Long story short: I’m in a house alone at least until Monday. My only companion is Clark, a 10-month old lab mix who is hugely energetic and loves to play fetch. He will literally bring you back a thrown ball for at least an hour straight.
I don’t usually live here, and thus am not used to throwing a tennis ball over and over and over and over and over and over, and my arm is getting sore. Apparently there is a frisbee, which Clark played with a bit and then promptly buried somewhere. I do have another one, but it’s a hard plastic one, and it’s hard for him to pick it up (resulting in an excessively muddy nose, in addition to the rest of him).
So, I’m looking for some advice on other ‘send item flying for Clark to run after and retrieve’ games which might be a bit easier on my tired arm muscles. He needs the play and exercise, but his energy is much greater than my repeated throwing ability.
Take him for a long walk around the neighborhood? Then, when you get tired, sit down and throw balls, sticks, stuff to fetch. Then your arm will get tired, but your legs will be rested, and you can go back to walking.
Since it’s not your dog and you may not want to invest in a launcher — although some of those in Sailboat’s link are too kewl — I recommend a tennis racket.
Since you’re dealing with a 10 month old lab, you can also try the old double reverse to get some extra doggie miles out of the same throw.
In short, make a good act of throwing the ball one way. The dog takes off after it and when it starts looking around all confused like — which might not stand out a lot with a lab — you make sure it sees you throw it the other way.
I’m not sure what the weather is like in N/A (North America? Nome, Alaska? Ninja Abode?) but if there is some open water, throw the ball in… if nothing else, it will take poochie a little while longer to fetch. Same goes with deep snow.
I had the tennis racket idea about twenty minutes after I posted, and I know my parents are considering something like the launcher. But for the meantime, I found an old tennis racket in the basement, and it seems to be working well; less effort to whack it across the yard.
Unfortunately I’m in New Jersey, and while it’s well known that Clark loves water and there’s a swimmable pond nearby, it’s just too cold to go for a swim. He is enjoying the mud in the backyard a lot, though. (I, however, as the person responsible for cleaning the mud off the pup, am enjoying it rather less.)
And we do long walks - two miles in the morning, two miles in the evening. Part of it is he’s used to both my mom and dad being home - my mom full-time - so the exercising duties are generally split between two people, not just one.
We have the slingshot launcher, as well as one of these. With a young lab/husky mix and a border collie these suckers are indispensable. Our favorite game is to put one of us on either end of a field and chuck the ball back and forth to each other, requiring the dogs to run back and forth between us without ever getting the ball at all! It’s ultimate keepaway, and it’s funny as hell to see how frustrated they get.
For a slightly higher time/materials investment we have this thing, which is FUCKING AWESOME!
I once saw a guy by a lakeside / park using a Chuckit from the link provided by Sailboat. He and his lab were having a ball. That simple piece of plastic allowed the guy to throw an old tennis ball far and wide and he wasn’t getting tired at all. His dog was, and enjoying every minute of it.
The guy made a short walk around the lake, the dog did about twenty times that distance.
Oh, and the Chuckit brand tennis balls are incredible–they aren’t fuzzy so they don’t get nearly so gross, they’re just about impossible for the dog to puncture (regular tennis balls are toast to a lab!) they bounce about a mile and you can rinse them off in the sink afterward. Oh yeah, and they float really well and come in BRIGHT NEON ORANGE so you can find them easily. Perfect fetch balls, just perfect.
As a lover and owner of Labrador retrievers for many years, I heartily second (1) walking and throwing and (2) fetch in the water.
Labs are bred to plunge into, swim in and emerge unscathed from water that is at or below freezing temperatures, but the key here is “emerge from.” Its coat is designed to shed water away from the dog’s body when it comes out of the water. Labs originally were bred to help fishermen on the North Atlantic coastlands drag laden nets out of the ocean onto the beach, which makes the breed perfect for retrieving waterfowl downed over wetlands. A true Lab is a water dog, and will love splashing and fetching, and just as it does with humans, the water offers more resistance and tires them faster. Just dress appropriately, that is, in water-shedding clothing, because you will be showered repeatedly as the dog shakes off excess water.
[Anecdotal Hijack]
I used to have a Shillelagh that looked very much like a golf club. One day, I took my dog to a small hill and set up a tennis ball as though I were on a golf tee. At first, this was great fun and a change of pace for me and the dog. After two or three “drives”, however, the dog had the pattern down and she started to go after the ball before I even hit it. On the last “drive” I went into my backswing focussing too hard on the ball as my dog ran up to start the game.
WHACK
Right in the head. She was a little unstable for the first part of the walk home and I almost took her to the vet. She turned out to be just fine and still wanted to chase the ball.
[/A H]
Amen. Those Ultraballs are the best balls ever. Great high bounce, enough heft so they go farther than a regular tennis ball, slick surface that sheds the schmutz, but hollow and light enough so Tahoe can catch them in midair without risk of hurting himself. We used to use a lacrosse stick and lacrosse ball, but those balls are heavy and dense, and it only took one time of Tahoe catching it right after release, leaping up for it in the air, and that horrible sickening hollow thud of it impacting his sinus for us to stop using them. He’s a whippet, and terribly delicate after all.
Ah, yes, the frozen Kong is apparently a household favorite; my mom said she often adds some canned dog food and/or chopped up meat leftovers to peanut butter. “Find the toy” is also a nightly routine - this dog is scary smart.
Today he’s been a bit more settled; we jogged for about half his morning walk, then spent twenty minutes tossing a ball in the yard. Then fifteen minutes or so mid-morning before I went out, then nearly half an hour just now. I’m mixing it up between throwing a ball, using a tennis racket, and occasionally chucking him a frisbee - the yard is muddy enough he can get a paw under it pretty easily. (Cleaning him up afterwards is less easy.)
Hey, while we’re here - at this point the only way I’m comfortable walking him is using a Gentle Leader harness (otherwise, he pulls, and he’s not a small dog, nor a weak dog, while I am a small person). He really doesn’t like it and it takes about five minutes for me gently coax him into a sit when he sees it in my hand, and get him to stay for long enough to get it on him. My parents, who are his regular people, have less trouble since he knows them better, but obviously that doesn’t help me. Any tips on getting a slightly ornery dog more comfortable having it put on?
Oh, also, just because I think he’s adorable, here’s a picture of the man himself. One part black lab, one part mystery dog, but my father’s pretty sure that the mystery part is in fact the fabled attention hound, the dog that feeds off not food and water but just pure, unadulterated attention. He’s got two modes: serious playtime, and serious cuddle time.
It looks like part of the harness goes over the muzzle, is that the part he doesn’t like?
Maybe an announcement that you’re both going for a walk would help him to associate getting the harness on with getting a nice walk. (Maybe not a short term solution though.)
With the harness I used to use, I would hide it in the couch cushions and then call the dog over for some heavy petting. (You know what I mean!)
Eventually, my dog would fetch the leash and harness and bring them to me. I used going for walks and being off leash as major rewards and I usually had to calm the dog down to get the harness on rather than trying to fight her.
That picture literally made me chuckle out loud. He’s freaking cute.
It sounds like you are doing everything absolutely correct with the little guy. Don’t sweat the extra time it takes to put his leader on.
You sound like the type of person I’d let take care of my dogs. In my family if someone is going away on holidays, we’ll fly a relative out to take care of the dogs because we don’t trust anyone else.
That simple piece of plastic allowed the guy to throw an old tennis ball far and wide and he wasn’t getting tired at all. His dog was, and enjoying every minute of it.