Maybe it''s time to teach my dog the release command

Patrick and I went outside to throw around my pink baseball remembering to be careful because my dog, Blackberry likes to steal my ball and run away with it. Well, he caught himself a squirrel and was quite happily trotting around the property with it, so I wasn't worried about my pink baseball.  Well, he dropped it in the woods somewhere and came back for my ball. Well, when we dropped it, he ran over, but Patrick and I were faster, covering it with our baseball gloves.  He fought wholeheartedly to get around our gloves, but when he couldn't get to it, he decided he would settle for MY GLOVE!

He has had some training elsewhere, so I tried one command but all he did was roll over.

Finally, I pried his mouth open and got it back!

Maybe it's time for some training.  Homeschool project?