Ball Thief!

[Luke W]

Well, Barkly is a ball thief. It's been 3 hours since he last stole a ball.

There, I've admitted it.

Being a cocker spaniel, he's not the fastest dog at the park but I suspect he is the sneakiest.

As soon as he spies a tennis ball, he starts dagging around (often hanging around people with chuckit sticks), trying not to act suspicious, just waiting for the opportunity to arise.

The second a dog returns with a ball and the ball hits the ground near him (dropped by the owning dog for example)...pounce.

It's in his mouth and he's trotting around head held high, tail wagging, proud as punch.

When this unsavory behavior first manifested itself, what did I do?

Well, I recalled him of course, then gave him the "let go" cue (with a treat over his nose to get him to spit out the ball). Sure enough, 'pop', out comes the ball onto the ground, Barkly get's his treat, I return the ball to it's rightful owner. Everyone's happy.

Spot the problem?

Well, Barkly's now worked out a nice little chain of behavior.

- Dag around, waiting for ball stealing opportunity

- Steal ball

- Take ball to me

- wait for let go cue

- let go

- get treat

- go steal ball again

D'Oh.

Now I have to work out how to fix this little problem. It's complicated by the fact that the ball stealing is a secondary reinforcer!

Anyway, thought it might amuse some.

Edited January 22, 2009 by Luke W

[leopuppy04]

OK ok I'll admit it - I too own a ball theif though this is not through the secondary reinforcer... ball is definitely primary!!!

Step 1-

Go and bark at whoever might be holding a chuckit stick. The louder you bark and bounce increases the probability that ball will be released.

Step 2 -

Chase ball.... can win most times but sometimes those pesky fast breeds, or swimming breeds will beat me first.

Step 3 -

Should I be beaten to the ball - intercept.... chase and cut off dog trying to bring ball back.... do this until they drop the ball

Step 4 -

Pick up ball and proudly bring it back.... since it was me that did ALL the hard work

Step 5-

Repeat steps 1 - 4.

NB - fortunately this works very well on my little sister... she tries it with me, but the most she gets out of it is if there is a rope dangling then I will graciously let her bring the ball back with me,.... together.... that is after the lap of honour of course

[megan_]

Fergus does this too - but it is only the ball he is interested in. Fortunately (for him) he is very fast so the other dog, who usually isn't charmed at his antics, can't catch him.

When he is off leash I now carry his favourite squeek ball (a dino cuz) with me. If he starts eyeing up another ball I squeek it a few times and that focuses his attention back on me.

[The Spotted Devil]

Hmmm....it's a bit different here....

Step 1:

Seek out tennis ball

Step 2a:

If another dog is holding aforementioned tennis ball, sniff dog's @r$e

Step 2b:

If ball is not being held, sniff ball then cock leg

Step 3:

Walk away

:rolleyes:

[claireybell]

:rolleyes: Ahahahahaha

Jes and Jo are little different.

- Go to dog park and sus out who has what in the way of balls and play things

- Discuss between each other which victim they will pounce on

- Target spotted, keep watch

- Target throws ball to their dog. Jes and Jo run after the other dog

- Hassle poor dog by both my dogs running around it until dog gets flustered and drops ball

- Jes picks up ball and brings it halfway to me

- Jes drops ball and Jo picks it up and does a runner

- Ball owner and myself chase my b@#tard dog around the park until she gives up and drops to the floor (she's very lazy so doesn't take long).

- Hand ball back to owner, apologise and go for a walk around the block instead where there are no balls!

[Jigsaw]

If mine doesn't have a ball, will watch others with ball and wait for opportunity to dash in and pick it up. She doesn't voluntarily give it up, you have to wait for her to "throw" it for you. We had to do a swap the other day as a poodle stole her ball and wouldn't give it up for anything and owner said he'd get bitten if he tried to get it out of her mouth. So we got their manky tennis ball as a swap. Her favourite game though is to get the ball and then tease the other dogs to chase her as that's the most fun. But we have discovered it's not just tennis balls, we were doing some training down near the rubgby oval and there was one guy with one football there and as soon as she spotted she was off, it didn't help that he then kicked the ball. Unfortunately she has balls of all sizes at home, tennis, volley balls, soccer balls and rugby balls, so any ball is hers!