Ok Dopers, I’ve got a retriever whose obsession with fetching knows no bounds. He will fetch and fetch and fetch and fetch until my arm is sore. Plus I work, so he’s home alone a lot during the day. He plays with our other dog and our cats during the day, but fetching is his true love. I’ve seen these fetching devices on tv, where a dog drops the ball into a bucket-like thing, then it launches the ball for the dog to fetch.
Trouble is, they are as cheap as $19.99 and as expensive as $365. Does anyone have any experience with these devices? Are they worth it? I’m tempted to buy the $20 version, but I hate to put more plastic in the landfill if it doesn’t work. I’d also hate to shell out $365 only to find that the things are crap, regardless of the price point. Any recommendations would be much appreciated. Thanks!
I’ve had 3 goldens, 2 of whom were ball addicted. With the last one, I realized I wasn’t doing my part to limit his habit. When he was young, I threw the ball so much that he strained one of his back legs. And before I realized what was happening, at times when it was really hot, he would run until he got the staggers - which one vet suggested might have been heat stroke.
Also, it was a pain on occasion, when he acted as tho he thought any other dog was going to steal his ball. Not sure how much I COULD have done to temper his obsession, but I didn’t really try.
Just suggesting that you might want to still exercise some control even if you get the automatic device.
Do you have one of those flingers that allows you to throw it further? I’d imagine that would keep your arm from tiring as much.
Well, those two particular units are the exact same model with two different labels. They even use the same badly Photoshopped Pomeranian as a model. Go with the cheaper one and save $345. Of course, it might be junk and the return process so hassling that you have to swallow the $20 loss.
Have you tried a tennis racket? It really does not take much force to get a good ‘toss’ out of it. It would help if the balls are not flat, but it will still work which much less effort.
I got an iFetchas a gift. It worked as advertised but my dogs have made it clear that THEY ARE NOT RETRIEVERS and WILL NOT BE DOING ANY RETRIEVING and also whirry noises from a ball machine (no matter how soft) scare their scardey-dog asses.
So, it didn’t work out. I gave it to my neighbor down the street with a German shorthaired pointer but I never see her playing with it so I’m not sure if it’s any good or not. But like I said, it did work as advertised.
While my dogs don’t like to retrieve the one likes to chase balls like nobody’s business, so we do love our ChuckIt! ball launching stick. It still requires human interaction but it’s much much much easier on the human. Also good for when your dogs DO NOT RETRIEVE and you have to go pick up the balls yourself. No bending required.
Thanks for the replies, guys. Yep we’ve got a chuck it and have also used tennis racquets and hockey sticks to launch balls. But I really want to find something that fetches without my involvement. I’ll do it sometimes, but every single day with no saturation point by him is getting old. Sometimes I just want to lounge on the sofa, check the dope, and argue with strangers about politics.
And Dinsdale, it never even occurred to me to try to tone down his obsession. I’ll have to mull that over. And it is an addiction-he even sleeps with a ball in his mouth.
Tired and Cranky I couldn’t work out if those units were the same or if the cheap one was trying to look like the expensive one. But if they are the same, I’m buying the cheap one and will report back.
Yeah - I’m not sure how it would work, but something to think about. I had one dog that I’m convinced had ADD. She would pace and do other weird behaviors if we weren’t actively working her. So if your dog is like that, I can imagine it being VERY difficult to train out the undesired behaviors.
But otherwise, everyone says you can train all manner of behaviors. Just because your dog WANTS to do something, doesn’t mean it is good for him, or that you should allow it. And, while dogs need some amount of exercise - and CAN be trained to run distances and such, I think there is likely a certain level of exercise that is adequate for most dogs, and that if the dog goes above that, it might be neutral or even harmful. So again, just because he wants to…
I was really embarrassed when I realized I had allowed/encouraged my dog to hurt himself. Not saying the same will happen to your dog, but I realized I was supposed to be the smart one of the pair of us…:smack:
Glad to give you something to think about. I’ve been thinking way too much about dog training recently - we had our old guy put down last month, and are getting a new pup this Friday.
I had a dog that would happily fetch for hours- I had a kid’s pool with water and periodically I’d say “you look hot, go cool off” and she’d fling herself down in the water, wallow a bit, jump out and bring me the ball again. She was a border collie, and we had the same routine when she was working, too.
You shouldn’t be embarrassed about that at all. I’ve had dogs all my life, and never knew they would play so long (willingly) that they would hurt themselves.
And sorry about the loss of your old guy, but there’s nothing to brighten up a home like a new puppy. Of course, we’ll need pics when you bring him home
Dogs thrive on human interaction. I would expect a dog to pay very little attention to a machine that it does not associate with human agency. Set one to go off at 11 am when you are gone. Th dog will probably go and smelll the ball and go back to sleep, unless it senses that you want him to play with it and are there to sat Good Boy…
Daisy - 2 dogs ago - loves her balls. She would fit as many as 3 tennis balls in her mouth at the same time.
