GSDs and tennis balls Questions

For those of you with GSDs - do you allow them to have tennis balls?

I have special balls on ropes for general play and training purposes, however I will sometimes use tennis balls on walks as they are cheap and I don't care if they get lost. They are also really handy for getting the dogs swimming to retrieve them.

However, now I have ball crazy Zak I am re-thinking their safety for dogs with such large gobs In all seriousness, I am a bit worried that when he is chomping away on one that it might go down his throat and get lodged

Has anyone known this to happen?

So, are they a safe toy for a GSD or not?

I do not think tennis balls are safe for any dog full stop.

I will only use balls on a rope and I make sure the ball is as large as it possibly can be so it just fits in the mouth.

And yes I have known several dogs die from either inhaling one or, later on, when a consumed one or part of one has rotted away in the intestine, sometimes months later, two of these were top flight competition prospects.

I use balls which float.

The best one I have found is the FFBall on a Rope.

It is light, it floats, it resists puncture (my GSD has had his for circa 2 years) and the rope goes through and round the ball so does not get pulled out when tugging vigourously.

http://www.traininglines.co.uk/fantastic-foam-ball-on-a-rope.html

Thanks SB - you have confirmed my fears.

I love the ball you have mentioned and those are the usual balls I use (after your initial recommendation a few months back).

Unfortunately they are quite expensive, especially when I have now bought five of the large size balls in the last few months and only have one left

The others have met similar fates - one was chucked too far into the sea and it floated away , two of the others were dropped (by dogs and not me!) into fast flowing hill burns and one was dropped into a very deep rabbit burrow and even though I went back armed with a spade, I could not find it Very disappointing!

I agree though, they are fantastic balls!

A little tip, why not tie the ball to the dog's collar?

This way the dog can lob it into its mouth when it wants to and let go of it when it wants to..............

Just a thought.

God I am so thick! Why didn't I think of that?!

Simple, but brilliant.

Thanks!

What can I say...............

What is it with dogs and tennis balls? I try and only give Copper really hard rubber balls which he'll play with ok, but bring out a tennis ball and he goes bloody mental for it!

Please say nothing

Oh Zak just goes bloody mental for ANY ball ... or stick, stone ... anything he can get in that big trap of his!!

I use Chuck-its balls, they are really bounce and float.
They also have holes going through the centre, so there is a breathing hole should it get stuck.
They other tennis ball types I have used are the flyball ones, they are rock solid but could still be a hazard if chewed. But none of us leave their dogs unattended with a toy though do we ;-)
My GSD X has had her Chuck-its for months and no sign of wear yet, plus the orange one makes a whistle sound in the air so its easier for the dogs to track.
I love my dog but perceptive is not a word I would use to describe her

A good friend of mine lost her beautiful lab due to an incident with a tennis ball. The only ones I use I are the extra large Kong tennis balls, they float and squeak. Absolutely no chance of Molly swallowing one of those! I think they're only a pound or two at PAH.

Incidentally, my friend now never uses tennis balls either, she uses foam balls that she says she could pinch and grip to remove from the throat if the same incident happened again.............still too much of a risk for me

When I was a kid I remember our Dobe got a large bouncy ball stuck in his throat he had to have an operation to get it removed.

I got Rocky some of those large tennis balls, but he ripped them open and it was the worst stench ever - smelt very very toxic. In fact that night he had his first fit - seemed like too much of a coincidence to me..

I think they two are long lost cousins! Copper is obsessed with stones, every day he collects about twenty and secretes them all over the house. Every evening I chuck them outside, and then the cycle starts all over again the next day. :?

He also collects sticks, footballs and bras.

All from the same source?

I used to, but not after hearing of horror stories on here. Ball/Kong on a rope only now.

Someone on here was saying they carry a knife so they can pierce a tennis ball if it ever got stuck in their dogs throat....

It does sound like the general consensus is the same then. No more tennis balls in this house.

Thanks everyone.

My dogs destroy tennis balls in seconds. Not soft-mouthed, my dogs....
I buy the £1 each `sports` floating balls from Wilkinsons. They don`t last forever but, hey, what does?
A bloke I know shoves a hole through the middle and puts string on them which is a good idea as they get a bit slobbery.

My dad had a load of those plastic golf ball sized balls with holes all over them, which his springer pup went mad for. He was worried about how small they are, so mange to find bigger sized ones for her to play with and keeps a stash in the cupboard!

He said they don't cost that much, are relatively hard wearing, they float and he's not as paranoid because they are full of holes!

I know a gsds mouth is bigger than a springer so the size still might be suitable, but may be something to consider!?

Tennis balls are a big no-no here for the reason you stated Kirsty, i.e. big gobs, wet ball that won't be given up easily I remember taking one down the beach when Zena was a puppy simply because I thought her other ones would sink, but when she got hold of it when it was all wet and heavy and clamped so hard on it, it just flattened to nothing with it still in her mouth and she wouldn't give it up!

We're Orbi fans, we've had the orbi's on ropes for years, and they're a bit manky now but I cannot get replacements in the tennis ball size anywhere, so I've resorted to another one on a rope which hasn't been delivered yet (tuff fetch ball on rope one of them is, I think) One is £20 and the other one is £14.99 but then they last her years and she would never lose one. These only ever get used out on walks, coz indoors she has the bigger ones to play with which are not on ropes. Why don't you try him with a larger sized cheaper ball perhaps? The jw's are great balls, we have lots of those, and you could remove the squeaker, or maybe they do ones which don't squeak?