Game On Dogs

14/02/2025

Arriving soon from Sweden... Jenny Bow, transparent weave guides.

ARRIVING SOON - Preorder available Transparent weaver guides developed by Safe Stride Solutions in collaboration with Jenny Damm. The innovative design with end pieces makes the guides more durable, ensuring they withstand many hours of agility training! The weaver guides are sold in sets of 10 - su...

10/02/2025

I am itching🫣 to finalise our order so we can receive stock asap.....4 more days to submit your pre orders!
Correction: 10 more days!😅

Hundlands is a Swedish company with a vision to create sustainable products for dogs that train and work, products that really deliver in terms of material selection, function and design We are excited to stock their iconic selection of dog jackets including their wool range alongside their incredib...

09/02/2025

Quality fitness training!
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07/02/2025

Fascinating reading!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1674wjBkus/

FOR ANYONE NEEDING MORE ADVICE ON THIS, today our breed expert Carol Price revisits…

MISDIRECTED CHASE BEHAVIOUR IN THE BORDER COLLIE

In my books and on this page I always try to better explain what 'working instinct' really is in the Border collie; namely, a stronger and more genetically enhanced desire to eye, stalk, chase and herd or otherwise control moving things. And when these skills are in harmony with the purpose they were designed for – i.e. managing livestock – it is a truly beautiful thing to see, as viewers of our Cathy Cassie’s sheepdog videos on this page will know.

However, what some owners won't always realise is that this ‘working instinct’ - if not compulsion – is part and parcel of the dog and their whole inner wiring. So it will not be exclusively reserved for livestock. It may be directed at absolutely anything that moves. Thus it is the INSTINCT in the dog to chase moving things that is the most critical thing to understand and consider. Rather than the more individual TARGET the dog chooses to direct it upon. Which, in the absence of aforementioned livestock, can become anything from traffic, trains, birds and cyclists or runners to leaves, water or shadows.

TARGETING AND CONTROLLING THE INSTINCT
In a working environment, a shepherd will not only introduce a dog to sheep when they are still very young, to ensure they become the chosen moving target for them to focus upon, but they will also put in the necessary training required to better control the dog's inner instincts and movements around the sheep. Including the speed and direction at which they approach them, stopping them or dropping them in a 'down' to the ground when necessary, or calling them off the sheep and back to them when required.

LOSING CONTROL OF THE CHASE INSTINCT
What can so often go wrong with pet collies is that the instincts and drives in the dog are less well targeted or controlled, from the off. Sometimes only because they are less well understood. But this is the reason why ‘fixation, chase and herd’ behaviour in the dog can then so easily switch on to alternative – and usually less desirable - moving targets instead. This behaviour can then become ever more addictive and compulsive in the dog, and thus much harder for an owner to stop.

Very often I have come across owners of dogs like these who have been told by this trainer or that to do ‘everything they can to discourage chase behaviour in them’ by never allowing them to chase balls etc. But the collie brain doesn’t quite work like that. These dogs do not just stop wanting to chase things because you have taken away one thing they previously chased. They will just try to find something else to chase instead. For some dogs, with a particularly higher chase drive, it really is like an itch they constantly want to scratch. Dogs who are never allowed some outlet for their inborn instincts can also become very frustrated or stressed.

CONTROL TRAINING
So once again the key is, accept this instinct exists in your dog. Chasing is not something collies do to be ‘bad’ or because they want to defy you or give you a hard time. It is more of a natural compulsion they can struggle to resist.

Having accepted this, next, consider, what are you going to target this instinct upon in your dog, it you haven’t got livestock? And second, how are you going to better control it in them?

As I have outlined many times in my books and features, I choose a particular toy for my dogs to more exclusively fixate on, and which they are only allowed access to, when out, after showing me some more preferred behaviours first – i.e. focus (‘watch me’) ‘down’, ‘wait’. Over time, and with the right training, you want to get to the point where the dog will not only focus on your chosen ‘working’ target toy, and ignore any other possible chase targets around them, but you can also totally control your dog’s movements around the toy, or call them to you, and away from the toy (‘recall’) whenever you want.

Only through work like this will you gain ever better control of their chase drives.

From these basic starter exercises I then move on to even greater control training. Like 'DOWN ON THE MOVE', where you drop your dog into a down when they are running towards a chase object. And also the 'MID-CHASE RECALL', where you not only drop your dog into a down as they are running towards something, but then immediately recall the dog back to you. All this work not only helps you get ever better control of your dog’s behaviour and inner drives, but also helps you build an ever stronger working bond, or partnership, with them.

