Tag: Esther’s Prompt

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

Leonbergers Are Kind Dogs

Esther’s writing prompt: 13th August : Kind

Click here or here  to join in.

Leonbergers Are Kind

What kind of dog is a Leonberger? Well, a Leonberger is a kind dog. If you don’t know what a Leonberger is; it is a big fluffy, fun and friendly family dog originating in Germany. It was registered as a new breed in 1846 in the town of Leonberg by a prominent businessman named Heinrich Essig. Allegedly Essig used Saint Bernards but also Newfoundland Dogs, and allegedly Great Pyrenees (or Pyrenean mastiffs) to create a breed that was big, muscular, and looked like a lion. However, what he strived for the most was to create a friendly, confident and predictable family dog. These characteristics make the Leonberger a perfect therapy dog, and his majestic and fluffy appearance does not hurt. Leonbergers also have a great sense of smell, they are great at pulling heavy carts, and they have webbed feet (from the Newfoundland dogs) and they are great swimmers. You can read about the history of the Leonberger here.

On the left is bear cub looking Leonberger puppy wearing a red scarf/ On the right is a tired old Leonberger lying in the grass. He is looking straight into the camera
On the left our Leonberger Bronco is three months old. On the right is our Leonberger Bronco when he was old almost 13 years old.
Our Leonberger Bronco is bigger than my wife and she is barely visible behind him.
Our Leonberger Bronco is sitting in my wife Claudia’s lap. He was slightly overweight in this picture, 167 pounds, or 76 kilograms. His ideal weight is 140 pounds.

Bronco Our Leonberger Shares a Baked Potato

I believe dogs have empathy, and sometimes they want to share—at least Bronco did. There was a time when we were in our home eating take-out food and Bronco stole one of our dinners, including meat, vegetables, and a baked potato. He started eating the meat, then he glanced at our Pug Daisy, who was sitting in the middle of the floor looking sad. Immediately he took the baked potato in his mouth and carried it over to her and dropped it right at her feet. I was going to get mad at him for stealing, but when I saw his kindhearted and unselfish act, I let it be.

Our Leonberger Bronco is standing in the kitchen. There’s a broken gingerbread house on the floor. Our Pug Daisy is setting next to Bronco and the broken gingerbread house.
On another occasion Bronco stole our gingerbread house. As you can see in the picture, he shared that with Daisy as well.

Bronco Alerts Us to an Insulin Shock

We had a Labrador called Baylor who had diabetes. One late evening Bronco started barking while looking at Baylor, then he intently looked at us, then he turned his head toward Baylor and started barking again. He did this a few times—not aggressively, but to get our attention. It became clear that Bronco wanted us to look at Baylor. I examined Baylor but saw nothing wrong at first. Then I looked again. This time I saw that his back legs were shaking slightly. It quickly got worse. His gait became wobbly, then within perhaps fifteen seconds he fainted. He had gone into insulin shock. We rushed him to the emergency clinic, where fortunately the doctors were able to revive him.

Bronco detected a problem with Baylor before we could see anything wrong. His warnings gave us that little bit of extra time we needed to save Baylor’s life. I still wonder what it was that Bronco noticed. You can read more about this incident here.

Bronco’s Hamster Rescue Operation

We used to have hamsters. On several occasions the hamsters escaped their cage but luckily our Leonberger Bronco found the hamsters for us. As I mentioned Leonbergers have good sense of smell. One day my wife found Bronco walking around with puffy cheeks. There were hamsters in his mouth. Long story short, he was not trying to eat them, he was saving them, and the hamsters were fine. You can read more about this incident here.

Our Leonberger Bronco with puffy cheeks
Hamsters in Bronco’s cheeks. Illustration by Naomi Rosenblatt.

Bronco Saves Daisy’s Life

On another occasion, Bronco did something else amazing for our Pug Daisy. Despite having issues with his paws—this was around the time he was being treated for squamous cell carcinoma—he saved Daisy from an attacking German shepherd who was running loose.

We were at Claudia’s parents’ house, just leaving, when one of their neighbors came out to drop some garbage in the trash can at the end of her driveway. With her was a young, probably adolescent, German shepherd, and he was not on a leash. As we were standing on the porch, I suddenly saw the shepherd flying through the bushes, his teeth bared. He quickly charged us—viciously.

The owner of the shepherd came over to apologize, but I cursed at her. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but she had a vicious and dangerous dog, and she intentionally let him run loose. In the end, though, there were no major injuries. Bronco’s leg was slightly hurt, but overall, he was fine. These days, whenever we talk about this incident, I jokingly refer to the neighbor dog as Cujo.

Rachel is sitting down on her knees while petting our black and white mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo and our Pug Daisy.
Just as our daughter Rachel protects Rollo and Daisy, Bronco protected the smaller dogs, sometimes at his own peril.

A Therapy Leonberger Called Scout

As I mentioned, Leonbergers are great therapy dogs and are often used in hospitals. Below is a video about a Leonberger called Scout by CBC news in Canada. This Leonberger is helping residents at Hamilton mental health hospital. He was bred by Concorde Ridge Leonbergers. They have a website and a blog which I follow. You visit my post about Scout here. The 8-minute video is shown on the website below.

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.6835161