Chasing Games, eg catching ball etc

[noscat]

I posted here a few weeks ago about my lovely new rescue dog and the problems of getting her to accept the cats. We're now nearly a month on and although things have improved slightly, we still have a long way to go. I read on the leaflet provided to me by dog's trust on socialising dogs and cats that I shouldn't play any "chasing" games with my dog during the training period. Oh dear... ball games are one of her favourite things. As our morning walk is really early we rarely see other dogs to play with, so I tend to take out a ball & stick with me so she can get a decent run - is this making her chasing instinct worse? If I don't take a ball she will chase birds and squirrels anyway.... But for the last couple of days I have left the ball at home and she does seem much calmer and less inclined to bark at them. What should I do? If any one has any advice I'd be very grateful.

I have collies who LOVE nothing more than to chase. Many years ago I was advised by a very experienced collie owner and trainer to work with their chase instinct and get them to focus on chasing and retrieving balls rather than cats, squirells, birds, planes, cars etc,etc. Both my adult collies loved chasing balls and ignored other moving things as a result. Collie pup is being trained to focus on chasing balls at the moment and it seems to be working. I think you are lucky to have a dog who is "in to" his toys because it should help with his training. Hopefully, Valhalla or Minimu will come along and advise.

thank you WoodRose - as i type this she is frantically chasing a fly around the kitchen - I am extremely grateful for the fact that she loves her toys as it's a brilliant way to get rid of her excess energy - I'm hoping that the dog's trust advice is based on training with the cats that only takes a couple of days rather than months. I don't think i can possibly deprive her of her beloved ball for too long!

You are lucky if she is a chaser you can train her to correct chasing with her ball.

The idea being if you can call her off her ball or get her to leave it when you have thrown it you can do the same with her chasing cats, joggers etc.

So start with "leave it" it depends on what control she has at the minute. If yo put the ball on the floor tell her to leave it and if she goes to get it put your foot on the ball. Do it again and if she does leave it give her a yummy treat (yep I know not as good as the ball but we will build up to that!). Build this up to rolling the ball past her, bouncing it at her, throwing it over her head, lobbing it up the field etc.

Got to dash now but will be back later to expand on this but I hope this give you the idea. You will get to a stage where you can throw a ball they dog will start to chase it and then you will call them off that ball and onto another one. So when IF they chase a rabbit etc you can call them back

thanks Mimimu1, I am trying the "leave it" command at the moment just trying to get her to drop the ball so I can pick it up again and throw it in the field, we have a bit more success in the back garden where there are less distractions. I do love the fact that she will retrieve a ball - both my previous dogs would happily chase and catch but would never bring them back again, so I appreciate how lucky I am. And that's nothing to do with my training... which hopefully starts next week