Okay - so am I alone here? My 3 month old Koolie has no interest in a ball what so ever. Not when its thrown, or bouncing or anything. I bounce the small tennis ball, she sits and stares at it like it is something extremely boring. She likes lots of other toys and interacts with me very nicely - just not balls. I would very much like her to take an interest to help with her daily exercise and future agility training. She will chase the ball obsessed dog till she exhausts herself but she is more trying to herd him than be interested in why he is actually running.

So am I alone in this or has someone else had the same problem. Not looking good for jumping in the dam either now is it!

Natalie

I dont know if you should take it too seriously atm, im no expert, but raz wasnt fully "into" anything until he got a bit older, i couldnt even get him to bring toys back he is getting better but still isnt solid and he is 1 year 3 months approx. even now, he is really "into" his frisbee..loves it, and a basketball and a tug toy. Frisbees can travel a distance..maybe you should try experimenting with other things, not just balls? and she is still only a baby so i wouldnt be too worried

I am not taking it overly seriously however I am very perplexed being new to the breed and did not know if this is a common thing or not. She drives well to other toys, brings them back and especially enjoys interacting with me. This is the first time I have seen a working breed not be interested in the little round thing that controls the world ( according to my other dogs).

Natalie

Sometimes the chase is more exciting than the end product ie the ball, especially if she can interact with another dog chasing a ball. She may need to grow into ball chasing! Here's a couple of ideas to try though:

Does she like food? You can put a slit in the tennis ball and put the food (a nice smelly bit of food) into the ball, throw it then if she returns the ball to you reward her with some food.

Or you can try taking away all other toys and just have the ball (and no other dogs), you play with the ball, up in the air catching it acting excited, throw it once a short distance away, chase it yourself and see if she has any interest. If she does have interest or pick it up really praise her, reward her then put the ball away. If she doesn't put the ball away and stop play. Try again a few minutes later.

Put a rope on the ball and drag it, flip it around and see if she'll chase the ball that way - again keep other dogs away.

Don't worry I'm only just getting Paxy to bring toys back and she's nearly 2!

sometimes it just is as simple as that and the light globe goes on. She is obsessed with rabbit fur so I pushed a pelt into the holly roller and she seems pretty kean on it




Ill do a tiny bit each day and build her up. Thanks for that. Solo is definitely the way to go however when I have the bunny on the rope, the BC does not stand a chance and she will power over him to get the bunny so that will be great distraction training down the track.

Natalie

Ceejay did not understand the concept of balls until she was older, about 8/9 months. Now she loves it, I take away the ball after the session. Otherwise she gets a tad obsessive with it.

yeah i've never tried the ball thing, really, raz loves his frisbee and tug and big ball..so i havent tried the tennis ball, plus i have been warned off that because of the wear the tennis ball supposedly has on the teeth...same with the basketball..so he only gets that minimally

Funny story about the basket ball. My rescue who believes that the world revolves around the ball got hold of my sons basket ball the other day. He has this amazing ability to be able to play on his own (result of neglect and being a rescue) by literally kicking it around the yard and he "dribbles it" between his legs. Well he was so obsessed with it the other day he was hitting it so hard he blood all over his legs. So now the basket ball is completely out of bounds after we clean the blood off it.

No - I dont want Bg to be anywhere near that obsessed and will continue to swap and change different toys with the ball added somewhere in there.

Natalie

Natalie - glad the light went on for you!!!!

Tennis balls aren't great for dogs besides the teeth thing as they can pull the fur off them and eat it which causes stomach irritation. They can also then go on to eat the rubber which is definitely not a good thing in a dog's stomach.

Obsessed, yes that's Paxy!!! She has no toys now except when training, poor girl. She used to have a soccer ball she dribbled around. She would push it towards you and then wait for you to kick it or throw it back. Time after time after time. She has so much drive for play that she has ripped up runners out of the lawn and broken branches off bushes. I've actually found since I've removed freely available toys away from her she relaxes more.

Koolies, being working dogs, sometimes decide that some particular activity is their job. Not having access to "normal" work of live stock they transfer to something else. This can be the balls or sticks or similar, the difficult one is if they decide their job is something like running the boundaries of the fence, chasing airplanes or waiting for the postie to come by, or getting the washing OFF the line. Fortunately you all as good owners have seen the obsessive behaviour before it becomes set as "My Job" and taken action. Those poor things that end up at the pound are often the ones that just haven't had the clued up owners smart enough to do that...they have just given up in frustration. Generally because they haven't been prepared to give the dog the mental interaction it so desperately needs. Good Koolie owners !! Good Koolie owners!!Have a treat, you all deserve one!!

woo

do I get a treat as well? I asked the question....do I.....huh.....do I..........

