Game On Dogs

19/04/2025

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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.

15/04/2025

Having multiple sports dogs from active to retired, I cannot recommend this supplement enough!

14/04/2025

Hundlands Preorders have arrived! Dispatch tomorrow..

11/04/2025

Simply BRILLIANT!
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BATTLING THE ‘CHASE GENIE’ – AND CAN YOU EVER STOP COLLIES CHASING CARS?

Our breed expert Carol Price writes: Recently a follower contacted us about a more serious car chasing problem she was experiencing with her year old female BC: “I have had collies all my life,” she says, “and it’s never really been that big a problem in the past. I’ve also had a rescue boy with this habit which it didn’t take too long to train him out of, but with this girl, whom we’ve had since she was 10 weeks old, it really is on another level. She’s not afraid of cars, has had no bad experiences of them and travels quite happily in a car, but whenever she sees them in passing traffic she just wants to lunge out at their wheels. I’ve tried working with treats and trying to get her focused on me instead. I’ve tried sitting watching traffic with her from a distance. I’ve tried reassuring her, but nothing seems to work – she still remains totally focused on lunging at the traffic and just wondered if you had any suggestions that may help.”

This can be such a common problem in collies – but why does it happen, and what can you do about it? Well it can certainly help to far better understand the mental and genetic mechanics behind the behaviour.

WHY CAR CHASING HAPPENS
The first thing I’d like to say, on this front, is that dogs see the world less in longer sequences of logic, like us, and instead in terms of different ‘picture’ experiences, which then trigger their subsequent responses. And thus the ‘picture’ this lady’s dog will have filed in her head of entering a static car and potentially then travelling somewhere pleasant in it for a walk is likely to be very different to the one she will have made of the same object travelling rapidly towards her or past her at eye level, whilst also making a fair amount of noise. It becomes something entirely different and which, on a purely instinctive level, triggers the predatory/chasing drives of the sheepdog. The dog wants to pursue the object flying towards them or past them, or stop it if they can.

There is often very little ‘fear’ involved. It is just a behaviour that is actually more of a compulsion; the repetition of which constantly ‘self-rewards’ the dog’s brain, and that’s why it can also, very quickly, become highly addictive for them, to the extent where they are unable to focus on anything else once traffic – or anything else moving that rings the same reward bell in their head – enters their sights.

PREVENTING THE ADDICTIVE CYCLE
By far the best approach to this problem is to never let it take root in your dog in the first place. And while this may sound simplistic, it really does help to assume, from earliest puppyhood, that your collie could be a traffic chaser. Collie puppies should be exposed to moving traffic from the earliest age – I take my own out to begin experiencing moving traffic, for instance, from around 4 to five weeks of age, every day. Carrying them in my arms, and letting them be exposed to it to the point where it becomes some more normal background life feature they are better able to mentally filter out.

Teaching a really reliable ‘leave it!’ command to puppies, from as early as possible, can also greatly help. Where basically you condition your dog to leave or move away from anything else they are about to approach, in return for high rewards. Similarly getting a puppy to do something else rewarding for you – like play with a toy or have a treat – in the presence of moving traffic around them also helps them build a better ‘filter’ to it.

Ultimately collies need our help, rather than our anger or frustration, to better get on top of instincts and compulsions that have been more deliberately bred into them as working dogs, for generations. They cannot overcome them by themselves. They also cannot exist in a vacuum. In that if you do not want them to focus their innate instincts or drives as sheepdogs on to traffic, you must find something else far more positive for them to direct them on to instead – like a specific training toy.

