[Julie Whatman]

Has anyone got any tips on how to retrieve a ball from a very strong Mastiff. Boycie is a loveable 2 year old English Mastiff with a gentle nature but has a habit of nicking other dogs balls and trying to eat them. I have started to play with him with treats when he drops one and he is a lot better playing with a group of dogs where several balls are used. he will then return a ball and wait for one to be thrown. However a about four weeks ago a dog dropped one of these dense foam balls and Boycie got it, the more I tried to take it from him the more intent he was in eating it and he succeeded! Two weeks later he was off colour, off his food and started throwing up. On our visit to the vet my suspicions were confirmed the ball was stuck in his intestine and had to be removed surgically resulting in a weeks stay at the vets and a £1400 bill. If anyone has any advice on this I would be grateful, I don't want to go down the route of muzzling him as it gives people the wrong impression with such a large strong dog. Be warned, these balls are dangerous don't give them to dogs to play with.