[Colin]

We go to a dog beach almost every day, but I’ve put a lot of work into my dog not going running up to other dogs. For lots of reasons other people have stated already, you just don’t know what issues the other dog has. But it’s also about his training. I don’t want my dog getting more pleasure from playing with other dogs than he gets from being with me. I have to be the focus of his attention. You see so many people walking their dogs on the beach and not interacting with them at all. No wonder the dogs run off. They’re probably bored stiff. I’m constantly interacting with my dog to make sure he’s focused on me. I even have a tee-shirt that says, “sorry, no people. I’m only talking to my dog today “.

[Colin]

We did it in our local dog club (Advanced class) last year, just to learn as an exercise not to do it as a sport. It was great fun and a lot of the dogs really got it. My dog didn’t, but that was my fault. He had such a high drive for the ball that getting to chase the ball became a reward for him and I didn’t want to cap his drive. So now I use the gym ball in our pool as his ultimate reward that he gets after a training session. He’ll swim for an hour chasing it. Costs me a fortune in gym balls though, he tries to kill them.