Collateral Damage when practicing.

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While we were pitching today we had a little collateral damage outside.

The daughter and I were working on her change up. She is turning her wrist to late therefore the ball really is not coming in anything close to straight or slow. I'm ducking and diving and chasing balls all for the betterment of learning the new pitch for next season.

While all this practicing is going on my poor dog is running around aimlessly outside with us. He's a 4 year old Golden Retriever with not a care in the world what so ever. Walks around just happy to be alive with that goofy grin on his face. He finally parks himself off to the left of me catching about 7 feet off where the plate would be. I thought he would be ok where he was. I was was wrong. She throws a pitch that came in pretty fast and way outside (see above and turning the wrist to late) and catches him right below the eye and in front of the ear, straight on, no bounce at all. He yelped in pain, the daughter dropped to her knees crying her eyes out (she's 10) that she hurt he dog etc. I start to evaluate him, look him over, feeling his face etc. He seemed ok, didn't really guard the area at all. He started sneezing and when he did some blood came out. Well that's all my daughter had to see. She lost it..again.

I took him to the vet to get checked and a buck fifty later he made it clear with only a small scratch on his eye (which I think was there to begin with from his scratching, the ball never touched his eye) I called home, gave the wife the heads up and headed home. The daughter was waiting, still crying the poor kid. She hugged him, again he didn't know any better, he started malling her like normal and all was well.

Fast forward to later in the night. The wife is going into the bathroom to give the little one a bath, the dog is in front of the door and wanna take a wild guess what happens? Thunk...she opens the door right into his head..lol...the daughter screams at mom and the dog gives the goofy look again this time. All is back to normal is seems. Anyways, that was today's latest drama.

 

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I feel your pain, over the years, our border collie has had a pitch to his side a number of times with 2 girls learning how to pitch.

 

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Ah goldens, you gotta love how much a part of the family they become.

 

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well he lasted the night! I came home and was greeted by the same goofy look this morning. everything looks to be ok...except her change up still. lol

 

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Our lab/shepherd mix will chase passed balls for me and put them in his "cave". (a dug out spot under the shrubs on the side of the house) however, once he just couldn't wait for me to miss one and he ran in front of me to try to catch it. Let's just say he is lucky to still have teeth!

 

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To funny, we have 3 labs, 2 chocolate, one yellow. The yeloow behaves perfectly in public, except for the ONE game she went to! Every time the DD came up to bat, the lab would start wining and whimpering, then bark. Then, when the ball got thrown against the fence in front of us, she tried digging here way to it!

At home, the dd and I will go out back and I will soft toss to her, couple of acres, so she can gauge her distance/accuracy. The yellow lab will sit about 40 yards away and catch line drives...ouch! She will let some go after a few clip her pretty good, but at the end of it, we get the same dog coming back to us, smiling, gotta love' em!

 

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I won't go into detail, but my uncle's dog tried the same thing when we were playing horseshoes. Took one right in the forehead. A visit to the vet showed no lasting damage....I'm not sure there was a whole lot to damage in the first place

 

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We have a wiener dog that thinks he's invincible and has the mentality he needs to "inspect" everything that goes on at this circus. One evening while giving a pitching lesson, Spanky decided to walk to the net with targets we pitch to, while a second year pitcher was working on her control. The dog wouldn't move and she exclaimed her reluctance to pitch for fear of hitting him. I explained that at his height, he was nowhere near the strike zone and if she'd focus and execute her pitch, there should be no issue. He's standing there to see if you are hitting the target so hit the target! We got her mentally prepared and took our time, she approached the pitching rubber and threw a perfect outside knee high fastball for a strike at which Spanky simply watched, smelled the ball, put his lil paw on it, and then walked away with approval.

After I started breathing again I calmly pointed out it was that level of concentration she needed on every pitch and if she'd focus she could do it most every time. I wouldn't recommend a wiener dog sacrifice for every pitching session but was reasonably assured that young dog has the reflexes to get out of the way more often then I do when I stand by the net as a batter and have the girls pitch. This young lady learned a lesson that evening and her control for ALL her pitches are much better now.

Thanks to Spanky and all the dogs out there that keeps us company on those lonely sessions while honing our craft. Whether they teach us a lesson or simply chase an errant ball across the yard, they never seem to tire. Regardless of any unintentional errant play they'll come back to watch again. Sometimes I think Spanky enjoys it more than me!

Tell that 10 yr. old to keep throwing. Her dog is going to keep coming back to watch but even the dog expects her to focus and try to hit her target on every pitch. It'll all be worth it once things begin to "click."

 

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Last summer my DD and I had just finished going through all the warm up stuff and was in the process of delivering her first pitch......our Pug strolled right in the line of fire. He stopped and turned to look at her when the pitch caught him right between the eyes. It raised him up off his front legs and he jerked a little. I really thought he was going to die. DD immediately ran up to him crying (screaming). Luckily he shook it off and went to the porch where he would be safe. He never wanted to be around her again when she had one of those yellow balls!

 

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Our border collie is very smart and wants NOTHING to do with my dd's or the ball when they are pitching. She will play with them and the softballs any other time, but when they pitch, she splits!!

 

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I know of a chihuahua that lost an eye to an errant softball. I think the girl, a teammate of my DD's, was hitting in the back yard when it happened. Poor thing. I think they had a little eye patch for her.