “GO”. Then she’ll sulk for days until she
chooses a new favorite. Drives us CRAZY. The only good thing is that I
haven’t bought balls in years. She just finds discards at the park
and brings them home.
The only variation to this is that sometimes she’ll go crazy over some
ball at the park and I think “aha, a new fav” so we bring it home and
then she has no further interest in it.
And one other thing that I find totally BIZARRE is that the “ball” she
chooses to currently bond with doesn’t even have to be a ball. It can
be a little tiny piece of an old ball. She seems to think I can
actually throw that for her!! I have to disabuse her of that idea
quickly. Sometimes she even thinks a bit of tennis ball fluff is a
good plan. Sorry pup – no go!
And one more little quirk – she prefers her balls to be kicked not
thrown. She’ll still go for it if it’s thrown (but not always) but
just LOVES it when you kick them. She tries to play “blocker” and not
let it past her. Sometimes she gets them smack in the face but it
doesn’t bother her.
Thanks for posting about Gordon. I’ve meant to post about this since
forever ago to see if any other doodles were as quirky. Glad to hear
that there’s another one out there!

So there you go! Not so weird after all is my little man. Millie makes Gordon look as stable as the Dalai Lama. (Who, I am told, rarely plays fetch – but when he does, is open to tennis balls of any condition
or color.)

[F, Calla & Luca]

Be careful. Luca managed to tear the couch while trying to retrieve his ball from underneath it.This led to a banishment (poorly enforced) of tennis balls from the house. Luca sometimes seems to turn his head so I won't see he has a ball when he comes in!

[Kaitlyn]

Charlie is obsessed with his ball too! He does not like when Lucy plays with his ball.
When the ball rolls under the couch, I had to get down low to catch the ball, now Charlie is "Happy"

[Richard Crowe]

Holly only plays with balls when her buddy Shadow, our daughter's labrador, plays with it. Holly is taller and faster than Shadow and can get the ball first but, then doesn't care a whit about it. Shadow, on the other hand, will fetch balls until , LITERALLY, she can no longer stand up.

[Eva]

Malibu is so obsessed with the tennis balls. Everyday we can pick a different one and for that day it is the only one she will play with. She will sniff only that one out from dozens. She even can seperate them in the pool. Its funny with their individual quirks.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Murphy is obsessed with balls too....whichever one Guinness has.

[Amy Vansant Brunell]

Deirdre, that's hilarious! Gordon does have #1 back now but the new problem that keeps us up at night is that it has split.... only the felt is keeping the rubber together now. If it finally completely splits I'll have to endure weeks of watching him walk around dragging his ears on the ground again.... oh and Sara - very cute pic!

[Deirdre]

Gus stole Gorden's ball! I know he did! Please identify which ball is Gorden's and we will overnight express it back to Gorden.
Ball #1 found in the hallway;

More look alike?

Maybe this one found in my room?

Or is this it!

Best ball! must be this one!

Take your pick we'll ship them there are many more to chose from!

[Kathy Spyker]

Lilly won't fetch a tennis ball or even put one in her mouth it has to be a Rubber ball ..

[Heather and Molly Doodle]

Molly has two identical oversized tennis balls that she loves... Regular tennis balls "borrowed" from our neighbor's golden retriever are also acceptable. (We share toys, so no worries...)

[Frannie & Callie]

Callie isn't particular about which ball, just as long as there IS a ball. She does the dribbling thing too...over and over and over until I throw her the ball. She has me so well trained!