Brody is pretty good at playing ball by himself, too. He uses his paws a lot, kind of pouncing with his front legs really stiff and pushes down on top of the ball to make it pop up. I need to film this, as it's really cute. He will also dribble the ball like a soccer player. This is just using tennis ball sized ones. I would like to find a larger ball, something that is soft enough that he could still pick it up and carry it around, but not be able to destroy it. You think something like that exists?
When I try to get him to play fetch in a large open space, he will run like the wind to get the ball, but then he will only bring it all the way back about the first five times. Then I have to really cheer him on to get him to bring it half way back. After a few more throws, he will still chase it and pick it up, but then he lies down and eats dandelions. We have a neighbor who has three chocolate labs who will fetch until the cows come home. Brody likes to chase them when they are fetching, but they get really annoyed with him. The same thing at the dog park; he doesn't really compete with other dogs for their ball, but just wants in on the chase.
I've tried frisbee a couple of times, but he's really only interested in chewing it.