RETRAINING THE OLDER DOG
Collies can be so different in terms of how quickly they may develop a traffic chasing habit, and how obsessive, or compulsive, this habit then becomes in them. And very often it can happen before an owner even realises the nature of the future problem already brewing in their dog. But ultimately, once the ‘chase genie’ has been allowed to escape out of a collie’s mind, direct itself on to the wrong thing, and then turned this into a more highly compulsive and rewarding pattern of behaviour, it can be so much harder to stop. It can still be done, but it will take far more in the way of time and training to do so. Beginning with far better anti-chase training and focus work, as outlined in my books. There is also a link here to a previous post on this subject, on misdirected chase behaviour in collies, which may be useful to some followers as well.
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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

10/04/2025

Is your dog a resource guarder? Find out why & how best to deal with it here: https://www.facebook.com/share/1EQNUAk6CA/

TODAY OUR BREED EXPERT Carol Price revisits the important subject of resource guarding behaviour in BCs; why does it happen, and what can you do about it?

FOOD AND RESOURCE GUARDING/AGGRESSION IN BORDER COLLIES

Food or other resource guarding can be one of those behaviours that greatly concern owners, or even take them by surprise, as the ‘inner wolf’ in their dog seems to suddenly burst to the surface, with a more aggressive impulse to ‘protect their stuff’.

The items they wish to more strongly protect can be anything from food and toys and bedding to more strategic bits of household territory (like the front door area, hallway or stairs) or even their own owners, when they are too closely approached by other dogs or people – including other family members.

For owners may often not realise that they, themselves, represent one of the most valuable resources any dogs has; a veritable vending machine of life, which provides them with everything else they need to function and thrive. This is why they may seek to more aggressively stop others from getting access to you. Behaviour that can commonly be viewed as a dog just being more ‘jealous’ or ‘protective’ of them instead.

Depending on how frequently the guarding problem occurs, however, and how serious the aggression accompanying it becomes, dogs like these can be pretty hard to live with, and may even start using just the threat of aggression to bully visitors or other household members around; their confidence to do so growing each and every time this tactic proves successful for them.

IN THE GENES
Some dogs may only try to bully or guard their ‘stuff’ from other dogs in this way, and not owners or other people as well, but either way, having seen this behaviour so often in different dogs, over the years, there is no doubt in my mind that it has a strong genetic component. In that dogs will either have the instinct, or impulse, to mount a more aggressive defence of resources or territory in the presence of others or they won’t. Though the problem can also be greatly exacerbated or escalated through the way owners handle it (more on this later).

It is also not just a problem that can be found in collies. It can be found in many other breeds too - even those not otherwise thought to have aggressive tendencies. In certain breeding lines of Golden retriever or Cocker spaniel today, for instance, food or resource aggression has become a pretty serious issue. As if a flick suddenly switches on in the more primal part of the dog’s brain, inspiring more ferocious aggression around resources of a kind that may often seem more out of character for the dog concerned, in that they normally behave in a far more good natured way.

Either way, I would never personally want to own a dog with these guarding aggression tendencies, nor breed from one who had ever had dogs with them in their past lines. It is always better to own a dog who does not have these tendencies, than to have to keep constantly more alert to them, and try to better control them, for the rest of a dog’s life.

EARLY SIGNS
You can often see the very first signs of a future resource guarder in any litter of young puppies, roughly around the time they are being weaned on to more solid food, which they will share together. And the pup with potential future guarding issues tends to be the one who begins growling or snapping if another puppy edges too close to them when feeding.

A wise breeder at this point promptly removes that aggressive puppy from collective feeding with the others, and begins feeding them separately. If only to stop the habit becoming more ingrained in young dogs through being consistently rewarded – i.e. other pups backing off food when aggression is shown. Or this type of behaviour going on to spread to other puppies.

As humans we may see eating with others as a civilised process with more set social etiquettes. But for dogs it can be very different and a potentially far more competitive process, where anything you cannot hold on to will get taken by others. Then the same mindset can get switched on to other important resources later, as already outlined.

ESCALATING THE PROBLEM
It is frighteningly easy to make any resource guarding behaviour in a dog far worse through the way you handle it. Owners, for instance, may view a dog’s aggression round their food bowl as a sign they are more consciously choosing to be nastier, or less ‘respectful’ or even ‘grateful’ towards them. As opposed to just acting on a more inherent impulse. So they may try to challenge the dog back over possession of their resources in a more hostile way, or even physically punish them for using aggression.

