So, I’ve been messing around with this idea of getting a dog to eat a tennis ball. Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy, but stick with me here. I saw this video online, and it got me thinking, “Could I actually do that?”
First thing I did was grab my dog, Buster. He’s a good boy, always up for a game of fetch. I also grabbed a tennis ball, one of the old ones that’s already pretty chewed up. I figured that would be a good starting point, you know, so I wouldn’t be ruining a brand new ball if things went south.
I started by just tossing the ball to Buster like we usually do. He loves chasing it, bringing it back, the whole nine yards. We did that for a while, just getting him used to the ball being around. Then came the tricky part.
I tried to get him interested in actually chewing on the ball, not just fetching it. I squeezed it a bit, showed him how it bounced, even pretended to chew on it myself – yeah, I know, I probably looked ridiculous. But hey, gotta do what you gotta do, right?
Buster just looked at me like I was nuts. He’d nudge the ball with his nose, maybe give it a little lick, but that was it. No chewing. I tried putting some peanut butter on it, thinking maybe the taste would get him going. He licked the peanut butter off, then dropped the ball and looked at me expectantly, like, “Okay, where’s the treat?”
Here’s a breakdown of what I tried:
- Tossing the ball (regular fetch)
- Squeezing and bouncing the ball
- Pretending to chew the ball myself (yeah, it was weird)
- Putting peanut butter on the ball
After a few days of this, I was starting to think it wasn’t gonna happen. Buster just wasn’t interested in eating the tennis ball, no matter how hard I tried. He’d chew on his other toys, his bones, even the occasional slipper, but the tennis ball? Nope.
The Results
Well, I gotta admit defeat. Buster did not eat the tennis ball. He showed absolutely zero interest in consuming it. He did lick off all the peanut butter, though, so I guess that’s a small victory? Maybe it’s just not meant to be. Dogs will be dogs, and some things are just too weird, even for them. I guess I’ll stick to regular fetch from now on. It’s less messy, anyway.
