It’s a classic game to play with your dog. You throw the ball, they bring it back. What’s not to love? I hate to be the fun police, but playing fetch can actually lead to a number of issues for your dog’s body and their emotional well-being. Have a read of this post before you bring along the ball launcher on your next dog walk.
Edited on 26th November 2024- Since first writing the post I’ve learnt more about the effects of playing fetch on your dog. Scroll down to have a read of my update based on the latest evidence and what I’ve seen in my work as a professional dog trainer.
How playing fetch affects your dog’s body
The biggest issue with repetitive ball chasing is the effect it has on your dog’s body. It puts a lot of strain on the knees and other joints as they skid, jump or twist to catch the ball. This is especially true if your dog doesn’t have an opportunity to warm up and cool down before playing fetch. In the long term, this can lead to pain for your dog and the development of problems in their muscles and skeleton. These include knee, hip and elbow dysplasia, as well as arthritis. Dogs will often continue to chase a ball despite being in pain. You can read a bit more about the effects of playing fetch on a dog’s body here.
November 2024 Update
So, here’s what I’ve learnt in the 18 months since first writing this post. Finding solid evidence about the effects of playing fetch on a dogs body or mental wellbeing is surprisingly hard! I attended the Animal Behaviour Conference in 2023 where a number of vets spoke about injuries, painful conditions and arthritis occurring for dogs when they engaged in inappropriate exercise. This could include playing fetch excessively or unsafely e.g. lots of jumping in the air and sharp turns causing unnatural bodily movements for the dog. However, playing fetch unsafely or excessively is just one of the many ways a dog can become hurt or unwell through exercise.
Mental health
As well as the detrimental effect playing fetch can have on your dog’s body, it can also lead to over arousal and frustration. Chasing a ball over and over again can become ‘addictive’ and your dog can struggle to do anything else on walks. This level of obsession isn’t healthy. It’s easy to think that throwing a ball is going to tire your energetic dog out, but it can easily have the opposite effect. Have a read of our post of calmness here if you’re struggling with a busy dog. If your dog pesters you to throw a ball for them by barking or jumping up at you, it’s definitely time to give the ball a break. Many clients have told me that after leaving the ball at home for a one week period has led to a noticeable difference in how calm their dog is overall.
November 2024 Update
When it comes to the mental or emotional impacts of playing fetch for your dog, my views have changed somewhat. I can find literally zero scientific studies actually investigating the link between playing fetch and any aspect of a dogs mental health! However, my professional experience working with dogs over the past nearly 6 years tells me that excessive ball throwing isn’t great for your dogs wellbeing. By excessive, I mean spending all of, or nearly all of, your dogs walk playing fetch. If they are constantly chasing after or retrieving a ball, they are not engaging in the other behaviours that are key to their happiness. These include sniffing, digging, mooching along naturally at their own pace, interacting with other dogs, people and objects in the environment and so on. I refer to these activities as ‘dog stuff’. Your dog really needs to do dog stuff to be a happy dog!
The most recent study on retrieving in dogs was done in September 2024. The authors found that the breed of a dog had a significant impact on the dogs likelihood to engage in fetching games with a human partner. The top 3 breeds most likely to play fetch were the German Shephard, the Labrador Retriever and the Golden Retriever. I mean, clues in the name, right?! What we don’t have is concrete evidence as to whether playing fetch has a direct impact on these breeds emotional wellbeing.
Should we be playing fetch?
So, with all that in mind, what’s the answer to the question ‘is playing fetch bad for my dog?’ It depends! Is throwing the ball for my dog over and over again, without warming them up and cooling down, with no breaks or encouragement to do anything else, bad for my dog? Yes, it probably is bad detrimental to their physical and mental well-being to do that. On the other hand, a few rounds of fetch when your dog is warmed up and can still do ‘dog stuff’ before and afterwards is unlikely to do any harm. Especially if you have a breed of dog who was specifically bred to retrieve items. However, such dogs tend to be intelligent and love to learn new things too, so why not try varying up your games?
Alternatives to playing fetch for your dog
In good news, there are many alternatives to playing fetch that have a beneficial impact on your dog’s body and mental state. These games get your dog engaging in other behaviours, such as sniffing, which help them relax.
- Play find it with the ball. Ask your dog to wait or tether them whilst you hide the ball in long grass, then release them to find it.
- Find it with treats. As above but with treats.
- Food bowling. If you’ve got a dog who loves to chase, toss treats low across the ground for them to chase instead. This puts much less strain on their joints.
- Encouraging your dog to engage in other normal dog behaviours- sniffing, exploring, digging, paddling etc. Just letting your dog do dog stuff is so important for their emotional well being. An hour of sniffing is so much better for your dog’s mind and body than an hour of ball throwing!
- Playing tug. This gets your dog engaging with you (instead of running away from you at high speed!) and knackers them out just as much as playing fetch.
- If you’ve been playing fetch to keep your reactive dog focused on you instead of other dogs, have a look at our games for reactive dogs here.
What next?
- Looking for help with your dog? Contact us to arrange in person or online training.
- Read more blog posts here.
- Perfect Recall: Teaching your dog to come back when called every time. Our guide is free to download when you join our email list- sign up here.