-She would lie on her back, pick the ball out of her mouth with her paws, and then drop it and catch it in her mouth.
-We taught her how to climb the ladder of a raft in a lake we used to visit. She began swimming out to the raft by herself, where she would nudge the ball into the water, jump in and get it, then climb out and repeat.
-She also played w/ my kid’s pet rat, Ralph. She would nose the ball towards Ralph, Ralph would climb up so that his front paws and head were on top of the ball, and Daisy would gingerly pull the ball out from under Ralph with her teeth. Then she’d nudge it back to him again.
Yeah - dogs love human interaction. But don’t put it past a ball-crazy retriever to figure out ways to entertain themself.
Dinsdale, I think our dogs may be related. Our Christmas card 2 years ago included a shot of all our pets (except the cats who were uncooperative), and our retriever had three tennis balls in his mouth. It was a crowd pleaser.
And our retriever also amuses himself by dropping tennis balls in his water bowl or the toilet, then getting them out. We call it ‘bobbing for apples’.
I always wondered how people got those pictures of dogs with 3 tennis balls. I had no idea some dogs would just do that completely on their own & couldn’t figure out how you’d train them. Thought perhaps folks just shove 'em in there!
Wonder what Ralph The Rat thought of their little game …
I used to take my Lab Lucy to the dog park and use the ChuckIt to throw balls in the water for her. One day I brought my granddaughter who was throwing for her. I got to talking to another dog owner and wasn’t paying attention, when a third person told me to stop my granddaughter. Lucy was getting exhausted and struggling a bit to get back to shore.
Have you ever had rats? They are amazingly personable. A shame they are so short-lived.
We didn’t force this on Ralph, or try to “train” his behavior - it is something they came up with on their own. They were very comfortable with each other, and made no apparent effort to avoid each other. We always supervised, and Daisy never showed any sign of aggression towards Ralph (tho she DID eat other small animals - baby squirrels, bunnies, etc.) Ralph had plenty of opportunities to leave the game - to retreat under any number of chairs/couches where Daisy could not follow. Ralph displayed no apparent interest in the ball independent of interacting w/ Daisy. And Ralph kept returning to the game again and again.
Lacking any reason to think to the contrary, I’d say Ralph got something positive from the interaction.
I had the same problem with my beloved Chessie, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. She wasn’t motivated by food or snacks, she was motivated by retrieving. And she’d run all day long if I let her.
As a tennis player, I tried this too. Serving at over 100MPH, I thought this would satisfy her. But no…
A Chuck-It (or flinger, whatever you want to call it) was only part of my solution. My dog would sprint for hundreds of yards to fetch the ball. She was fast. She was strong!
My solution involved three things: (1) was a Chuck-It, (2) was a solid hard rubber ball (not a tennis ball!), and (3) was a safe and long (looong!!) open area where the rubber ball would bounce and roll a long way — ideally, a quarter mile long, 440 yards or so.
The problem with the tennis racket, I quickly realized, was the ball. A tennis ball is light and suffers from wind resistance. It’ll go fast on a tennis court, but not much farther than that in an open space.
A solid rubber ball is key (no holes like in a Kong ball), and they sell them at pet stores, and it has to fit in the Chuck-It. Get the full size Chuck-It, not the mini ones. The full size is about 3 feet long, thereabouts. A solid rubber ball will fly farther than a tennis ball because its weight means less effective wind resistance, and it will also bounce and roll much faster and farther than a tennis ball.
For the area or space, I used open parking lots or empty parking buildings, or wide open, straight dirt roads. Yes, a paved surface, so the ball can roll far. Or at least a hard packed dirt surface.
With this setup I could chuck the ball for 300, 400, 500 yards at a time — seriously. Most of that distance the ball would bounce and roll, faster than my dog could run, and then she would sprint to get after it. It didn’t take many chucks to get her winded, maybe 7-10 times. Each time I threw the ball, it was a long sprint.
My dog was amazingly fast, like a thoroughbred horse, and she was strong! She’d run and run and run, she’d fetch and fetch and fetch! All day long.
Will do! Most of his balls are solid hard rubber balls because he will destroy a tennis ball inside of 30 minutes, if he’s not retrieving it. I never thought of using the hard Kong balls for retrieving, but your rationale makes sense!
But I also ordered the cheap ball launcher mentioned up thread, so I’ll report back on both.
Hank typically ends up with 3 balls in his mouth when he first finds one, then we’ll walk for a bit (we live near tennis courts) and he’ll find another and put it in his mouth…then a bit later, he will find a third tennis ball and spend as much time as necessary figuring out how to fit that one in his mouth too–he’s been successful ever since he was a pup!! He has also tried for the forth 'ball in the mouth 'on many occasions, to no avail.
