Throwing balls is one of the most common things I see people using to “exercise” their dogs, and usually it also involves the use of a long plastic ball chucker, meaning the ball goes faster and further. Great right? Well, no actually!
So when you see dogs running after balls thrown for them by their human, you will most likely see them speeding after the ball, and then bringing the ball back to their human for them to throw it again and repeat the game. It can therefore be easy to assume that this is an activity dogs actively want to do.
But – is it good for dogs, and do they actually truly enjoy it?
It feels good
When a dog chases after a ball, the brain releases certain “feel good” chemicals into the bloodstream (endorphins, dopamine) which make the dog feel good. In this way, chasing a ball becomes self-rewarding to the dog, and when the activity stops, so does the release of those hormones previously mentioned, so the dog WILL actively try to continue the game so that they get that release of euphoric chemicals again. In essence, chasing balls can become addictive to your dog!
Is it actually something your dog enjoys as an activity and is something we should encourage? Well let me ask you this, would you encourage drug addicts to continue using drugs because to them, it feels good? Unlikely your answer would be yes! Well, it might surprise you to know that endorphins and dopamine are also released during drug use!
Also – fun fact – endorphins help to relieve pain! So let that sit with you for a short while as we continue!
There are side effects to chasing balls
There is also the release of adrenaline and cortisol (stress hormone) during ball chasing. Too much adrenaline can damage blood vessels, can damage the heart, increase blood pressure, and can cause anxiety, insomnia and headaches. Too much exposure to cortisol can slow the healing process, cause muscle weakness, severe fatigue, irritability (frantic behaviours and frustration), lack of focus and headaches.
It is therefore easy to see why the presence of a ball can trigger the release of the aforementioned hormones, and can result in some unwanted behaviours (ones commonly seen are barking for the ball, jumping u to grab the ball etc)
Chasing balls causes physical damage
There are physical strains places on a dogs’ musculoskeletal system when chasing balls….and the faster a dog is running after a ball that has been thrown, the harder it is to stop and the greater the forces on that dog’s muscoloskeletal system. This is fact! Look up Newton’s law of motion, the second of the 3 laws which says “the force on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration”!
As a dog brakes to lower the head to pick up the ball, extra force from the weight of the dog’s hindquarters is suddenly shifted forwards. This puts extra strain on the joints of the forelimbs, which are often held out in an attempt to slow themselves down, and this creates a jarring effect which travels up the limbs into the shoulders, neck and back. Think of when you have seen a crash test of a car – as the car crashes in front, the back of the car cant continue moving forward so it ends up lifting off the ground and moving off to one side. That is what happens to your dog’s body.
Mass and energy has to go somewhere (as per Newton’s law above), and this is when we see a dog’s body twisting and contorting as the hind end usually overtakes the front end, with their head low to try and get the ball.
A dog’s body is not built to withstand these forces and actions at all, and definitely not over and over again!
What lies beneath
There is a lot that happens during this activity that you cant see, and that you may not become aware of for weeks, months or even years. Chasing balls can create injuries to muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bones and nerves resulting from repetitive stress to those tissues, and is often chronic (ie it builds up over a period of time). This is known as micro-trauma. We might see tension in shoulders, neck and along the back, muscle tears, strains, tendon ruptures, ligament damage, bruising and scarring, as well as breakage of dew claws, stress fractures to bones and microscopic cracks in the cartilage of joints due to the concussive effects, which then makes the joints more predisposed to osteoarthritis.
Jumping up to catch ball
A dog carries approximately 60% of their body weight on their forelimbs and 40% on their pelvic limbs at a standstill. The front assembly of the dog has a limited amount of shock absorption due to the sling of muscles that support it, but the rear end of the dog does not have shock absorbing qualities. Therefore, imagine a dog jumping in the air to catch a ball – they will land with their full weight on their hind limbs. This can do a HUGE amount of damage.
Just as the effects of stopping to catch the ball can travel DOWN the body (from front paws to the tail), the same can apply with with this activity causing effects to travel UP the body, through the back and into the neck.
“He wouldn’t do it if it hurt”!
Wrong!
Remember – dogs do not always show pain in the way we think that they do, and they definitely dont show pain in the same way us humans do. There is a high probability that the adrenaline and endorphins will be playing a big role in numbing the pain during the activity, and for a short while after.
Have you ever seen an elderly dog or a dog who has known joint conditions suddenly appear magically “healed” and run like they had nothing wrong with them when a rabbit or squirrel runs across their path? That doesnt mean they dont hurt….it means in that moment they arent noticing the pain. But that does not mean extra damage is not being done, and it certainly doesnt mean that that dog will not be stiff and sore that evening when those chemicals have subsided!
Signs of pain in dogs can be subtle, with often a change of behaviour in some way being the only indicator.
So please – stop throwing balls for your dog. Ditch those ball chuckers which only make it worse by flinging the ball further and faster. Chasing balls is NOT an activity that dogs need to do, and it is not part of a dog’s ethogram (ie what they do in the ‘wild’ for want of a better way of explaining it). Far better is to engage in scentwork activities with them, and if a ball has to factor, throw a ball into the undergrowth while your dog waits, and then send them to search for it.
Angela Doyle, Polite Paws, 2024
