Okay Koolie people. I need your help. I had a phone call today from a really nice lady near the Geelong area that is having a problem with her Koolie puppy. Ziggy is a 5 1/2 month old male Koolie on 100 acres and lives with a lab x. He is getting fixated on motion of cars and his owner wants some help on what to do to mentally stimulate him before he starts chasing them and end up getting killed. He is also chewing up all the kids toys and got hold of one of the kids chickens and tried to kill it. She would love to train him to help bring in he ducks so anyone of you duck people that can help her email me and Ill pass on her email address to you. On talking to her it sounds like Ziggy is bored so any suggestions for mental stimulation much appreciated.

She would love help for anyone and is prepared to drive 1 1/2 hour from Geelong or Ballarat area ( sorry - dont know my geography) to see someone for help and is up for any advice as she genuinely loves the dog. I told her about the wonders of bones and he is happy with a big bone today so that should help a bit but any suggestions or anyone that is able to help in that area please let me know.

She tried to join the list to ask this for herself but was unable to get in so I will be forwarding your replies to her until we can figure out why she cant get on. Oh - and the reason she rung me ( in case you are wondering) is that I am the current Puppy officer and she got my number off the web site.


So - throw all your ideas at me please and help save Ziggy.

for mental stimulation all i can suggest is the kongs frozen like we discussed on another post and milk and egg cartons and coke bottles used much the same as the kong, with a hole cut into the middle so they can open them up, put lots of foods different foods, steak, cheese, sausages, corn chips (i did that for a treat for raz recently), mince, peanut paste, cheese spread, chicken wings. sometimes when i freeze them i put beef stock in the water, so its like a beef flavoured cube :) good for licking till it melts. not too much of course i dont wanna give him the runs.

also if the owner has time i would suggest training, first point of call i would be rewarding the dog for looking at me, just sit somewhere (prob start in the house then increase distractions slowly, i.e. roadside) just cue "yes" meaning treats coming. so everytime the dog looks at her she says the cue and rewards, once he is very focused on her move to outside, this will teach the pup that wherever you are you look at the owner and ignore the cars. and other distractions i would also suggest some "leave it" training. But if no time for any of that, i would say do the food things lots of his own toys and exercise and socialisation.

Regarding getting access to the forum is concerned, if anyone tries to use a hotmail or yahoo type account they won't be accepted. In the past we have had extreme attacks on the forum and constantly have spammers with those type email address try to gain access. This was a constant problem and took a lot of time to sort out until admin decided enough was enough. So now you need to use a standard email account for access. It is also worth contacting the admin to verify you are genuinely trying to access the forum for koolie reasons.
With regard to the problems she is experiencing, I would suggest she uses more of the 100acres she has access to, he needs something to do get out and run him, run with him, ride with him or toss him out of the car at the back fence and let him run home. He is a working dog...that wants work. If he doesn't have access to stock he will work what he can find, cars, chooks it doesn't matter to him and if she doesn't do something soon he will see this as his job and will be very difficult to refocus. Does she have some sheep? He would lover her if she had a dozen.

I am of the same opinion as Silhouette, EXERCISE!! run, run and more running, especially for young dogs.

We take ours for a hour and half walk or run with the four wheeler in the morning before work, sometimes I have time for a 15 minute frisbee throw when we get back and when I get home from work they get hour in the 2 acre creek paddock. Ours tend to exercise themselves because they are always playing.

Also bones are a great distraction for them as well

I would tend to agree with Sil. Give him more land to run around if she only keeps them in a small fenced area. We don't have any stock, animals or agility equipment for our dogs but even with an acre, they are more occupied with running around after each other, birds, funny smells and toys than the passing traffic.

Eventually they get so tired from that, they pass out.

From what I can tell the other dog is not very high drive so doesn't play with the puppy much. I did suggest maybe a second one but her husband wont allow it. I will pass all of this onto her as I know she will be very grateful. I was thinking about what else I could tell her I do with mine and as I was thinking away I looked down and there I was hosing away with Bug in hot pursuit so water chasing might be another suggestion

i have to admit when raz was a baby i spent alot of time on the floor just throwing toys for him...he would keep bringing them back and i would daily take him to the dog park for 1 to 2 hours at a time he just kept playing. And i did alot of training alot more than i do now. And like i said earlier alot of things to chew on for when i wasnt home

Exercise is part of it but also mental stimulation, dog tricks would be ideal. She can get ideas of websites or obtain herself a book on it. Chewing is part of puppyhood, toilet rolls was a godsend for me, frozen bones, and cheap second hand toys for demolishing purposes. Training would be great she can start on her own their is a book called Positive dog training for dummies which sets out things simplistically. Maybe scent training, laying a trail of liquidised chicken and giving the command smell. Or have an article with her scent on it, lay down a trail (only small) to start off with and find. You can then incorporate it in the house on rainy days, my two run around trying to find the article in the house for fun. Hope this helps.

If she is happy to drive to Neilborough, near Bendigo (probably and hour and a half from Ballarat) we will have a meeting on the 2nd of May she is most welcome to come along and chat to a lot of people with knowledge. If she wants to ring someone, put her on to TJ she is used to teaching the requirements. (She loves it when I dob her in)

Good call Sil. When i saw TJ at the Glen Eira pet expo, she had one of her boys that she asked the owner to send home to her and was teaching him some manners before he went back again.

She would be able to help for sure.

ceejay that scent idea sounds awesome...i should do that with raz

Exercise is really good for getting tired dogs but it doesn't stop them from chasing cars when they want to. It sounds like he needs to learn impulse control. First step is to be able to get his attention and keep his attention, this opens up the line of communication and then work on some basic manners, sit, drop, stay and recall. Tricks are great for mental stimulation and it does make them tired too! It does sound like he needs something to keep him occupied so lots of exercise, training both mental and physical and something to chew on!

Does she want to work him on stock or is he a worker/housedog? If she wants a trainer to give her some direction I know of a trainer in the Geelong area.