Playing Catch with Dogs

Esther’s writing prompt: October 22, 2026: Catch

Playing catch with dogs is my response to Esther’s October 21st prompt Catch. Click here or here to join in.

Playing catch with a dog is a fun way to provide exercise for the dog and perhaps for you too. Many dogs love to play the catch game whether it is with a ball, a squeaky toy or some other kind of toy. You just need to be a little bit careful not to overdo it. The wrong kind of toys can hurt their teeth and be careful, so you don’t accidentally throw the toy right at the dog and hurt them. Nobody likes to have a ball land on their head.

Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo loves balls, and he loves playing catch with balls and squeaky toys. Today October 22nd it is National Make a Dog’s Day, and we played with Rollo and he also got a little bit bigger dinner than usual.

Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo is rolling and biting a soccer ball.
Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo love balls. Here he is playing with a soccer ball. My photo.
Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo is rolling and biting an orange volleyball.
Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo love balls. Here he is playing with an orange volleyball. My photo.

I took the photos above, but I do not have any photos of our dogs playing catch and therefore I am using Shutterstock photos or pictures I generated using ChatGPT for dogs playing catch.

Rollo’s Bad Blue Ball Day

As mentioned, Rollo loves playing catch with balls and with squeaky toys.

The picture shows a dark brown and white mini-Australian Shepherd with a green and brown mallard duck in his mouth.
Illustration of our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo with a squeaky duck in his mouth. I generated this picture using ChatGPT.

However, it does not always go well, for example, the time when I threw a big blue ball really far and he ran after it really fast and tried to catch it, but it landed right on top of his head. He did not get hurt but he yelped a little. We were done playing catch the ball after that incident. What a disappointing ending to a fun game.

The picture shows a dark brown and white mini-Australian Shepherd with a blue ball on top of his head.
Our mini-Australian Shepherd gets a ball on his head while playing catch the ball. I generated this picture using ChatGPT.

Our Dogs Playing Catch

We used to have Yellow Labrador, Baylor, and he loved playing catch. Well, he was not a pure Labrador. He was quarter Rhodesian Ridgeback. If I threw a ball or another toy he would run after it very excitedly, come back and then we did it again. It was something he could do over and over. He might have been the most playful dog we’ve had.

A close up photo of our yellow lab Baylor. His face is towards the camera.
Our labrador Baylor (allegedly quarter mix with Rhodesian ridgeback) was a very playful dog.
Picture of a Yellow Lab jumping after a green tennis ball.
Illustration of Baylor catching a tennis ball.  I generated this picture with the help of ChatGPT.

Our German Shepherd called Baby was not as playful as Baylor, but she sometimes played with toys and might run after a ball if she was in the right mood.

Photo of Baylor and Baby. They are laying down.
Our yellow lab Baylor on the left. Our black German shepherd named Baby on the right. Our photo.

Our Japanese Chin Ryu was almost as playful as Baylor and Rollo. He loved playing with toys and running after balls. However, he preferred the squeaky toys over balls.

Black and white Japanese Chin lying on a red sofa.
Our Japanese Chin Ryu on the sofa. My photo.
Black and white Japanese Chin running to catch a thrown toy duck.
Japanese Chin trying to catch a toy duck.

Our Pug Daisy sometimes played with toys, like her favorite duck toy, but getting her to play catch the ball was mission impossible. She was not interested in such silliness.

A toy duck and our Pug Daisy laying on her back.
Our pug Daisy played with the squeaky duck for a while and then she spent the afternoon sunbathing in the warm sun. She did what she enjoyed best. My photo.

Leonbergers Playing Catch

Leonberger dogs are big and very playful dogs, and you can play catch the ball with them, but only so much. They get bored by repetition, and our Leonberger dog Bronco was that way. If you threw the ball, he would run after it and come back with it. If you threw the ball a second time, he would walk to get it and come back. If you threw it a third time, he would just stare at you as if he was thinking “what’s wrong with you? You get it this time.”. However, he was more interested in other kinds of games. For example, he loved swimming and chasing ducks in the water.

The picture shows a Leonberger running on grass chasing a green tennis ball.
A Leonberger dog is chasing a tennis ball. Leonbergers are playful but not fond of repetitive play, so throwing the ball will only work for so long. I made this picture with the help of ChatGPT.
The picture shows a man who is throwing a tennis ball in a field. A Leonberger dog is standing there looking at him. A thought bubble above the Leonberger's head says "I already got you the ball. This time you go get it."
With our Leonberger you could only throw the ball so many times. I made this picture with the help of ChatGPT.
Leonberger is swimming with a ball in his mouth.
Leonberger is swimming with a ball in his mouth. Leonbergers are playful and love swimming. Stock Photo ID: 720242263 by Christian Mueller.

