I chuck the tennis ball and Gertrude goes nuts. Hide your kids, hide your wife, cus we got a ball hog out here:
Getting her to play is easy. Getting the ball away at the end of the day is another matter.
I hope she guards the apartment as well as the guards the tennis ball.
After interacting with dogs for a while in the last ten years, I’ve realized why labs and golden retrievers have the word ‘retriever’ in their names. They wait for you to throw the ball, go get it, return to you and then drop the ball by your feet or even put it in your hand.
With a german shepherd, they view the process as a game called ‘get’. I was playing with a gsd one time, and he was so fast and nimble, he could run around and grab the ball from my hand while I was in the throwing motion. Then when I was able to throw it, he wouldn’t let me have it back.
My Rottweiler doesn’t even bring the ball back really. She just throws it in the air and plays by herself.