Dog Kills Ball

There are dogs that don't like to play fetch.

They prefer to chase and kill the bright red bouncy ball of a cute little tole-haired boy under the care of his nanny, as the case may be in Park Slope. Ah, what satisfaction to pounce on someone's else's ball, bite and puncture it, shake the air out of it,  watch it deflate completely under paw, a little pathetic wheeze emanating from its plastic wounds. 

Well, it's official: next week I will be focusing my training energy on a sweet pair of terriers called Peanut and Jimmy that relish nothing more than taking the squeak out of balls in the park.

Despite their current reputation as lap-dogs, the two belong to a breed typically bred for rat-hunting - thus even after training, they are likely to persist in their chasing to some extent. The trick is to get them to respond to their owners, me, even a stranger, if we tell them to desist.

I will begin with one dog indoors and one in the backyard, so as to keep the two of them from influencing the other, and keep them free of general distractions. They should both be free to focus on training. In both cases, they will be on-leash.

Indeed, until the training has been completed, these energetic creatures will not get to go off-leash, poor creatures. For about a week, I'll be waving a small ball in front of each of them, not allowing them to touch it with even the tip of their little wet noses. Sadistic, you say? No. Dogs love boundaries, and you know it. (They don't mind that we create boundaries for them in our own human way, any more than we mind the way they mark territory. Not only do they sniff out territorial boundaries, or guard them, they create them. But more on that in a future entry).

Stage One: 

I'll start by teaching them that before they run off in pursuit of a moving ball, they have to wait ("stop", or "off") for a release command ("ok!). It should be clear to each of them that the "stop" command means that running after the ball is not allowed. Thus, the need for a leash, indoors. 

I'll be rolling the ball to the far end of the room and letting them know that they can not chase or go after the ball, with a firm "stop". As they inevitably start to go after the ball, I will do a firm but gentle leash correction and use the "stop" command again. (I personally prefer "stop" to "off" because it can be used in a range of circumstances, such as when a dog gets started after a squirrel, when braking on a bicycle, etc.)

Each and EVERY time Peanut or Jimmy show that they know what "off" means, and adhere to the command, they will be rewarded with a treat. 

Stage Two: 

Once both dogs have learned the command to perfection, I'll be moving to bigger and bigger spaces, and add some distractions little by little. Once their obedience is consistent, we'll go off-leash in the original space. 

Stage Three:
 
If I can get a friend or two to work with me on this, now will be the time to test the training. Several of us will play catch, and, keeping the dogs on a leash, it will be "off", and more "off", until it's a cheery "Ok!".

I'm pretty sure that, without the leash, Jimmy would be unable to resist chasing the ball back and forth into eternity, and I mean eternity (he's a terrier after all). And once Jimmy managed to secure it in his paws, Peanut would see absolutely no reason to resist puncturing it. That's how they roll, as a team. (Thus, once again, the need for keeping them on a leash and continuing to offer a gentle and consistent correction for every misstep.)

You might ask: If, after all that training, you predict that, much of the time they will continue to chase the ball, why bother?

Well, presently, they do not really understand what is goin on when I, or their owners, chastise them after they have successfully killed that little squeaky creature - what they were actually bred to do, by humans, over hundreds of years! We owe it to them to communicate our will to them, clearly, rather than punishing them seemingly randomly.

And, the chance of their puncturing a little boy's ball and bringing red tear-streaks to his cheeks, is going to be significantly reduced. Maybe your little terrier will actually decide it's more fun to let that ball live.