It's a well documented fact that dogs who fixate on their toys, often balls or another item to be retrieved, are exhibiting what we call in humans, "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder" behavior, or OCD. It's not necessarily referred to that by all dog training professionals, but it does amount to it. It's also a well-documented fact that when a group of dogs gathers, particularly a group whose members aren't well acquainted, or where the pack members are changing (as in a dog park setting), that there is continuous social ordering among the group as members encounter each other. How a pair of dogs engage is influenced by whether or not a third or subsequent dog is also part of the meeting, among other factors.
Two dogs may acquaint themselves well, yet might express tension with a third dog present. Dogs are pack animals and predators. They are evolutionarily programmed to order their social groups in such a way that the pack will be at its healthiest and its most well-functioning. Thus, behavior that will affect the pack's success as a group is naturally discouraged by at least the most integrated of the pack members, and in most instances, even the newer and less dominant pack members exhibit an inclination to discourage such behaviors.
Ok, so, I'll get off the scientist-speak and back to my point. Ball dog behaviors come in degrees, just as human behaviors do. Ball fixation is described to include spinning, glazing over of the eyes and face, panting, drooling, or barking when the ball is not thrown, and in more extreme cases, guarding the toy and exhibiting aggressive behaviors towards other dogs when they approach. Essentially, ball fixation (and more generally, toy fixation, or even other attachments such as licking or chewing on their own body parts) are signs of heightened anxiety.
In dogs, anxious breeds anxious. In truth, anxiety is catching in many species, and cross-species. We humans can be anxious and it can transfer it to our animals. So, a ball-obsessed dog at a dog park can lead to several things. First, it draws the attention of most dogs nearby almost immediately. Dogs who feel highly connected to their "pack" or the group of dogs present in the moment are likely to feel a need to quell or subdue the anxiety being exhibited by the ball-dog. Other dogs in the group who may not feel the same level of group connectedness may ignore the ball-dog.
One observation any "armchair dog psychologist" can make at a well attended dog park is this phenomenon. I've begun speaking to people with ball obsessed dogs, and asking them about the issue of dogs who "chase" or seem to seek to subdue their dog during its fixation behavior. Do you know what I have found? Each and every owner, without exception, has claimed that the phenomena of other dogs approaching and chasing after their dogs occurs predictably and consistantly whenever they visit a dog park.
Sadly, there is a corollary to the ball-centered dog, and that is the "ball-centered dog"-centered owner. Put more simply, some owners of ball fixated dogs are emotionally wrapped up in the energy of their dog and their own release obtained from throwing the ball for the dog. I'm not judging. If this makes you feel as though you are the only person in the world while you are dong this for your dog, or any other thing that doing this offers you, that's all yours. However, if you are one of these people, have you asked yourself a few questions?
What I mean is this. When you prepare to throw your dog's toy, is there another dog jumping around behind your dog, dying for you to throw the ball too? If so, what are YOU feeling in that moment?
Are you irritated because your dog isn't able to pay full attention to you; or your throw for him? Are you silently cursing the dog(s) out because it is interrupting your special time with your dog? If the dog is unfamiliar to you, and you are hesitating to throw, or "teasing" the dogs, WHY are you doing this?
In this moment, I theorize you are having some of these very thoughts, and wishing the other dog or dogs would just buzz off. I've watched this play out so many, many times; I find myself sometimes actually calling to the owner, "just throw the ball"!
If this is you, you are probably adding to the tension between the dogs far more than you realize. When I've asked owners of ball centered dogs about the concern, they have always universally proclaimed "this happens ALL the time!" I've even asked them in response, "when you have the ball, are you afraid your dog will run off?" They universally say, "WHAT! No! All she wants is the ball!" And in answer, I ask, "then why do you bring them here, to a dog park, where every dog is going to be running free; learning to socialize and doing what dogs do with each other in an unfettered setting? Why not just go to an unoccupied soccer field, or a school yard, or a park?" They never get it.
As I pointed out above, dogs naturally order themselves in self-policing groups. With a few exceptions, the fights that break out are generally social posturing. Teeth are bared by all in such cases, and a good alpha might put a dog on its back quickly in attempt to keep the event short and resolve social ordering. Any dog trainer will tell you, a ball-centered dog is a dog with excessive energy and anxiety. Excessive energy can escalate into a social "adjustment" or larger fight if not quelled. Dogs with excessive energy need a job, and in doing the job, they need to be set up for success just as a human doing a job needs to be. Introducing the ball-centered dog and his energy into a large or even small pack of dogs (who aren't necessarily well acquainted) and then asking the ball dog to do his job among dogs who are attempting to assimilate with each other is asking for challenges.
Taking the ball-centered dog to a gathering of ball-centered dogs who are each there to literally "do the job" of ball-getting is a far more appropriate choice, and yet, rarely does a ball-centered owner ever bother to actually consider his or her dog's emotional needs to that degree. Admittedly, there are very few "ball dog gatherings." Perhaps there should be more, or perhaps there should be special areas for those dogs. "Agility trials" is one type of activity that was literally created for energetic dogs.
More importantly, the ball dog's effect on a pack of unfamiliar dogs as they attempt to assimilate can be alarming to some dogs; the energy is not in alignment with a healthy, successful pack. Naturally, the need for the pack to do some self-policing kicks in.
But to you ball centered dog owners, especially those of you who have story after story of your dogs being followed around by dogs chasing them as they hyper-focus on their balls, Have you wondered, "do I NEED to take my dog to a dog park to throw the ball for my dog when my dog only has eyes for me and that ball, and I only have eyes for my dog?"
Author's note: My thoughts on this post are long-standing, and its been my own personal quest to better understand dogs in general for my entire life, and this issue, for some time (perhaps a few years; it becomes more focused as time passes). However, there are specific events that have lead me to finally "gel" my learning and research and beliefs on this topic into this post, and those include the fact that my dog (and another dog I am very close to) are both, in their own right, concerned with ball-dogs in that they have a desire to interact with the ball dogs by chasing and barking. It has most certainly driven me to seek more understanding of the dynamics.
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