THE GOLDEN SECOND
Another thing that is so vital, when dealing with chase behaviour in your dog, is simple timing. And knowing how to better abort or redirect an action in them when it is still just a thought in their head. Too often owners may miss that 'golden second', just before a dog is about to chase something, and they are still able to stop them with an appropriately trained command – like ‘leave it!’ watch me!’. ‘down!’, ‘wait!’ - if they only intervened a bit faster.

Learning how to think at the speed of a Border collie is a challenge all of us owners face, and something we all have to keep working on over time. Accept that sometimes you will not be fast enough to stop them doing something. But most of the time, and especially with greater practice, you will – and that is still an achievement.

So basically we can see that by replicating the way a shepherd would work with a sheepdog - i.e. making sure the most appropriate moving target was picked for a dog early on, and then getting in place all the right training to control the dog's movements round this - we have the best chance of controlling our own collie's chase drives, too. It is also possible to retrain a collie off one moving but less appropriate target – like cyclists for instance – and on to another more legitimate one, over which you have far more control, like a ball. But it takes persistence.

Meanwhile, anyone who wants to know far more about the kind of control, focus and anti-chase training I have outlined for collies in this feature will find it covered in the SECOND book in my BORDER COLLIES: A BREED APART trilogy (ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS & LEARNING), which also further explains how you can redirect a dog off a 'wrong' chase target, and on to a more suitable one. And a more comprehensive insight into ‘working instinct’ and other genetic behaviours in collies appears in BOOK ONE - SECRETS OF THE WORKING MIND.
All text ©Carol Price 2025
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/?s=carol+price In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://4mymerles.com/collections/books In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html

06/02/2025

I am excited to announce that we will be the exclusive Australian retailer of quality dog and human gear from Hundlands Sweden. Pre orders are opened now. https://gameondogs.com.au/collections/hundlands

01/02/2025

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26/01/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/15aeRyBSyL/

11/01/2025

10/01/2025

FINAL DAY (hours really...😅) to purchase Stick in the ground weaves at discounted price!

28/12/2024

Game On Dogs acronym spelled backwards is DOG..😁

16/12/2024

Harley's Raffle Giveaway results are in!! Winners please post your selection of prize under this post only (first come first serve) 😊 & email us at [email protected] with your address. Congratulations to all the WINNERS & MERRY CHRISTMAS!

13/12/2024

Stick in the ground weaves are here! I LOVE them😍❤️❤️ - they turned out better than i had dreamed!
Channel weaves & Tyres have arrived as well🥳🥳🥳

02/12/2024

We were not going to do it again but Raffle King Harley insisted....at over 14 1/2 yrs, what Harley wants, he gets ❤❤❤ So for one FINAL time, he is going to preside over our annual RAFFLE GIVEAWAY ❤.
To enter, please comment under this, what you love most about your dog, the one defining characteristic that sets him above all else.😍 .
Thirty entrants with the most likes will go into a draw to win one of six prizes. ONE ENTRY per person. Raffle WINNERS will be announced on Monday 16th December.

30/11/2024

Even after successfully bringing up 6 working border collies and 2 Siberians, I still find her books a fascinating and educational read! Starting my 2nd read...I thoroughly recommend her books for owners of all dogs especially working breeds - https://www.facebook.com/share/19cX9p8A74/

TODAY OUR BREED EXPERT Carol Price is looking at:

BORDER COLLIE TRAINING - WHAT GOES WRONG AND WHY?

One of the greatest myths expounded about Border collies is that are always 'easy to train'. When what they really are, instead, is exceptionally fast learners. This means they can learn all the 'wrong' things just as rapidly as the 'right' ones, unless we more skilfully take control of this whole learning process in our dogs from as early on in their lives as possible.

Collies are also very speedy 'ingrainers'. In that once they have learned or discovered a particular type of behaviour that brings some reward for them, they may more stubbornly wish to retain it, or find it harder to abandon this preferred behaviour in favour of some newer one you may later want them to learn.

BREED VARIETY
Of course collies, as in all aspects of their behaviour, can vary greatly in how responsive they are to different types of training - and genetics can certainly play a part in this. In that dogs from some more classic Obedience, or other working lines, can often have a higher capacity for learning, or undertaking specific tasks, or just greater handler responsiveness in general. As well as a keener desire to both please and co-operate with a handler or owner.

But you can still never take this as a given when you get your own dog. Or imagine they will automatically be like any collie you have had before. Because some collies – as outlined in this feature – definitely can be more challenging to train, and if you have had this experience with a dog, it can help to try to better understand why.