yes i will let you have a treat lol ......and don't worry if Bg never takes a liking to balls out of all the dogs that i have/had spice is the only one that will chase a ball but she never brings it back lol, get your self a heeler like jackie they chase balls and the koolies chase them lol no only joking there pass on the heeler, Spice did agility without the help of a ball and she loved it. i have found that koolies can get Obsessed with moving and non moving things i have 2 dogs that would get Obsessed with their food bowls if i let them yes i know you are thinking HOW??? easy they have learnt that if they tip their food bowls on their sides they will roll and wobble around and make lots of noise so food bowls are removed after they have been fed but cruise is a hard one as he is Obsessed with water buckets/containers as soon as you fill his water up he will have a quick drink then tip the water out and then play with the bucket all day so i have had to get him a cement dish he can't move that one but he still digs all the water out after he has had a drink he makes it very hard to keep water up to him all day so now i just fill it morning and night but if it's a very hot day and i am home i will take him a drink at lunch time and he does get a drink when he has off chain time playing with the other dogs or after working, he started this habit because he got bored when he was smaller the bugger could fit through the sheep fencing and was always getting into the sheep paddock not a good thing to let a young dog do so he had to go on chain.

lol thats funny about the food bowls royalla :)
yes we do agility and raz gets his tug toy and a game with me at the end :) he loves that, but i have to be careful to hide the toy before he finishes else he wont concentrate.

I think raz's bad habits are mosty just chasing the neighbours dog up and down the fence. I dont know if he has any obsessions :/ (prob cause i havent really allowed him to have any?)

Good micknmol! You can have a treat.
Damn it, let's all have a chockie!!!

I have been trying to get Phoenix to chase a ball for 2 years now, just given it up as a bad joke. Not interested in it at all. He would rather have a tug game with you or chase the other dogs or be chased by them. The Border Collies on the other hand would chase the ball till there legs drop off.
One of my Border Collies will "play soccer" as you have described but was very a rescue dog or left along, her son now does the same thing. It is their way of "herding" something.
Phoenix will not chace a ball but when it comes water he will duck dive in from anywhere. He will also do agility no problems just with his tug toy.
Really don't stress about the ball thing, every dog is differant, just like every human is differant. I would just leave a couple of tennis balls where she can get them and if you see her pick it up say to her "ohh good girl" and really pat and love her for it, might just do the trick.

rachelle my boy loves the water too!! i cant stop him from jumping in if we're near any, so i have to keep him on leash if its not 'safe' water.

ok Sil i had my Chockie it was yummy thanks lol, yes koolies just love water even a couple of Dance's pups have started playing in her water bowl at the tender age of 4 weeks, i have found that if you make something fun koolies will do it without any kinds of treats at all just a pat and a cuddle is all the treat they need but some times a little bit of liver helps them to understand what you are asking them to do.

ha ha my girl hates the water

man I am learning a lot about these Koolie's. You would think that they may have some similar traits to each other but the vary so much. I just found it weird that a working dog did not want to chase a ball. maybe I have been around the "average" working dog way to long. I was watching Bug today while she was herding Ben who was herding the ball. Then I figured it out - Koolie's are smarter than BC and they know not to waste all the effort on something so meaningless!

By far above and beyond the rabbit skins her favourite toys are broom and Mop but the bee all toys is the Blower Vac - in her face. What a weird dog but she makes me laugh and thats why we have her!

enjoying the discussion and its opening my eyes so thanks everyone.

natalie

Yes Koolies are different is so many ways. Ceejay loves her water. Her most enjoyable activity running from one side of the yard to the other. She has her own racetrack with cornering sides and everything. We are on an acre thank goodness. Her other favourite is sitting up and watching the neighbourhood, we are situated higher than the surrounding house so she looks like she is surveying her domain or she is just being a nosey neighbour.

I love the blow vac idea, can you get a picture for us. It would be priceless. lol. Brooms, mops and vacuum cleaner are very popular in my house too. Ceejay's favourite toy when she was a pup was a monkey made of rope and ball. It lasted for ages.

Ill get a photo or a movie of the Blower vac. Very funny. Here she is when she first started with the broom. She had gotten much more confident with it now and really hooks in and attacks it. That goes for the mop as well and she has now moved onto the mop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP-rmKHnoFI

She was 2 1/2 months old in the video.

Natalie

raz is annoyingly the same...he chases the vacume...im trying to stop that... he also chases the mower and the hose, sheesh

sounds like Razz needs an outlet he has more energy to burn then he is burning and a brain that needs some thing to think about, are you going to Obedience and agility with him yet, i know you live near the gold coast some where so take him to one of the rivers or the beach and let him run like mad and when he knocks up get him to run even more or there are herding schools around brissy with Eric Tighe and he is a very good trainer and can really read dogs and stock, your boy is board and has started to try and herd the vacuum cleaner and lawn mower, the mower is a bad thing for him to pick on he could lose an eye or even be killed if a rock or old bone fly's out or you could start training him tricks like penny does with Dice just 10 minutes a day koolies are very smart and learn things fast it's just their owners that can be dumb and not know how to teach things lol that does not mean you Danny, you have to start to think of things for him to do

thanks royalla for the tips and no offence taken .. i dont think im dumb either, but i will always accept help...he has always chased those objects.. and that is on top of the agility training, and the obedience training and the walks and trips to nudgee beach. :/

he is getting better with the vacume, i give him heaps of treats for jumping in his crate when i do it, so he is constantly running up to me and then running bak to his crate (maybe he thinks i cant see him when he is in it)

i agree koolies are smart, raz is awesomely smart, i have taught him tricks like sneeze on cue, 'speak', high five (with both feet), wave, high ten, roll over, lie down, stay (i wouldnt vouch on that one though), wait, leave it, bow, beg, he also shuts the fridge for me. and we're doing agility so we practise that when we can, and he might go to the dog park every 2 weeks, and goes on walks most days. he meets up with his play friend most weeks and sometimes im plain lazy and just play in the backyard with him. but he still chases the mower, unless im outside with his ball keeping his focus on me and off it.

