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Ball Obsession

6K views 5 replies 2 participants last post by  Criosphynx 
#1 ·
M Golden Retriever loves his ball, to the point of obsessing over them. I take him to the dog park almost every day. I am trying to get him to become more social and play with the other dogs at the park. As soon as he is in there, he goes for a ball (as there are several balls just laying around usually) and will carry it around, pick a spot to hang out, go find more balls, and bring them back to his spot. He becomes very antisocial when he does this. There have been incidences of him becoming aggressive because of it. He will collect every ball in the park and lay with them. If I take balls away from him he will usually stand there and bark, whine, and stare at me.
I have been having a little success in trying to stop this obsession. Every time he goes for ball I tell him to drop it. If he does not drop it, I make him sit, take the ball from him, and toss it away. Recently he avoids grabbing the balls, he will just sniff them and move on, occasionally picking one up, but he will drop them when told to. He has been interacting and playing with other dogs now more and more, and appears to be more mentally balanced. But sometimes he will still be very persistent with anxiety about obtaining a ball.
I will let him have ball time outside of the dog park. I will throw it for him outside on days we do not go to the dog park. Is that hurting or helping his ball obsession problem?
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
Well he is catching on quick. He rarely even goes and sniffs the balls anymore, he will just walk right past them now and his interacting and playing more with the other dogs. Its so nice to see him playing with other dogs and enjoying himself now. I keep a ball in my bag case I decide to throw it for him outside the dog park and he will sniff the bag during the walk knowing the ball is in there. I just ignore it and wait to throw the ball until he is calm and his mind is not on getting the ball.

Unfortunately.....he had picked up a new habit......a very disgusting one at that. He has been eating poop. As soon as we went outside for our walk he immediately went for a pile of diarrhea (I assume it was from a dog) and began to chow down. I was absolutely stunned. I grabbed him a made him lay down and told him how bad he was. I thought that was the end of it. Then at the dog park, some dog threw up. Prozak ran over to it like someone was ringing a dinner bell. I did the same thing except I was a tad rougher with him this time. I would not let him get up. I made him stay down until he stayed without getting up for a full 5 minutes. And then we left. I do not understand why he is doing this. He never ate poop or vomit, not even as a pup. He is a very smart dog and I hate that he is do something so idiotic. Ugh! I brushed his teeth like 3 times when we got home. He just got off anibiotics for a bacterial infection...I hope he dosent catch anything.
 
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