Renee....ping pong and puppy

[Marsha]

I read in another thread that you were going to play ping pong and that your dog Pepper enjoys and gets a real work out doing that. Have you trained him to bring the balls back to you? We have to shut Spanky out when anyone plays ping pong because he outruns anybody to the loose balls and then runs away with it and cracks it. We would love for him to be able to join us on the screen porch when someone's playing, but we haven't figured out how to do this. Of course, the cat sits on the table either in the way or swatting at the balls!! It's quite difficult to really oplay with them out there! I've just been wondering what Pepper does, and, if you trained him to leave the balls alone, how you did it.

[Grace Erick]

Marsha, that is so funny with your pets getting involved in ping pong. My parrot got involved in scrabble. We would sit on the floor and play and he would fly down and pick up each tile and fling it into the air with much joy or actually, he looked like he was angry at the tiles, but he was having a good time:)

[Marsha]

Sounds like the parrot made himself a fun game!! And, yes, it is cute that they like to join in. However, when the human players get serious, it's a problem!!

[Renee]

Sorry, I was going to get around to answering that.....I've just been so busy.
I have two rules for ping-pong: 1. No paws on the table 2. No barking. If these two requirements are not met the game stops. My dog doesn't have any problem with rule 1 (she stands on her hind two paws so she can see what is going on, but she never touches the table- its very cute)....rule 2 is a little bit harder. If she barks and doesn't respond to "quiet" (which sometimes happens because playing ping-pong tends to overstimulate her), the game stops, I fold my arms, turn away, and expect 20 seconds of silence.

I keep really high quality treats in my pocket and also a really squishy racketball (which she loves almost as much as the ping-pong ball) and use them as rewards for various behaviors that I ask of her. I also keep extra ping-pong balls on hand because accidents happen. She has a really good "drop it", "off" and "bring it", so if she does get a ping-pong ball, she will immediately give it back to me. The only problem is if she initally bites down too hard on the ball...so I always keep a few extra packs around. She will not run away with the ball, because I taught her at a very young age: 1. I will not chase you or give you any attention if you run away from me with a ball in your mouth 2. if you drop the ball at my feet, I will reward you by immediately throwing the ball for you again. It didn't take very long for her to catch on to this game. You could also try trade games...find something that your dog likes better - like a piece of chicken or another ping-pong ball. I will also try to channel some of her excitement onto her racquet ball inbetween points. I keep the ball at my feet, give it a kick across the basement floor and pepper will chase and retrieve it.

You have to put in a little bit of work upfront (which unfortunately takes away from the ping-pong game), but it is certainly doable.