Since posting about potential injurious nature of some retreive games I have had many of you let me know you no longer will be playing the game of “Fetch-it” the same way you previously did with your dog. That is awesome. But now you have no use for those long handled ball launching devises (I won’t risk getting in trouble by mentioning the actual toy by name:)). If you are one of the people that are going to say screw-it!, and chuck the thing away, here is a list of alternate uses for your ball launching stick that you may be interested in following up on. In addition to providing you with some handy ideas, this list that may put me back in the toy manufacture’s good books as people may now rush out to buy one of those launchers for one of the new uses I am suggesting. I look forward to reading your list of new uses for your ball launching toy.
It could be used as a bidding flag at your next auction sale or a melon baller at your next baby shower (provided you are scooping out large portions sizes). It would make an interesting pooper-scooper, literally, but it may be best to hold off on scooping any more melons once you have gone this route. You may find it is handy for pulling things down from high shelves, especially for us vertically challenged people! I bet it would make an awesome back scratcher and a descent blackboard pointer. Wait a couple of months and use it to chuck snowballs. If you have a large dog it may be functional as a target stick. You could plant it in your back yard and give your dog something to pee against or put it in the garden and use it as a scarecrow. If you have a friend that no longer uses their ball launcher you can adopt theirs and use them as a matching set of salad tossers.
There are also those dogs that develop a strange love for the empty plastic all on it’s own (although DeCaff believes that secretly all dogs would prefer to have their own plastic flyswatter:)).
Today I am grateful for everyone that has a good sense of humor!
How about collecting them all together and sending them to one of those ‘contemporay’ artists to make a sculpture?
You could load glow-in-the-dark tennis balls in them, poke them in the ground, and use them to line your driveway as night-time reflectors.
Lay one prominently on your coffee table as a conversation piece.
Mail it to your non-dog friends, wrapped beautifully, and let them wonder what the heck they are supposed to do with it.
Duct tape it (attractively, of course) to your sling chair and use it as a cup-holder at dog shows.
Uh-oh. Loving this topic waaay to much!
Kila
oh wait…I guess that would classify as positive punishment…must come up with a use that would be reinforcing for both the intructor AND the student 😉
hmmm…how about using it to whack students over the head when they come to class for week two and their dog still thinks Yer Out, Yer In is really just Yer Out…
Oh…. and as a physical therapist, I am always looking for creative ideas/alternatives for adaptive equipment for my post-surgical patients. You may be onto something here.
ROFLMAO!! The best post to date. On a more serious note, I have used mine for tossing the ball out onto the lake for retrieving.