SUPER-SENSITIVE DOGS
Some collies, for instance, can be exceptionally sensitive to any kind of mental pressure exerted by an owner - even if you may just class this yourself as 'encouragement' . The super sensitive dog is motivated predominantly by a desire to remain within a specific sensory comfort zone, and cannot cope too well when pushed too far beyond it.

Thus any form of louder, harsher or more pressurising voice tone or body language in training, or even just some more obvious sense of disapproval or disappointment displayed by you about their behaviour, may crush them or make them mentally shut down and withdraw from further interaction with you.

This is a reaction that so often gets interpreted by an owner as the dog just being 'stubborn' or ‘disobedient’. At which point they may try exerting even more pressure on them until the ‘shut down’ problem gets ever worse or more ingrained.

Dogs like these really need the lightest of touches in training, and the calmest and most sympathetic forms of handling. Everything they do is right, and clever, and gets your approval. It is just that some things - i.e. the things you want them to do most - are always more clever than others, and bring them the highest rewards. Dogs like these may also always thrive most being trained one-to-one, rather in a group training environment. But once you get the approach right, they really can be a joy to train.

CONTROL RESISTANT DOGS
One of the hardest type of collie to train – and which I have written about before on this page -is the dog more psychologically resistant to being controlled. I.e. dogs who are predominantly motivated by a desire to both exert and retain control, and never surrender this feeling of control, over their own actions or movements, to others.

For this reason, it always tends to be the exercises that require a dog to surrender control – to you - of their actions, movements or more personal agenda or space that cause the greatest levels of resistance; like down and stay or recall on command, or walking beside you more slowly on the lead. And the more you push, the more they may try to resist. They may also respond less well to being groomed or physically restrained in some way.

It is easy to get more frustrated with dogs like these. But often the problems you experience with them in later life date back to the very early basic building blocks of your training with them. Where you teach all puppies that responses like focus and co-operation will consistently bring them the highest rewards in life, and they are also given the opportunity to more actively choose these responses for themselves, rather than have them imposed on them with some greater sense of pressure. It is also important to realise that control resistant dogs cannot help the way they are psychologically wired, and are thus not acting from any more conscious sense of 'defiance' or refusal to 'respect' you.

They will always need a higher level of patience and persistence to train, as well as a constant reminding that whatever you ask them to do will carry far higher rewards for them than not doing it. Ultimately you just have to learn to think more like them, and work out what would most motivate you to do what someone else asked you to do if you had their kind of psychology. Which is actually a basic principle you should apply to the training of all dogs.

‘BAGGAGE’
Another really common reason for poorer responses to training in our dogs is the reality that we too often bring our own emotional/psychological baggage into the whole training process – often without realising it.

Things like our own lower sense of confidence, or – as previously outlined – a sense that our dog does not ‘respect’ us enough, or we may just be too impatient, unrealistic or too quickly frustrated, when it comes to what we expect from our dogs, given the quality of guidance we are giving them, or what they are more individually capable of delivering.

Either way, all these things can cause a more hostile or negative energy or ‘fog’ to build up around us, whenever we are trying to teach or get our dog to do something for us. Which can then lead to the dog also making far more negative associations themselves with the whole training process.

ALL ABOUT THE DOG
The greatest lesson I ever learned about training dogs is that it is all about what THE DOG needs, not YOU. So the more you can take all your own ego and baggage out of the equation, and just focus entirely on what your dog needs from you, to not only learn new things, but also LOVE doing them, the more successful your training will be. Because dogs will never love doing things that bring them little reward.

Also, never, ever assume that a dog should always ‘know’ what you want them to do. Some dogs will always take longer not just to learn things, but also retain what has been learned, so that their later responses to specific commands or exercises can become more reliable.

This feature has just given you some common examples of how a collie's innate psychology may clash with the way they are being trained. But there are so many other quirks of collie personality, or thought process, that can make your training fail for the same reason. These are all covered in far greater depth - along with more extensive advice on what to do about it - in BOOKS TWO (Essential Life Skills & Learning) and THREE (on Behaviour) of my BREED APART trilogy: :
All text ©Carol Price 2024
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/?s=carol+price In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://4mymerles.com/collections/books In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html

24/11/2024

Time to kick back & improve our understanding & bond with our dogs...

24/11/2024

When senior sheepdog, Sage came for a holiday, we gave her a "fitness bootcamp" experience😅
Applying the "Train Smart" philosophy of Flexiness, in just 2 weeks, here is what she achieved...