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.)

[Amy Vansant Brunell]

Carol - Thanks for the kind words about Kid-Free LIving - it's a little labor of love for me. Also, on there in the about page is a coupon for http://www.doodlesport.com if you want it!

[F, Calla & Luca]

We have antler and ball favorites too but perhaps not as fanatically as yours. The doodles are all individuals and characters, though.

[Amy Vansant Brunell]

Oh, I should add that we did find #1 ball finally, behind the printer in the office. Currently we've managed to trick him into using a different ball, just in case, but he will only use it in the water. On land, it still has to be #1.

[Carol and Banjo]

Hi Amy - Just checked out your "Kid-Free Living" site - and I LOVE it!!! Great humor.....I'll pass it along! Thanks for the laughs!

[Carol and Banjo]

What a great read!!!! Love this story of Gordon's #1 Ball and we do hope that #1 makes it back to you Gordon!

[Amy Vansant Brunell]

It's funny how many Doodles do the same thing! Gordon won't take balls from other dogs either. When we went to this beach once we had one dog that wouldn't swim. So I would throw the stick in the water, Gordon would run dash in, swim out and get it... then as soon as he hit the beach the other dog would mug him and he would instantly give up the stick. Then the other dog would deliver the stick to us. Repeat. No matter how much he loves his ball, if another dog tries to grab it, he'll step away and then just stalk them...

[Donna K & Quincy]

Any old ball will do is Quincy's motto, as long as someone is throwing it. If I'm working around the house he will bring a ball and drop it near me then stare at it like he is waiting for it to do something. Eventually he will give a little bark if I take too long to give it a little kick. It doesn't have to go far and usually doesn't. He would make a great goalie for some hockey team. Maybe I can get him a tryout with the Toronto Maple Leafs they could use all the help they can get. Funny enough he will only fetch balls. If I throw any other toy for him he will go get it but doesn't bring it back.

[Tante & Jordan & now Annie!]

Jordan LOVES her glo ball 1st then her wobble ball ..... Penn...me, food, walks....car rides etc. If I throw a "glo" and she has "wobble" as her choice she will not run after "glo". She "chooses" which ball we are going to play with. She has outside balls which are kept in a basket buy the door that she grabs on her way out. She knows to drop them at the door but she will try to slip one in the house.As Im writing this "glo" is on by bed. Daddy let her bring it in some time today.

[Camilla and Darwin]

Darwin is too "slow" to remain focused on ANY ball, let alone a specific one. :-)

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Welcome to my world! Samantha doesn't have just one favorite ball but whichever one we start with that is 'the' ball. We have been at the park and with my throwing arm I have thrown it over the fence. She will sit by the fence, stare at the ball, look at me, give me a little woof and look back at the ball. She will not play with another. That is usually the time we go home.
If another dog gets to 'her' ball first, she will follow that dog around and just wait for them to drop it. She will never attempt to take it away but when they aren't looking, she scoops in to get it! I just love that Doodle!!