bordersrule Posted October 2, 2007 Share Posted October 2, 2007 (edited) I am hoping that I might be able to get advice from people here. I am having issues with our youngest dog who believes a game of ball is her chance to stalk and bite my boy . My boy who is ball mad will give up playing because she is harrassing him that much. I have tried numerous ways of stoping her but it is like she tunes out to everything else around her including me. Her main focus is Flash and nothing else. It is getting to a point where I dont want to include her in these games anymore? What can I do to stop this behavoiur? We got her as a rescue 6 months ago and believe she has a mixture of Border/Heeler/Kelpie which are all working breeds. I know that she was not well trained when we got her but are working through things very slowly but this one has me stumped. :rolleyes: Please help!! Edited October 3, 2007 by bordersrule Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reddii Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 I'm working through a similar issue with limited success. I can put one dog on a stay and he will hold it until the other brings the ball back, then it is his turn, but I have to hold my bitch because she is just so focussed on the ball - no fun. I'd be interested if anyone has a solution as at present I have to play one on one or live with what you have described and keep pulling the game up. Sorry I've added nothing apart from empathy. Cheers. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms James Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 Yeah, our BC X Heeler does it to our ball-mad Kelpie X girl, too. My daughter always says that he's playing defence :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulesP Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 My border collie girl plays the other dog not the ball as well My old border used to just ignore her as she was hanging on his tail!! But it does upset my young border and I believe inhibited his retrieve instinct. If I want to play fetch with young border then I have to put the other one inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BC Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 When Cooper plays with other dogs, on the rare occasion I let him, it has to closely supervised. The other dogs are enjoying chasing the ball, but Cooper enjoys herding the other dogs, and most do not really appreciate this. You will never get this instinct out of the dog, it is what they were bred to do. The only thing that stopped Cooper, is me having more control over him and being able to call him off when his herding starts to kick in. Lots and lots of obedience training and control over him from a distance. When he starts to herd, I call him back to me, and he has to sit there and watch the others dogs play until I say he can go and play again. After a couple of times of me calling him back when he starts to herd, he soon gets the picture and starts to play more and more with the other dogs. He is slowing learning what is accetable and what is not. I dont know what else to suggest to you, except when the herding kicks in, call your dog back to you and not let him play until he knows how to play nice. As I said, it is a hard one as you will never get this drive out of him, but you need to learn to control and manage this behaviour through training and focus on you. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Clover Posted October 3, 2007 Share Posted October 3, 2007 I have the same problem with my dogs. I throw the ball, Tinny beats them all to it then Elvis and Harri steal it off her. If Elvis gets it he does not give it up, so Harri bites him and carries on. If Harri gets it Elvis bites at the ball which resulted in a couple of puncture wounds on Harri's tongue yesterday . Today i just gave up and put Elvis in a stay and held Harri and let Tinny have a go, then swaped them over.. it seemed to work well enough . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bordersrule Posted October 3, 2007 Author Share Posted October 3, 2007 Thankyou for the advice everyone. It is nice to know I am not the only one with this problem. It seems like a very common occurance. When Cooper plays with other dogs, on the rare occasion I let him, it has to closely supervised.The other dogs are enjoying chasing the ball, but Cooper enjoys herding the other dogs, and most do not really appreciate this. You will never get this instinct out of the dog, it is what they were bred to do. The only thing that stopped Cooper, is me having more control over him and being able to call him off when his herding starts to kick in. Lots and lots of obedience training and control over him from a distance. When he starts to herd, I call him back to me, and he has to sit there and watch the others dogs play until I say he can go and play again. After a couple of times of me calling him back when he starts to herd, he soon gets the picture and starts to play more and more with the other dogs. He is slowing learning what is accetable and what is not. I dont know what else to suggest to you, except when the herding kicks in, call your dog back to you and not let him play until he knows how to play nice. As I said, it is a hard one as you will never get this drive out of him, but you need to learn to control and manage this behaviour through training and focus on you. Good luck BC that is a lot for me to go and think about and work on. I have lots of obedience work to do with her. She needs a lot of recall work which has you mentioned will help me to get her attention off Flash and onto me. You are right when you say I will never get the instinct out of her but will need to work on managing it. Thankyou once again everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Q Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 harry's border collie/ACD and 100% workign dog. He's nipped me quiet a few times because I run and scream and he just gets over excited. A squeal and stopping play has curbed it quiet a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Q Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 (edited) double post. Edited October 4, 2007 by busterlove Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steph & Bam Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 I am lucky in the fact that Bam had little to no drive when I first got him, so I worked first on the recall, then introduced the ball and retrieving. Then along came the herding monster, but because I'd worked so hard on the recall I was able to control the herding and now it is very rare that he will try to herd things, with the exception of the odd rabbit that pops it's head up here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulesP Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 Nearly had a mincemeat BC today! I was mowing the lawn, which was making the pony go silly, which was making the dogs go into full BC herd mode, Brock was so busy doing the 'crouch-evil-eye' thing that he nearly got run over by the mower! Silly dog! Disclaimer: No ponies or dogs were harmed and all had a ball! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bordersrule Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share Posted October 4, 2007 (edited) JulesP - Glad no animals were hurt!! I tend to find that I have the same issues when lawnmower comes out. Ponies go silly, dogs then go silly and chloe goes in herding mode then the 2 girls fight. I tend to have to lock dogs away when out mowing. I have started intence recall work with Chloe so hopefully in the next few weeks we will start seeing results. Hopefully soon we will have an harmonious ball chasing game. (we can dream can't we) Edited October 4, 2007 by bordersrule Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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