The Yorkshire Vet: Why you need to buy professional tennis balls for your dogs...

As soon as I’d thrown it I knew I’d made a mistake. The weather was warmer than usual, and the river was low and flowing slowly. It seemed a perfect morning for Emmy’s first dip of the year. Our energetic Jack Russell is unusual for the breed in her affinity for water and her love of swimming. She was desperate to dive in. She’d carried her chewed up ball all the way from home and would do her best to follow it everywhere it might go and return it to me post haste.

But the ball, even though a relatively new purchase, had been played with for more than a day. Already, the fluffy exterior was in tatters and the perfect sphere was distorted to a shape that you might see in a Salvador Dalí painting. This didn’t bother Emmy, but the moment the disfigured ball left my hand in flight towards Cod Beck, I regretted chucking it.

Em was off in pursuit in a flash, flying across the water like a superdog. The damaged ball landed with a perfect plop, before sinking almost immediately. Its only trace was the series of ever-decreasing circles where it had once been. Em followed the water marks by instinct but could not understand where it had gone. From the bank, I tried, unsuccessfully to explain the principles of buoyancy to a waterlogged dog (“If it’s damaged it won’t float,” I shouted). I hoped she’d forgive me when she eventually returned, empty handed (well, empty mouthed) and empty of spirit.

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Despite it all, the rest of the walk was pleasant and Emmy seemed quickly to have recovered from the despondency of failing to retrieve the sunken ball.

Julian Norton, the Yorkshire Vet.Julian Norton, the Yorkshire Vet.
Julian Norton, the Yorkshire Vet.

Away from the river and later in the week, I saw a patient for an annual check over and vaccination booster. The spaniel seemed very healthy, but I felt obliged to comment on his teeth. “They are quite worn down. My dog has the same problem,” I said, identifying an issue, but acknowledging that it was not necessarily a serious one.

“Well, he just loves tennis balls,” explained the owner. Thereafter, we had an in-depth discussion about dogs with an unnatural obsession with balls. The spaniel owner divulged a truth that I had never heard before, but one that could be life changing.

“It took me a while to work out that I needed to buy the best tennis balls for my dog. Now, I only buy Slazenger. The others disintegrate within minutes. The professional ones last for ages. It’s all to do with the seams.”

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This was shaping up to be a consultation with great consequence. I love the chat and conversation that is essential for a proper consultation. Vets need to ask the right questions and listen in detail to the answers, taking careful note of each small fact. It gives us essential clues to the cause, nature and extent of the problem and the starting point for investigation and action. Every so often there is more general useful and interesting information to be gleaned. It might be the contact details for an old school friend, long-since seen (as happened this evening as I was grappling to remove the sutures from a wiggly Labrador: “You remember JB from school? I work with him now.”) It could be a fascinating story about the history of an unusual breed (like the Maremma sheep dog I saw last week) or maybe an unexpected family connection (“I’m your father’s hairdresser’). Today’s serendipitous tip, gleaned totally by chance, was an added bonus during a standard veterinary consultation, and one I will abide by from now on: “Buy your ball-loving dog Wimbledon-quality tennis balls. They’ll last much longer and they won’t sink in the river.”

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