Shelter dogs train as ball boys in Brazil

In an exhibition with players Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain and Gastao Elias of Portugal, the canines Frida, Costela, Mel and Isabelle engaged onlookers on Thursday night by picking up balls that went out of bounds. Not long ago, the same dogs were abandoned in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city. The shelter dogs, wearing orange ribbons and trained for months, spent almost a half-hour tracking down balls often intentionally missed by the 122nd and 140th ranked players.

At the command of their trainer Andrea Beckert, the dogs retrieved the balls with their teeth and ran off the court to their trainer. The unusual initiative was made to promote the adoption of abandoned street animals.Beckert said the biggest difficulty was to make the animals more confident and playful.

“These are dogs that were mistreated. We have to make them adapt, feel the environment, the court, the noise of the balls and the noise of the people. Some are doing well, others are still a little scared,” she told journalists. 

The basic commands that the dogs learned were “pick the ball,” “let it go,” “stay” and “come.” The organizer of the ball-dog initiative, Marli Scaramella, said that all four still live in shelters. “The idea is to show people that a wellfed and well-treated animal can be very happy. We have more than 1,000 dogs in our care,” she said.