Finnie (and Piper) and the ball

[Piper's mom]

Beautiful weather FINALLY and Finnie got his ball out of the snow. I actually had to go in the house to get my phone to record this because Piper was playing as well (in his own way).
Now I just say to Finnie ‘where’s your ball’? And he starts whining

 

[Sharon7]

And here I had pictured a regular type ball! That is absolutely hilarious. How did you ever get the idea to give him that to play with?

 

[Piper's mom]

Finnie likes his ball’s….hes gone from small ones to soccer balls. Last summer I picked up an exercise ball at a thrift store for myself for $5 and the first time I inflated it Finnie started whining and crying he wanted to play with it so badly!
I figured for 5 bucks I’d let him have it. He never played with it as good as he did today. I think the weather helped, almost 0C out so the first really nice day in over 2 months that the dogs could stay outside! And Piper was like a puppy the way he was playing! I think he was trying to herd the ball…he was playing for much longer but I had to get my phone lol.

 

[Sandy in CT]

What fun! Great idea on the exercise ball - will have to see if my fetch obsessed guy likes one! Pipers acts like he is a puppy - so great to see him so healthy and active and running around after all he went through. Funny about Finnie and his ball!

 

[RikyR]

Zulu loves to push his ball around the yard. Trouble is he is so focused on pushing the ball, he will sometimes run into the fence! Every once in a while, he will manage to pop the ball, so we keep a couple of spares in garage. They are cheap, but they are hard to find in the winter, so we stock up in the fall.

 

[Piper's mom]

What fun! Great idea on the exercise ball - will have to see if my fetch obsessed guy likes one! Pipers acts like he is a puppy - so great to see him so healthy and active and running around after all he went through. Funny about Finnie and his ball!

You can get them to push the ball by using the command ‘touch’. Finnie still want to bite the ball occasionally but he’s getting the idea of using his nose. I’ve been rewarding him when he touches it, we did start with a smaller soccer ball. It’s all for fun, he loves all balls to the point of being obsessive about them lol. Especially the bigger ones…yesterday after he’d been playing and we’d gone in the house he started whining because he wanted to go back outside and play some more
And of course look in a thrift store for one, much less costly if they make a hole in it!

 

[Ann]

That is great! Mine love soccer-sized balls. I get the kids' balls that you can buy in a pack of six because Misty pops them eventually. Sprite is the one who's ball obsessed, she is missing her twice-daily games between her paw being bandaged and the yard being sheer ice. Balls are terrific exercise for them!

 

[Piper's mom]

Zulu loves to push his ball around the yard. Trouble is he is so focused on pushing the ball, he will sometimes run into the fence! Every once in a while, he will manage to pop the ball, so we keep a couple of spares in garage. They are cheap, but they are hard to find in the winter, so we stock up in the fall.

I need to get some spares…great idea! Finnie does like me to kick the ball for him sometimes…that’s why he was barking at me while I was taking the video, he wanted me to move it for him!
This was the first time though that Piper took part although I don’t think Piper wanted to play with the ball…more likely he was trying to stop Finnie and get him to play with him! Piper gets quite jealous when he’s not the centre of attention.

 

[woof]

Great ball herding and shelties having fun. Lovely day, one of my shelties is a big snow eater too??? Ball herding now that could go along with flyball and obedience as a new game!!

 

[Piper's mom]

Great ball herding and shelties having fun. Lovely day, one of my shelties is a big snow eater too??? Ball herding now that could go along with flyball and obedience as a new game!!

There is a sport called Treibball that’s very popular with dogs now. It involves the dog pushing a large ball into a net I think (across a large area) and there are classes available. Of course it’s also something you can teach at home by teaching them touch and then working with small balls, gradually increasing up to the large ones. At the very least it can help the dog get the ball unstuck and teach them to use their nose as opposed to their teeth.

You saw how Piper had to stop chasing it to eat some snow eh? lol he’s addicted to snow and we haven’t had any new stuff in a couple weeks. It’s much worse with the new snow! I usually have to walk behind him giving him little nudges with my foot constantly until he decides to do his business. It’s 2 steps eat, 2 steps eat at least 5+ times. Normally when it’s super cold and I want him to go before his paws get too cold!
Finnie eats snow too but not nearly as much! And Blueberry likes the hard crunchy bits.