Stubborn Springer stealing other dogs' balls

[BlondeWrites]

Just wondering if anyone's got any tips/advice, or even just similar experiences...

My Springer, Noodle, is a year old, and is a terrible ball-thief. We usually take a ball out with us to the park or the beach, and he'll fetch for hours if we let him, but if another dog appears with a ball, it's game over. Noodle will take the other dog's ball and will not give it back. Not for treats (even high-value ones), not for his own toys, not for anything. The stubbornness is genuinely impressive, but also mortifying.

We're currently working with a trainer on this and are practising the 'two-ball game' daily - using two identical balls but one only gets thrown when Noodle has dropped the other one, if that makes sense. I think it works by showing him that if he drops the ball nicely, he gets to carry on playing.

I know spaniels are known for being ball-obsessed, so if any spaniel-owners know how to deal with world-class stubbornness, let me know! Or is it just a case of persevering with the training and putting up with our embarrassment in the meantime?

Here's a pic, because he's a handsome boy.

Yes, Bitey I used to get the 'look': that big dog's stolen my ball do something.

The worst one was not when the ball was stolen but when it rolled being a large fence type thing at the beach. We could see it but had no chance of getting at it. She stood looking at it for ages, eventually I persuaded her to come away and tried to distract her with her other, new, ball - new balls are never good, they have to be worn in, so to speak, so that didn't work.

She'd walk a little way then turn round and go back to stare mournfully at her out of reach ball for a while. Took ages before she was willing to leave it behind. Made me feel quite sad.

@bitey, ddog2 is constantly stealing balls/toys from ddog1 and I get the same look

Someone (maybe Bitey ) gave me a good tip about gettin g them to drop stuff, and it works.

So Steppedog has ball in mouth, not giving it up in a month of Sundays, and firmly clamped.
You hold ball (this is obviously on those occasions when you can catch him) and instead or trying to pull etc you twist whatever they are holding. Pretty much everything twists and comes out. I then say GIVE really clearly as I remove it, and give him a treat instead.

He has gone from real battle to let go, to accepting that he will have to let go and letting me take it. Since we have done the twist and turn thing, we have never had anything that we couldn't get out of his mouth. (well...except our chicken who he caught and you can't twist a live chicken's wing. In that instance dh had to get something and lever his jaw open. Fortunately being a Springer he had caught it and was holding it, but the chicken was undamaged.)

I have no advise but wanted to say that noodle really suits that hat

Advice (bloody autocorrect)

I don't have any advice either but as a Springer owner also, I just wanted to say that Noodle is bloody gorgeous.