Fetch

[denali]

Hi everyone,

I have been reading on building muscles in my old boys rear, and while researching this I came across many people warning against playing fetch with your dog.

I play fetch ALL the time with my 17mo. He LOVES the ball. So at agility training the ball is often a reward, plus the times i take him to the park with a tennis racquet and just throw it for him. This isn't everyday, but we do it rather often.

They said it was bad for their hips and ligaments and could lead to a ruptured cruciate.

Is this true? So should i not be playing fetch at the park and just leave the ball as an agility reward?

He really loves it, and it an easy form of exercise as he doesn't really play with other dogs, but if it's doing more harm than good i would stop.

TIA :)

[fbaudry]

I believe the chasing a ball in motion, with sharp turns and stops is what causes injuries... People like Susan Garrett who run their dogs in agility don't play fetch for that reason.

But there's nothing stopping your cavalier to do controlled retrieves. Have him wait until you release him to fetch the ball / soft toy etc that is stationary on the ground.

[Kirislin]

I suppose it might depend on how much you throw the ball for him. I do know a dog who wore her teeth down to stumps simply from playing catch with a ball. She was only about 7 and her teeth were kaput.

[silentchild]

I've heard that playing fetch is the biggest cause for ruptured cruciates, but I don't know how true it is.

The last time I played fetch with my girl, she injured her hip and was MIA for about 2 months.... so now I will no longer play fetch with her and find other ways to exercise. We have taken on swimming instead, much to her dismay.

[Jumabaar]

I play fetch with my dogs- it is a GREAT way to exercise them.

I have trained them not to jump for the toy and I either throw it to them, or I throw it so they run to it without needing to do a sharp turn to get the toy. My older girl might only have it thrown 1meter and she is happy with that, or rolled off the edge of the lounge- i even hide it in bedding so she has to find it that way! Tennis balls are very abrasive on teeth so I try to choose toys that are soft. I have also seen many stick injures so I never play with sticks.

As with everything it is about risk minimisation while maximising your dogs quality of life. If your dog LOVES playing fetch then looking at safe way to play retrieve might be important to keeping your dog loving life.

[denali]

That is pretty much matching exactly what i had seen in my researching.

I do throw it straight, so he doesn't turn sharply at high speeds, but the controlled retrieves may be the way to go, probably just as fun for him.

Didn't think about abrasiveness of tennis balls.

I will go buy some rubbery ones today :)

ETA: just found some squishy rubber ones on ebay, so they'll be here thursday :D

Edited July 22, 2014 by denali

[The Spotted Devil]

Obviously my Springer does a LOT of retrieving - but 95% of the time she is released to a stationary retrieve. A "happy" bumper (uncontrolled) is used to finish off and reward a training session.