24/05/2025
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Bz1utjDYC/?mibextid=wwXIfr
BALL PLAY is one of the worst things you can do with your dogs. ESPECIALLY if you do lots of it.
I can hear many people getting upset right about now.
'But my dogs LOVES chasing the ball!' Well, my whippet LOVES chocolate, but it's bad for her, so she doesn't get it. Plus, I think a lot of the time, the human loves throwing the ball for their dog just as much as the dog loves chasing.
Why is ball play bad? Look at the dog in the picture.
Balls are unpredictable, and dogs will do a lot of very hard stopping,, twisting, turning, and jumping, all of which cause soft tissue pain and open your dog up to serious risk of major injuries like cruciate tears, etc.
Ball play is EXCITING and AROUSING. Two problems here. One is that as arousal increases, so does pain tolerance, so your dogs don't feel the harm they are doing to their bodies.
The second is that it teaches your dog's nervous system to be in states of arousal, which contributes to anxiety, reactivity, over-excitement, and behavioural issues.
If you must do ball play with your dogs, limit it to 5 minutes.
And if you want to significantly reduce the impact on your dog's body, keep them with you, throw the ball, then set them off to get it when it's stopped moving. That will make a big difference. Much less damage!
If you have dogs with a serious ball addiction, then removing all the balls so that your dog's get time to switch off and relax.
And make sure you do relaxing, grounding things after any (short) sessions of ball play. To teach your dogs how to relax and regulate.
Another problem is that ball-play engages the hunting behaviours- but the loop is never closed (like in the wild) with eating the prey and then having a huge sleep. It stays activated - again contributing to hypervigilance, dopamine toxicity, and anxiety issues.
Ditch the balls. Honestl;y- they are more bad than good, no matter how you frame it, no matter how you work to make it safer.
Ball play, in the end, is simply BAD FOR DOGS!
Let me know in the chat - have you had a ball addicted dog? Have you had a dog injure themselves with ball play? What are your calming, grounding alternatives to ball play?
I help animals all over the world heal and be well + happy with holistic veterinary care, kind training, and energy healing. If you want me to help your pets, message me! Zoom and in person appts available.