Any ideas how to get a ball back from a dog that doesn't want to part with it?

There is a ball stealing dog that goes to the park I often go to and the dog steals everyone's balls and the owner (nor anybody else in the park) can retrieve them.  the dog doesn't appear to be food orientated and the owner is not particularly helpful in that he cannot control his dog particularly well and doesn't think it is a problem - despite most of the dog walkers telling him it is and a lot of them now avoiding him and his dog.  the dog in question is a GR and it is extremely unlikely the owner will train him out of this, muzzle him, bring his own ball or even avoid the other dog walkers. Limited success was found with squirting the dog with water but this isn't a long term solution and not really practical in the winter.

Is there a solution to effortlessly prize a dogs mouth open to retrieve a ball?  With my dog I swap it for a biscuit or some other high reward treat but this doesn't work with him.  All solutions gratefully received.

Swap it for a ball you kindly give his owner?  Get all the owners to bill his owner for the stolen balls.

The 'Leave it' comand is what I use for all the puppies and older dogs  :)

have you tried throwing another ball on the floor near him when he drops the one in his mouth to pick it up  quickly put you foot  on the second ball shoo him away pick up the ball and  walk off!

Easier said than done ....I know!!

I always take a few ball out with me.

2 balls worked for me, show him the spare ball and make excited noises then throw it with luck he will drop the other one, of course the owner will have to supply spare ball and do this and that will be the hard part!

thanks for the advice but none of these things work.  It is an old man who has the GR and he has a car and house full of other dogs balls.  He doesn't ever bring any of these to the park to play with and never returns the balls to the owners after he eventually retrieves them at home.  I am posting this on behalf of my dog walker as it is usually her that has to deal with him.  Although all of these solutions would work with practice they would also generally involve an innocent party (i.e. my dogwalker or any other dogwalker) losing a ball to do the swap with him. The GR doesn't respond positively to bribes or trying to wrestle the ball out of his mouth.  I know that the easiest thing would be to visit the park at different times or go to another park but it's not really practical.

I think walkers need to get tough with the owner and insist he pays for the balls.  It isn't an isolated incident so he knows his dog does it. 

I know it is petty, but it is theft and I would threaten to call the Police if he doesn't pay up.  That just might make him train  his dog or bring his own balls with him.

that's a good point.  i think that most people don't do it is because he is an old man.  I wouldn't have any concerns about doing this if it was an adult but because he's an old man people are quite lenient with him.  Thanks for everyone's feedback and I'll pass it all on to my dog walker.

starryeyes, my dog walker tried that so great minds think alike but the GR bit her foot!

I have this with a few dogs at my park and it was meaning when I got to the park to play ball with my dogs the ball game was soon over as even the owners of these ball stealing dogs couldn't get the balls back.

. So to stop myself getting all stressed up about it I now just buy cheap balls and take spares with me to the park so if one gets nicked I can still enjoy playing with my own dogs.

Sometimes because the game of ball is still going on and the hooligan dog is not getting any attention at all from stealing the ball it might come back and drop the ball while trying to get the other balls or might eventually loose intetest in stealing the balls  cos no one is bothering with rewarding it with attention for ball stealing.

Also some of the dogs now just come to join in the game with my two and because they stay with me after a few weeks they learn that if they want me to throw the ball they must drop it for me first.

Some dogs in you get very firm..use a deep I really mean it voice, may drop the ball or think twice before nicking off with it.  And if the dog gets yelled sat the owner might just take the hint and keep away.

Some people can only get the ball off the dog when they get back to their car so they can be asked to leave it in a certain place for me or they just give it back the next time I see them.

Sometimes there are a few ball stealing dogs t the same time. One is a Lab and he chews the ball to bits which at £1 a time annoys me but the owner is on a different planet and says he will pay for anew balls but never does so again I just try hard not to let it bother me and keep my focus on having fun with my dogs and de-stressing! 

I tend to think maybe one day mine might do something naughty and then I hope people give me the patience I give to them! Anyway I lost count of how many balls have been stolen, chewed up by wayward dogs in my park, but sometimes I find balls around that other people lost. And  sometimes I end up with several dogs all wanting to come and play ball..some even bring their own balls.

I taught my dogs to place the ball in my hand and not put it down. That helps stop the balls getting nicked. 

that's a good plan to teach the dogs to return the ball to hand rather than drop them.  This dog is quite fast so often gets to ball before other dogs and the owner doesn't appear to give a damn and has no consideration for others and is extremely unlikely to teach his ball to do anything.  His dog has bitten people when they have tried to split up fights with his dog and others and as I mentioned earlier his dog sunk its teeth into my dog walkers foot when she was standing on the ball.  The man and his dog are a total nuisance but are unlikely to change so it is looking like it is up to others to change their behaviour to prevent this man and his dog ruining their walks.

If his dog is biting people I'd contact the dog warden and the park warden. It's bad enough with the dog walkers but tt could easily do a lot of harm to a child if it tries to steal a ball they're playing with. :( Not cool.

So there are some good points to having a breed that is largely disinterested in retrieving unless it has been or is alive.

Certainly good advice for people to choose a breed with the traits they are prepared to appreciate, train and harness .  Many people expect a dog to retrieve and give the ball back naturally. Many people see my dogs doing it and say theirs wont fetch a ball and are only interested in balls that are not theirs.  But what they see as a lucky natural behaviour in my dogs took months of training.

Instead of working at the pointy end could she just put a lead on the dog? Some thieves will drop what they have if they're not allowed to lay down with their prize. Just standing still with the dog on the lead held short enough to keep him standing might work. Most of the local thieves will drop things when their mouth gets tired of holding something up.