None of my dogs like balls. My one dog has a HIGH prey drive but she wants to go after something more interactive (my guess). She loves anything she can shake and hits her back. As a young pup she liked to shake barbie dolls by the hair and have the plastic body hit her.

From there she went to my little pony dolls, hard plastic doll heads that little girls fasion hair. Riding crops. Anything that hits as she shakes.

I got her to like jolly balls by tieing a towel through the handle so she could shake the twel and the ball his her.

She has ZERO interest in ball retrieval, frizbees.

Now I got this shepherd puppy from a working line and the dogs must be talking because if I throw a ball I better be ready to go get it.

Frustrating.

I don't know if you can "teach" a dog to prefer a ball over a tug or something that really wiggles.

Perhaps trying a ball on a string, like the orbee, that you can shake and tug and really move might help them make the connection that balls are fun.

With pups my own experience is that the love of retrieving balls came around 6 months. It took awhile for it to "click".

You also might want to consider the "Building Drive & Focus" DVD. It's excellent and was very helpful to me with this kind of thing.

You can teach them to retrieve balls, you can teach them to hold a ball, but you aren't going to teach them to "love" balls. It's one of those things a dog either has or doesn't.

DFrost

Putting a ball on a line and building frustration and drive can make a dog with little ball drive become much more "infatuated"

I disagree with not being able to promote the love of toys to a dog , I have taken dogs with little to no drive for a ball and turned them into ball obsessed maniacs. Of course, I want the dog with natural ball drive but sometimes it just takes some time and it certainly takes some thought. You can't just leave toys laying around all day and then expect the dog to love it. It needs to become an object of fun and interaction with you. Of course, the dog needs to have a relationship with you and some prey drive. I am quite sure if you saw one of my Malinois as a pup you would have bet me money that she wouldn't have any ball drive. She is probably one of the most ball obsessed dogs I have ever owned now, after spending a bit of time from 8 to 16 weeks just building drive. Her drive over the years has increased immensely, and at 6 1/2 years old you would be hard pressed to find a dog with much more drive for a ball.

I don't advocate throwing a ball for dogs that don't have some level of drive, for several reasons the most important of which is that I want the fun and interaction with ANY toy to come from me, not yards away where the ball or toy lands. Really the only time I throw toys at all is for exercise and then I use the chuckit. (and only once the dog has shown me very keen drive for the ball) Any other time toys are out we are interacting with each other, playing tug, etc.. this makes the toy a relationship building tool.

Some dogs prefer one type of toy over another, but in a perfect world you want your dog to play with you anytime, anywhere and with anything. My dogs will play with a pine cone, water bottle, toy, piece of paper or whatever I present because I have promoted the concept of when I offer something to play with we are going to have a blast!

I have ordered the drive dvd. Not letting go of the toy and "creating" the fun makes a ton of sence.

David - years ago I would have agreed with you. I was wrong and sorry to say you are too. That's not a bad thing. Fact is I was surprised when I saw this done on a couple of dogs. Obviously it takes a handler with knowledge on how to do this.

Fact is the DVD I did titled BUILDING DRIVE AND FOCUS http://leerburg.com/101e.htm is a good start to this process.

I don't think I'm wrong. Can I teach a dog to do all those things with a ball, you bet. Can the drive be built so that it can be used as a reinforcement. I won't say never, but the percentage would be too low to be worth the trouble. There is a lot of difference in a dog that will play ball because it makes the handler happy and a dog that does it because he just can't resist.

DFrost

The reason I think it might work is that the older dog already has FANTASTIC drive and focus. She just doesn't get turned on to a ball but if I start associating that with fun I think it might not be too hard to incoorperate balls into her triggers. She NEVER gave jolly balls a second glance until I tied a towel to a couple. Now she wait until the horses are out and steals all jolly balls out of the stallls. Our poor clients have given up getting toys for their horses.

The pup as yet doesn't have much drive or bite or focus but he is 5 months and not as hard headed as the older female so maybe he can be molded. Worth a try. I needed to order something anyway so what is yet another dvd. My husband thinks I am going for the complete set.

Is there a reason the dog needs to like balls? If he has good drive then there are other things he likes right?

With me, I don't care as long as the dog has the drive with something. Whether it's a tug, toy, ball, rolled towel. The dog picks the reward it will work for. We may pick something we want the dog to retrieve, but to drive the behavior, it's the dog's choice.

DFrost