Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks or How I Learned To Play Fetch

Even as a puppy my Sheltie Dallas was never very excited to play. She loves her walks, is happy to socialize with everyone she meets, but show her a ball and she is not interested - fetch is just not in her vocabulary.

It's been a long, cold winter and Dallas's walks have been shorter than she (or I) would like. Hoping to give her a fun activity, and possibly some exercise, I thought I would once again introduce her to "the ball" and see if we could have a fun game of fetch.

I chose a nice pliable, medium size ball with a nice squeak. Will full enthusiasm I showed it to Dallas. She was happy to come and sniff, but then promptly walked away.

Her first negative reaction did not deter me.Thinking she needed some additional incentive I rubbed some peanut butter (one of her favorite treats) on the ball. For that she came running over but instead of picking up the ball she sat and licked it, all clean, with out ever taking it in her mouth.

Still determined to have some playtime, I rolled the ball, said "lets go get" and ran with her to get it. She happily ran with me then waited for me to pick up the ball and roll it once again with the command. Again we both ran to the ball so I could get it. This continued for a while and not once would she pick up the ball but she was always happy to run with me so I could go fetch it.

Not exactly what I had in mind but we had fun and we both had some exercise. Maybe she would prefer fetch with a stick...