im not really interested in getting him to herd for the fact that he would never use it...and i would hate for him to want it all the time.. else i prob would have been at ur workshop.

as for tricks if you can give me some ideas, i have no idea how pple come up with those awesome tricks..or how they teach them :/ but if you have any cool tricks i can try to teach raz and keep u all updated :)

Tricks.....ooh. Ceejay also does the bow, what? that one is where I say what and she does a silent bark back. Bang, plays dead. Paws up, shake, roll over, spin anti-clockwise, twirl clockwise, hoop (jumps through a hoop), stop, she stops and drops, crawl, starting to teach her to dance (weaving through my legs) and a close spin around a stick. Walk, up on hind legs walking, hop, up on hind legs hopping.

Izzy can do the crawl, roll over, starting to teach her tango, paws up on my bum and following behind me, the world, she goes round and round me. Be a squirrel, butt flat on the floor with paws up. Also hop, walk, trying to teach her high five, spin and twirl and dance through the legs. Also does the hoop.

How did I start, work on what they do anyway. Ceejay does a silent bark when excited, I just started saying what? back, hence now a trick. Izzy sometimes stretches up on my rear quarters so just started moving forward and saying tango. And now encouraging this with treats (is this a good thing?) I find the clicker is good to start with as they now they have got what I wanted when they hear the click. I do a lot of this at night when OH is on night shift. Keeps me entertained. It is heaps of fun to do and I can recommend a good book Dog Tricks: Fun and Games for Your Clever Canine by Mary Ray.

With the mops/brooms/vacuum if the girls get too much with them, I tell them leave it and then they go and sook in another room until I am done. lol.

haha, yeah raz is clicker trained, and he can do the hoop and zig zag between my legs, and spin (left) and turn (right) both spins, might see about getting him to walk on his back legs, that sounds cool, i guess raz's leave it isnt solid enough, if i say leave it, he will go away and then come bak and i have to say it again, he doesnt just leave it for good...how do you suppose i would get that to happen on one command?

might look into that book when i have some spare cash

My Koolies just looovvee the water!! I cannot keep them out, we stopped at a river on the way back from Janet's place to let the dogs out for a quick swim and a romp as it was just so hot travelling and we could not get them out of the water to load them back up!! pups and all, when we called them to load up they just kept on swimming around and usually riding in the ute overrides anything else...

Now ball throwing, Smith doesn't mind teasing my red ACD by stealing the ball but the cattle dogs do the ball thing and the koolies to the chase the cattle dog fetching the ball thing.

My two cattle dogs do a tandam team of chasing the ball, the red one goes one way and the blue one goes the other way. It takes two of them working to wear out a pack of Koolies!!

They have endless energy. Anyone that harrasses the ball collector gets evicted to the house yard until they gain some manners!

Please! shut him away when lawn mowing - an agility person I know had her dog get several toes mowed off recently. :-( Don't take the risk if he wants to chase the mower.

yes penny, normally aaron mows when raz and i are on a walk or at the park, and if he mows when we're there i go out and keep raz away from it with playing or leave it then punishment for not leaving it, or i keep him in the house with me

phew, thats a relief to hear :-)

Hi All,
I was wondering why i was the only owner at the park whose dog would not chase and retrieve a ball lol.
Her interest lies only with the dog chasing the ball !!
Toys dont seem to have an effect either though she has taken a liking to my socks...washing cycle, socks missing etc only to find one in the backyard !
Is this koolie characteristic?
I found a frisbee in the kids toy box if that fails will try to put treat inside the ball for play time.
thanks for an alternative.
As for water well i cant seem to keep her out of it.Almost full winter here and while running at terminal velocity sees a puddle and launches herself into it for maximum coverage.Our bathroom will never look the same lol.


Ben and Miley D

I dunno.... I am up to dog 7 now, (Koolie #3) and I never had one that pinched socks. - until now! Rio of course ;-) maybe its a brown Koolie thing...

Socks are a real problem here everyone takes them, clean or dirty... and my slip on plastic crocs!! but not toys, they chase the dog chasing the frisbee or ball....

No Penny - trust me, blue Koolies love socks too. The ball thing is more of a mystery to me, although it occurs to me that if a herding breed dog is first exposed to ball play with other dogs that do chase balls, then it follows that they are just as likely to develop the habit of chasing the other dog/s instead of the ball - they are a larger moving target after all.

I had two ACD's that used to do the ball chasing ... then the koolies would chase the dog chasing the ball