Shaq plays Fetch
12/1/95Copyright © 2001 Ray Hebert
Shaq has a very unique way of retrieving, he is a retriever so retrieving is in his blood. Well maybe not in his blood but it is definitely in his drool.
Fetch and retrieve may be the wrong word for it. I think Attack and retrieve is more appropriate. He does a sort of run and bound till he gets with in a step of the retrieving dummy then he pounces on it. (A retrieving dummy is a foot long and about 3 inches in diameter) He then picks it up and tosses it in the air. 9 times out of 10 he catches it in the air then sprints with it in his mouth at full speed. Most of the time he comes straight at you. Next he will either sit on the dime right in front of you (this is preferred), run by you then come back and sit, (this is acceptable, but not the best) or he will run at you and forget to stop and sit, in which case he plows you over. If you are really daring you stand with your legs parted so he can run through them.
We play fetch a lot. Both indoors and out. We also play a combination of indoor outdoor fetch with a tennis ball. This is the only time we don’t use the retrieving dummy. I am not a morning person, Shaq is a morning dog and wants to play in the morning. I want to drink coffee, watch the morning news shows, catch Shining Time Station on PBS and generally relax. We have learned that if I open the sliding glass door to the back yard I can sit on the sofa watch TV and throw the ball out the door.
Shaq loves this. So I throw the ball he goes after it and brings it back. Except he brings it to me by hurling himself at the sofa. He throws himself in the air, turns sideways and hits the back of the sofa then gives me the ball. Except this morning he hurled himself a little to high and to hard and sailed over the sofa and smacked into the wall behind the sofa. He was a bit stunned at first and was not sure what had happened so I threw the ball and he came back and this time hit the mark and landed perfectly.
Cheers
Ray & Shaq
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