Or they may try to more forcefully remove from a dog’s mouth, or immediate possession, something they have taken and want to keep for themselves. Instead of just teaching them a basic ‘give’ command, where the dog is always consistently and highly rewarded for giving anything back to you on command, through their own choice. Just this simple bit of training alone can minimise so much future conflict between owner and dog. Whereas all more heavy handed tactics do is ramp up in the dog's mind the true level of threat others pose around their 'stuff', and make them even keener to guard it next time.

WHAT TO DO
If you have a dog who shows aggression around a food bowl for the first time, what you should really do is back off and leave them and not force any bigger confrontation. Then resolve for ever more that your dog will not be fed this way again. Instead, put your dog's empty food bowl on the floor and ask them to sit. Then place one piece of food in it for them to eat. Praise them for eating this without any hostility. Then move on to the next bit of food and the next, one bit at a time, praising your dog each time for showing no hostility.

If there are any even vague signs of hostility, simply stop feeding your dog immediately. Wait until the next mealtime to repeat this process. Eventually your dog should learn that not only are you a rewarding, rather than more threatening, presence around their bowl, but the more well behaved they are when you feed them, the more they get to eat.

When it comes to other things like toys, bones, or sofas a dog may try to guard aggressively from others, the question has to be asked as to why you would continue allowing any dog access to these flashpoint items at will, when you do not have to. For no dog can guard what they are not allowed access to. Whether this includes a specific part of the house, or a particular household member. If you have a dog that will not allow other dogs – or people - to approach a more particular household member, banish the offending dog from the room the instant they behave more aggressively. Keeping a bit of line on the dog if necessary to do so, rather than just grab them by the neck or collar, which may trigger a more defensive response.

This feature has only been able to touch the surface of resource guarding in dogs, why it occurs and what you should do about it. However food, resource and territorial guarding issues in collies, and the training you need to do to better limit it, are covered more fully in BOOKS TWO (ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS & LEARNING - red cover) and THREE (BEHAVIOUR - INSIGHTS, ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS - green cover) of my BORDER COLLIES: A BREED APART trilogy.
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

04/04/2025

Flexiness, forever innovativating for our dogs well-being! https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18f1k3ycFc/

29/03/2025

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27/03/2025

For the next 3 days...🙂

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.

17/03/2025

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15/03/2025

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Today our breed expert, Carol Price, looks at a vital area of training for all collie owners

FOCUS TRAINING – The key to all better management, control and bonding with your dog

Of all the things it is most vital to teach any Border collie, from day one, focus training comes top of the list. For without an ability to both secure, and hold, your dog's attention on command, you cannot teach them anything else of value, or get them to follow an instruction from you, whenever needed, even in the face of many other surrounding distractions.

Every day I see dogs – and not just Border collies – totally incapable of keeping still or just focusing on an owner, or any instructions they may give them, for more than a fleeting nanosecond. And usually this is down to just a total lack of earlier training, when dogs need to learn how to far better discipline their own minds, and master ever greater levels of concentration. Because neither of these abilities just come naturally to dogs. They have to be consistently taught and consistently rewarded, as this feature will outline.

HARNESSING A NATURAL INSTINCT
Collies are also natural fixators. In that they are usually driven to seek some target on which to direct more intense visual and mental focus. In their working roles this will be livestock. But in the absence of that, you need to ensure that this natural instinct gets primarily directly on to you, instead, whenever you ask, as it is the best way to keep maximum control over your dog's future behaviour.

Failing to both secure and hold this focus more reliably, on the other hand, will mean your dog either has ever poorer levels of concentration, or responsiveness towards your commands, or their focus, like a genie out a bottle, will escape elsewhere instead, on to any number of other fixations, obsessions or distractions that the dog learns to find far more compelling and rewarding than listening to you. Or both of these things together.

