Do you allow your GSD to play with tennis balls?

[Stella's Mom]

I was so happy that Stella was a ball driven maniac until last week when we showed up for our first Shutzhund meeting.

In conversation with the lead guy we were discussing Stella and her habits. I mentioned that loves to play fetch with the tennis balls and is very competitive about outrunning other dogs to get the ball and putting on some good maneuvers to keep the dogs away from the thrown ball.

Well aside from the fact that he said she should really not be going to dog parks now that she is beginning Shutzhund (the dog should play more with you rather than entertaining herself at the park with other dogs). He said that tennis balls will wear down the enamel of the teeth, not to mention the possiblity of the dog choking on a broken ball or swallowing it.

I have since put up the balls and have begun playing with jute tugs instead.

Please let me know your thoughts on tennis balls.

[PaddyD]

I agree with his advice.

[crewchief_chick]

I quit letting Kendra have normal tennis balls, and we have instead bought the supersized one from TSC, and only let her play with it under supervision.

[jprice103]

I don't let my dog play with tennis balls anymore, since I've heard so many horror stories about them. Both choking issues and teeth issues. I replaced all of my tennis balls with the Jumbo Chuck Its. They are too large for her to swallow, and won't hurt her teeth. The downside is that I could get a 12 pack of tennis balls for $10, and ONE Chuck It is $7!! But I'd rather be safe than sorry!! I just keep my eyes open for sales, and buy multiples and put them away...just in case she would ever lose one!

[Scarlettsmom]

Scarlett can pop and destroy "dog tennis" balls, but NOT the Penn "people" tennis balls. She is NOT ball driven though, and really just leaves them all over the house for us to trip on. She prefers her big, squeaky soccer ball to the tennis balls. She has never broken a real tennis ball, but the dog ones last about 10 seconds.

[jocoyn]

You want me to take a picture of my dogs teeth?
I do play ball but it is between me and the dog only.
Plus there is some recent concern they may be carcinogenic too

[Miss Molly May]

Originally Posted by Stella's Mom

I was so happy that Stella was a ball driven maniac until last week when we showed up for our first Shutzhund meeting.

In conversation with the lead guy we were discussing Stella and her habits. I mentioned that loves to play fetch with the tennis balls and is very competitive about outrunning other dogs to get the ball and putting on some good maneuvers to keep the dogs away from the thrown ball.

Well aside from the fact that he said she should really not be going to dog parks now that she is beginning Shutzhund (the dog should play more with you entertaining herself at the park with other dogs). He said that tennis balls will wear down the enamel of the teeth, not to mention the possibility of the dog choking on a broken ball or swallowing it.

I have since put up the balls and have begun playing with jute tugs instead.

Please let me know your thoughts on tennis balls.

We buy Kong tennis balls they say their balls will not harm teeth! So far so good Molly's teeth are perfect

[Girth]

I use tennis balls for my dog as a reward for when he does a good job and to let him know our training session is over. Usually he has access to the ball till we get back to the car. Other than I put away the tennis balls.

[lkcheertex]

Thanks for posting this. I had no idea that tennis balls were bad. We used to use the Chuck It balls but we lost most of them and since I play tennis we have tons of old balls around and were using those.

[kiya]

Since joining this forum, I learned how bad tennis balls are and replaced all the balls with other types of balls (we have quite the assortment now). Lakota popped almost all of them anyway. I did save one for Kiya since that was the only thing she really played with, fortunately she's learned to play with other type balls.