Fetch!
Of Wolves And Bichons And Tossing The Ball
When our dog, Pip, gets it in his head to play fetch, there’s little that gets in his way. We have a long, narrow backyard, perfect for flinging the old tennis ball about, oh, a million times. The challenge is to see if his little legs or my arm gets tired first.
As we were partaking in this, literally, ancient and wholesome tradition the other day, it occurred to me to ask a question I never actually thought of before, but in retrospect seems so obvious.
Why? Why do dogs do this? Why do we do it with them? I mean I know there are instances of playing fetch with other animals - chickens, ducks, weasels, yes even cats. But dogs and fetch, man, that’s some generational, instinctual, behavior right there.
Turns out, there IS a science behind it! The writer and dog trainer Hersch Wilson suggests this particular behavior is rooted in the evolution of wolves, if not earlier mammals.
This sort of chase behavior, apparently, mimics the behavior of wolves returning food to a den of puppies. Others researchers suggest that when wolves began interacting with humans, one of the traits humans reinforced was helping on hunts, retrieving game for example.
In fact, so ingrained is the fetch game with some dog breeds that there’s a whole sub-category of what trainers call fixated obsession among some dogs. They became so obsessed with fetch that they literally need doggie therapy to break them of their fixation.
On the other hand, certain breeds appear to have no interest in fetch. This is not the case for Pip. Whatever wolf he came from was clearly into orange tennis balls.
Hilariously, Bichons like him were thought to have been introduced to European royalty by Spanish seamen way back in the 14th Century. And while I can’t quite get my head around kings and queens playing fetch with Bichons (or any dogs), my guess is that they wouldn’t even recognize our scrawny, filthy weirdo who could care less about the mud and leaves in pursuit of the tennis ball.
Meantime, Pip returns for the hundredth time and looks up at me like he’ll go insane if I don’t toss the ball again, and the tradition continues, just me and my white shaggy, dirty wolf, and a slobbery tennis ball in a suburban backyard.
Our one cat Henry plays fetch with his cat toys! He doesn’t always bring it back all the way, but he loves the game and definitely lets us know if he’s not finished yet.
Maybe our little monster has a bit of wolf in him as well? 🐺
Our late husky absolutely refused to play fetch. Throw the ball and he just looked at us with a "whatever" expression on his face.