Game On Dogs

21/11/2025

Santa Paws is coming to town! Shop our top picks for dog lovers and spread the slobbery, snuggly love this Christmas

Game on dogs, where our passion for dogs is reflected in our products. We have the largest selection of quality dog toys, training gear, books and dvds for performance dogs in Australasia.

21/11/2025

What a great Christmas gift idea!!https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C2mBJVWYc/

16/11/2025

Black Friday Special

Game on dogs, where our passion for dogs is reflected in our products. We have the largest selection of quality dog toys, training gear, books and dvds for performance dogs in Australasia.

07/11/2025

Luxe thinks the dispatch department is boring...😜

20/10/2025

📦🐾 Luxe Joins the Dispatch Team!
Our newest working Border Collie is now overseeing order dispatch—with precision, paws, and plenty of tail wags. Expect your parcels with a touch of collie magic!❤❤❤

03/10/2025

LOVE my Hundlands tights.....& vest, jacket...in fact, all HUNDLANDS products have been BRILLIANT!❤❤💖

Marching into the weekend!
FAVE tights goes Abbey Road goes Hundlands
When you get an idea and just have to try it.

01/10/2025

Add a splash of sunshine to your training gear ☀️✨ The Voila Mini Treat pouch already has that chic, compact charm—and now with fresh summer hues...! Think juicy berry tones, breezy pastels, or maybe even bold aqua pops?

Game on dogs, where our passion for dogs is reflected in our products. We have the largest selection of quality dog toys, training gear, books and dvds for performance dogs in Australasia.

25/09/2025

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18/09/2025

Back in stock....🥰

10/09/2025

Introducing the world’s first airtight sealable treat pouch, thoughtfully designed with a spring-assisted wide-mouth opening for easy access.

Introducing the world’s first airtight sealable treat pouch, thoughtfully designed with a spring-assisted wide-mouth opening for easy access. This product comes with: Pre-installed Adventure ClipSturdy and adjustable Ultimate BeltCustom-designed carabiner Oil-based lubricantMade of food-grade, BPA...

08/09/2025

Just when we thought the NSW Agility State Titles could not get more perfect, little Ninja (future agility champion😍) "jumped" into our day!😁 Isn't he just the cutest!!?❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Game on dogs, where our passion for dogs is reflected in our products. We have the largest selection of quality dog toys, training gear, books and dvds for performance dogs in Australasia.

03/09/2025

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THE CHALLENGES OF THE GROWING COLLIE MIND

Today our breed expert Carol Price looks at the art of keeping young collie puppies suitably occupied – and mentally balanced

One of the commonest things you will hear about a young collie puppy, once they go to a new home, is that they can be ‘very demanding’. When they are really just acquiring an ever keener hunger for mental stimulation and occupation as they grow. Much of the previous stimulation they had also came from playing with their littermates, so you are now going to have to fill the social/emotional gap this has left behind in their lives.

Young collie puppies will always be wanting to explore and ‘test’ things, including new sensory, social and environmental experiences, in order to learn what they need to learn about life. They will also seek to test YOU. And discover what boundaries exist – or not – in the nature of their relationship with you, and what they can or cannot do. So it’s very important to decide, from the off, what your own boundaries are going to be (including where a puppy can and cannot go in the home) and relentlessly keep these in place.

WHAT PUPPIES MOST CRAVE
The things the young collie brain craves most are novelty, interaction and a chance to try to solve some new problem. Or just pursuits that bring them more instant rewards.

Owners often think that if they put a lot of new fancy toys in a pen with a puppy – as shown here – they will keep them occupied for hours. But the novelty of any new toy for a collie puppy can wear off very quickly. Plus it is some interaction with a toy – i.e. you moving it, or playing with it with them – that they will invariably find far more rewarding than just the toy itself. So save your money and give them things instead like old socks or plastic bottles or different bits of cardboard packaging, until they are old enough to better appreciate more expensive toys. (That said – some never do!)

If you fill a plastic bottle with treats and scrunch the bottle up so they cannot come out easily, and the puppy has to work a lot harder at getting them out, this can keep a collie puppy busy for some while, and also pique their interest in solving problems. You can do the same with smaller, puppy sized Kong toys.

PLAY
Also always, always make regular time for play with your pup. It is the basis of all early bonding with a dog, and also the foundation for all later training. The most important earliest lesson any collie puppy can learn is that focusing on, and interacting and cooperating with you, are the most rewarding things they can do in life.

ROUTINE
Another vital measure with any young collie puppy is to give them a set daily routine from day one. I.e. there will be set times when they will be fed, when you will take them out (carrying them if they have not finished their jabs), when you will interact and play with them and work on basic training but also set downtimes when they must rest and/or sleep. Similarly a set bedtime.

It is the lack of such a more recognised routine that keeps puppies in a far more agitated, restless and whiney state; never knowing what is going to happen or when.

WHY PUPPIES BECOME ‘HYPER’
Collie puppies can become ‘hyper-aroused’ very quickly. And this is just the nature of the breed and how their whole neurochemistry works. The more hyper and excited they become, the more likely they are to nip and the harder you might find it to wind them down again as, just like human toddlers, they have very poor regulation over their emotional states at this age.

Typically collie pups become more hyper-aroused through too much exciting play, and it is very important to recognise the beginning of them heading for this more ‘manic’ mental state and put them somewhere quiet to wind down again before it gets much worse. Also, mental tasks – like looking for bits of food in the garden – or doing some basic training exercises makes puppies far more tired than any amount of physical activity.

PUSHING OUR BUTTONS
Collie puppies can also become very adept, very quickly, at pushing our buttons, and discovering that if they whine and bark when left, say, in another room from you, you are likely to come back. It is important not to let this habit take hold by continually rewarding it. If it is ‘settling down’ time your puppy has to learn that you will not return until they have settled down. It is also very important to keep praising your puppy and giving them attention when they are being quiet and settled instead.

These are just some basic pointers for better surviving the earliest months with your new collie pup. Meanwhile absolutely everything you need to know about raising, training and socialising collie puppies appears in BOOK THREE (red cover) of my ‘Breed Apart’ trilogy – ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS & LEARNING.

All text ©Carol Price/Collieology 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