Most times Betty has no interest in balls, but every so often she has a period of time when she gets more inclined to play with them.
The latest time started with her picking up stones for a couple of weeks and asking for them to be thrown, then, when I finally thought of bringing a ball and thrower along, it became the game of choice.
Of course, there are other priorities – it suddenly becomes my responsibility again if there’s an interesting dog turns up – she just absent-mindedly drops it and goes to say hello.
She’ll often carry it for ages – not interested in bringing it back to me except for maybe a couple of times.
If she does put it down, then it’s because a particular sniff isn’t in the right place to examine with a ball in your mouth, or perhaps to snack on some tasty morsel she’s found.
At those times, the ball is of no value – unless I try to pick it up, then most of the time she pounces on it just before I get there and scoots off with it to the next smell…………..