Focus training is also the best way to build that all important ‘working bond’ with your dog, which starts the process of you always engaging together as a team. Once again, too many collies I see are just totally disengaged from their owners when out on walks; hellbent on doing their ‘own thing’ while owners follow some distance behind. Or alternatively they will be constantly pressurising their owners into being their personal ball throwing machines. Which is actually pretty much the same as doing their own thing; them setting the agenda, and an owner complying with what they want them to do. Instead of you and your dog having that much more of a two-way relationship, built on mutual reward and respect.

STARTING YOUNG
Although better focus responses can be taught to Border collies at any age, it is always best to begin this training as early as possible, before - as just highlighted - your dog ever has the chance to find other things far more rewarding to fixate on than you.

I begin this kind of training with my own puppies from around a month old onwards, when they soon learn that responding to a voice command and hand signal to ‘watch me’ (see a bit later) is the source of all the best things that happen in their lives – from toys and treats and attention and games to daily meals. It is just so vital to make that link in dogs’ minds between focusing on you, when asked, and intense subsequent rewards, from the earliest age.

With your own puppy, or even older dog, you can still do the same training to ever increase your dog’s levels of focus and concentration. Beginning with some very tasty treats. Show these to your dog in your hand, then put your hand up to your face - as per my illustration - with a finger pointed up between your eyes. This means that in watching the treat in your hand, your dog is also looking up into your eye area. As they do this, say the words 'watch me'. Initially praise then reward your dog immediately for watching you in this way. Then gradually move on to trying to get your dog to ‘watch’ you this way for ever longer periods of time - i.e. up to 10 or 15 seconds - before praising and rewarding them.

Where most people go wrong is in always rewarding their dog too quickly for watching them, rather than more gradually drawing out the length of time they must focus for before being rewarded. So if, say, you always reward your dog for just one or two seconds of watching you, one or two seconds of their attention is all you will ever get before they will then expect their reward. And may become fidgety and distracted again if they don't get it. They also never get the chance to master ever greater concentration and mental control.

As well as focusing on you for ever longer periods, when asked, you also need to work up to your dog learning to still focus on you, when asked, from ever further distances away from you.

PRAISE THEN REWARD
It is also very important to PRAISE your dog fulsomely FIRST for focusing on you, and THEN give them the reward – i.e. treat or toy. As this means eventually that praise itself will become a sufficient reward for them, because of its past constant association with more positive things. Although you should still intermittently give your dog treats or toys after praise, for good focus behaviour and responses, to keep these continually reinforced.

If however you always give your dog a reward first, before praising them, they may get into the habit of refusing to focus on you until they see a toy or treat in your hand first.

Always begin focus training at home, where there are fewer distractions. Then, as your dog's focus responses get ever stronger and more reliable, you can gradually up the level of surrounding distraction your dog has to screen out while still watching you. Including when you go out.

‘Watch me’ and better focus training in general can also have so many other future benefits, from calming your dog down from more excitable behaviour to making it far easier to take a picture of them, as they no longer have the same inhibition about looking more directly into your eye area when you ask.

FOCUS TRAINING WITH TOYS
You can also use favourite toys to elicit ever better focus responses in your dog. Again, when initially teaching this, let your dog see the toy in your hand, and bring it up to your face with your finger pointing up (as in our illustration). In order to get their toy, the dog must then first 'watch you' for however long you ask. Make your dog watch you first always, like this, for some seconds before praising them and then throwing the toy for them.

As a rule, always make your dog watch you first, for some seconds (e.g. 5 to 10 or even more) before giving them anything pleasant like a treat or a meal. Ultimately your dog will learn that focusing on you, on command, is the key to getting anything more rewarding in life. Which will make this behaviour ever more of a chosen habit in your dog, even when you do not ask them to watch you.

Dogs who are generally more nervous, or less confident, about making more direct eye contact with people will need to be trained with much more patience, making progress in length of 'watch' times far more gradual.

Meanwhile far more on the whole subject of focus training in Border collies, different focus exercises, and how you can use better focus to improve all kinds of training in your dog, appears in book TWO of my BREED APART trilogy: ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS & LEARNING.

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

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!
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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