Ever seen the Agatha Christie film "Dumb Witness" - where the witness of a murder is a Fox Terrie named Bob - the clue to Poirot was how Bob would always place his ball on the stairs, watch it bump down them, catch the ball and put it back in his bed everytime - this helped poirot to solve the mystery!
For our Bob, tennis balls became an obsession - 3 in his bed in this picture!
At first it was funny, Bob always with his ball, staring at shopping when we came home expecting to receive a ball from the bag, crying (read whining) if one did not appear. Slowly the ball developed into an obssession. He could sit for hours starring at a ball on a shelf, even when he had balls all over the floor, the one on the shelf out of reach was the only one he wanted! This obssession began to become a nuisance, a problem not that of aggression as he has never been aggressive, but a problem none the less. For humans its akin to an addiction, he needed a ball with him at all times and would become depressed if the ball was removed from him.
Clearly he was not a happy dog enjoying his tennis balls as we had originally thought. Through research I have found out how to begin to remove this obssession from him, this is a very long process. To date I have increased his exercise without using the tennis ball, using treats to reward him. We no longer play the "where is the ball game" on returning from shopping and ignore his obssessive behaviour. Again, I note that playing with him and comforting him was the wrong reaction from me. So far this change in behaviour is working, but I am prepared for more work beofre he gets over this problem. I know he's beginning to feel more balanced as he's far more relaxed, even around tennis balls. Soon I hope to learn more about how to remove obssessions in dogs. A human with an addiction is not a happy person, even though they may appear so, the same is true of our dogs! Rehabilitiation is the only way forward and it works! Obssession in animals is not a natural state, a truly balanced dog lives in a natural state. The dog has an advantage here - they would prefer to return to life in a natural state!
Bob is such an amazing dog he deserves the best life can give him - he's clever and has a lovely attitude to everyone and dogs alike. We created his obssession so now we have to remove it! It's a bit like conditioning him to accept the ball as an occassional toy, for now it's total abstinence that is required. I wonder if he will get to the balanced state and be able to react differently to a tennis ball?! Come to think of it a change in reaction to bringing the shopping in would be a great start!
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