Border Collie Trust GB - Chasing balls, children and other dogs

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Dec 22, 2009, 12:22pm

Border Collie Trust GB :: Collie Behaviour :: Chase instinct :: Chasing balls, children and other dogs

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Topic: Chasing balls, children and other dogs (Read 374 times)

katianne
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Chasing balls, children and other dogs
« Thread Started on Oct 31, 2008, 8:11am »

My border collie Jess is pretty well behaved most of the time!

However, when she gets very excited about something, she will block us out and ignore any commands. For example, if she sees a ball she will chase after it and ignore our calls - we have to physically get her back and she has snapped at us as a result in the past.

Other dogs playing also excites her and has the same effect, as does the sound of children playing.

I was getting somewhere with this in that if I caught on soon enough I would talk to her and tell her to stay, giving me enough time to put her on her lead before she ran off. She was starting to respond to this and wasn't running off as much.

The problem has recently got worse though as Jess spent some time with my parents while we move house, during which it seems she ran off a lot on walks, at the sight of other dogs.

I wonder if training would help with this - I haven't ever taken Jess to any form of training as she was well trained when we got her, but think maybe it may help, as well as being something Jess would enjoy? Any advice? I think she would really love Flyball (as balls are her number one love) but before I look into that I think I need to train her not to chase other dogs and their balls!!!

« Last Edit: Oct 31, 2008, 8:13am by katianne »

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Ben Wilkes
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"To be followed home by a stray dog is a sign of impending wealth." - Chinese Proverb

Joined: Jan 2005
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Re: Chasing balls, children and other dogs
« Reply #1 on Oct 31, 2008, 6:41pm »

Hello,

I wouldn't recommend flyball at the moment until you've managed to identfy and hopefully resolve the problems you are seeing. You really need some one-to-one help to get to the bottom of everything that's going on and show you ways to deal with it. At the moment chasing a ball etc is much more exciting and fullfilling than being with you

Introducing her to something like flyball will only give her more of a rush of adrenalin and even less reason to focus on you and your commands.

Rather than a training class I would look to a behaviourist and someone experienced in collies to help you, if you email us I can give you a contact who even if she can't help because of where you live may be able to point you in the right direction.

All the best
Ben

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