Is ball throwing the best exercise for your dog?

Recently, when taking my own dogs for some fun walks on the local beaches, I have seen a lot, if not most, of dogs and their owners enjoying a good ball throw.

While fetch can be a fun way to entertain your dog and a useful tool to reward your dog, it needs to be done in moderation; making it the main event of every walk without more in-depth considerations can have its own set of disadvantages, and this is why:

For some dogs, the constant rush of adrenaline from ball play can lead to an unhealthy obsession, contributing to behavioural issues such as reactivity, guarding, aggressive behaviour, and hyperarousal.

Physically, sudden accelerations, stops, sharp turns, decelerations, and stretches can put a lot of strain on your dog's joints, muscles, and ligaments, increasing the risk of sprains, tears, repetitive strain injuries, microtraumas in the joints, and even early arthritis.

Dogs will often continue to chase the ball even after they are physically exhausted, increasing the risk of injury while also providing significantly more intensive exercise than they may be conditioned to. The spike in adrenaline and excitement caused by chasing a ball can actually mask the onset of pain, meaning they may not immediately demonstrate they are injured, potentially aggravating any injuries. 

It appears that no one wants their dogs to engage, sniff, and communicate anymore, and as a result, they do not want to share the ball – which is perfectly fine; you brought it with you, for yourself! However, instead, owners are encouraging their dogs to move away and focus completely on their ball in order to play and potentially tire them out before returning home. But the message we are communicating here when dragging the dog away from other perfectly happy dogs who are simply having a sniff, exploring, and even playing before moving on their own way is that social engagement is negative.

But what we are risking here is the ripple effect in an increase in potentially aggressive and/or resource-guarding behaviour as the dog starts to protect their ball, no longer wanting to share it and starting to view other dogs as a threat rather than a positive social interaction.

On the flip side, your dog, like my Labrador, who otherwise has little interest in fetch when out exploring, may have enjoyed taking the crown of the biggest ball thief on the beach in a desperate attempt to play with other dogs, as well as, in Luna's case, demonstrating her true retriever characteristics by retrieving and strutting around to show off what she has, which alone is truly rewarding! (You are not alone!) Although it is an excellent way to continue practising our "leave it" training, as well as recall, it can make walks less enjoyable.

This doesn’t mean you have to ditch the ball altogether.

So, what can you do instead?

-          Utilise the ball as a reward. If your dog prefers a ball over a treat, that’s great. We can keep the ball but use it positively as a reward for good, reinforceable behaviour.

-          With the same thought in mind, practice fun training exercises with the ball as the reward. (You can reach out to me for ideas!)

-          Play "Find it" games by utilising your environment. For example, find a patch of long grass (ensuring it is safe) and keep your dog close by, holding onto the harness--bonus points for practicing commands like "wait" and "sit". Throw the ball and wait for it to land before releasing your dog to find it. This is an excellent technique to engage their senses by sniffing and exploring, increasing mental stimulation while limiting the speed at which they will run after the ball.

-          Keep it short – Walk your dog FIRST, allowing a warmup period to prepare their body. If you really want to play fetch, keep it brief and integrated alongside other activities, and not the main form of exercise for your dog. We want to avoid continuously throwing the ball. And make sure to also allow a cool down period for their recovery.

-          Don’t forget that mental stimulation, making choices, using their senses, sniffing, exploring and interacting with the environment is much more exhausting and satisfying for dogs and can in turn calm their nervous systems. And in short, by playing a frantic game of fetch for 15 minutes, you are heightening your dog’s arousal levels, increasing their adrenaline and therefore resulting in them being much less likely to focus and listen to you, as well as relax.

The key is to find a balance. A fulfilling walk is more about meeting your dog's mental, emotional, and physical needs rather than covering the most distance or throwing a ball as far as it can go.