Finally, a video about a Leonberger catching sausages. The Leonberger named Hagrid appeared on Britain’s Got More Talent in 2017, and in other places. Hagrid was attempting to set a new Guinness world record for catching the maximum number of sausages in his mouth in the shortest period of time. You can watch Hagrid’s attempt below. The video is 4 minutes and 46 seconds long.

My Other Responses to Esther’s Prompts

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

46 thoughts on “Playing Catch with Dogs”

  1. That was fun, the actual photos, as well as the AI creations. 😀 Many dogs love to play “catch” (our Zoey does too), but it was good that you mentioned not to overdo it. Some of them become obsessed and don’t want to stop, even if it hurts them. Hilarious video at the end! 😆

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  3. I enjoyed reading your words, and your photos of all the dogs. Fun to see the AI generated photos, too. Our dogs liked playing a little bit, but Basset hounds aren’t really known for being super energetic – haha … Our cats though, loved playing catch and fetch too. I have a photo of one in mid air leaping to catch a toy and they’d bring back toys for us to throw it again and again. 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much Barbara. Those special moments, dogs catching the ball, a ball landing on a head, dogs doing crazy things, are so hard to capture with a camera. That’s why AI comes in handy. If you have a photo of that would be best of course. Yes I could have guessed that Basset hounds are not very super energetic, just from watching them. They are very cute and special though. It is funny that you got the cats to play fetch / catch. A photo of one of them leaping mid-air to catch a toy is very impressive.

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  5. What a wonderful trip down memory lane with all your beautiful dogs, Thomas!

    Happy National Make a Dog’s Day to Rollo!

    Your post made me think of my Sissi; she used to absolutely love chasing after the ball, but now that she’s old, she doesn’t do it anymore. It’s so sweet to look back on those playful years

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    1. Thank you so much Luisa. I think it was you who reminded me about “Happy National Make a Dog’s Day” if I don’t remember incorrectly. Unfortunately, dogs grow old, and fairly quickly. However, now Sissi have a good and safe home in her old age.

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  8. As a fellow dog lover, I loved this post. We’ve had lots of labs over the years, and they always loved chasing balls and virtually anything else we threw. I used to find it hysterical that I could throw a Frisbee, about 20% of it’s original size, and they’d still chase that. I knew Lulu was getting old when she would retrieve her ball and then lie down with it after returning it a couple of times.

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  10. I did not know about National Make a Dog’s Day. Good thing to do. Thanks for the chuckles from your photos, esp. Rollo with the big soccer ball. We have trouble getting our dogs to give back the balls unless we trade them a treat, but they were adopted as older adults.

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  11. Chaplin: “Our beloved brother Dennis was amazing at playing catch and fetch. He could grab a stuffie out of midair and he would bring it right back to your hand to throw it again.”
    Java Bean: “Ayyy, catching and fetching is not my thing, nor Lulu’s. Although maybe if Dada were throwing sausages we would get into it …”

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      1. Yeah, Dennis was the best fetch-player and stuffie-catcher I’ve ever seen. Tucker, on the other hand, was definitely in the “If you wanted it back you shouldn’t have thrown it” camp …

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        1. Yes the different personalities in dogs is a delight. Tucker’s attitude is funny and Dennis’ enthusiasm for catching balls a delight. It such a great thing that we are not all alike. I mean that dogs are not all alike.

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    1. Thank you so much Robbie. I think a lot of dogs love playing catch, but some dogs get bored with it quickly. I’ve read that many Leonbergers get bored with it, so Bronco was not an exception. However, Leonbergers are playful and like other games, chasing ducks and egrets while swimming, pulling carts, chasing after rodents by smelling them, and unfortunately jumping up on people. That last one you have get out of them using, for example, spray bottles.

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  16. I love the pictures of your dogs, Thomas. We had a Jack Russell. Bigg would chase an orange hockey ball and bring it back all day, in the house. Outside, he would run to it, once. Sniff it and leave it there.

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    1. Thank you so much Carla. Bigg sounds like a lot of fun. It is funny that he preferred to play ball inside. Perhaps that would have worked for Bronco but I think he might have been too big for inside ball play (smashing up furniture).

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