Border Collie Play

[Gideon's girl]

How do your BCs play?

 

I had an Aussie/Golden(Buddy) with epilesy and terrible hips and a crabby 9 yr old JRT(Angel) when we got Gideon. He would entice the Aussie x to chase him and throw himself on the ground and roll, as if the Aussie x had actually caught him. With the JRT, he will lay on the floor and crawl over and paw and very gently mouth her. Now with Micah, the new BC pup, Gideon will go find a tug toy and drag it over Micah's head until he latches on, then Gideon will stand still and let Micah pull him. He even lets Micah win. He sort of temperment tests every dog he meets and changes his style of play to match.

 

I'd like to hear your stories.

[rufftie]

nova is not your average bc. she doesn't enjoy chasing a ball, frisbee or stick. she does love to wrestle and be chased by my other dog twitch, a bc x acd. she knows that twitch's favorite game is "dog with stick". twitch gets a stick and we all chase him around the yard. he loves that game!! nova knows he loves this game and will get a stcik and taunt him with it until he chases her. she promptly drops the stick and the chase begins.

[arf2184]

Meg is weird and confuses most other dogs.

 

First of all, she's very picky about who she plays with. She's gotten very good with meeting and greeting other dogs, but she only actually plays with a select few 'chosen ones' (usually other herding breeds). She can't handle dogs that are too hyper or vocal. She hides behind me (which is great because then I can body block the dogs that don't get the message).

 

Her most favorite dog in the world is Dharma, a Belgian shepherd that belongs to one of our trainers. Dharma was the first dog that Meg really connected with after she came to live with me. She got along with Bear from the start, but it was more like 'co-existing' rather than 'connecting'.

 

When Meg sees Dharma (or realizes that we're driving to Dharma's house), she gets very, very excited and wiggly. She greets Dharma by licking her chin and play bowing. From there things get a bit strange...Meg goes into a crouched position, rotates her butt around so that shes in line with Dharma, right in front of her, then she turns her head around and entices Dharma to play. She stays in front of Dharma and tries block Dharma when she tries to move in any direction and sometimes Meg backs into her. Dharma likes Meg, but she isn't fond of this particular 'play' so being the dignified older dog she usually tells Meg to knock it off with a little growl, which Meg responds to by lowering herself even further to the ground, but she still doesn't back off really. Dharma will either walk away and ignore Meg or give her another 'knock it off' growl. Only then will Meg usually change the game to chase or lite wrestling (if she doesn't, then I have to call her away from Dharma).

 

Bear is a toy/food guarder. Meg is very good about not touching toys that are close to Bear. When playing fetch, if other dogs are around she always lets the other dog get the toy. She tries to play chase with Bear, but he can't come close to keeping up and is usually quick to give up. With other dogs, Meg might entice them to chase her, but sometimes changes her mind when they actually do come after her and she comes to hide behind me.

[brady's mom]

Brady's kind of weird about playing, too. In fact, I call him "breedist" because he'll only play with herding-type dogs or dogs who have a similar play style (tag, tag, tag!) and they have to be just his size or smaller. Dogs that are bigger than him intimidate him. When he plays he can sound a little ferocious, which intimidates some dogs, but he's mostly just vocalizing his joy in finding a friend. He absolutely WILL NOT tolerate overly excitable dogs or dogs that chase him without an invitation to play. I've stopped going to the dog park all together because so many of the people who go nowadays have dogs that are just all over the place and rude; Brady kept getting into little tiffs and I just didn't want to push the envelope. In obedience class, he had a golden retriever friend named Annie who he just fawned over. There was also an ACD a few months younger than him that he absolutely adored.

 

Other than that, he's pretty much disinterested in other dogs. He'd much rather hang out and play with me.

[Duelles]

I got a 2 year old neutered male 2 years ago. He was the bottom of the pack of his mom and three sisters . . And did not work the sheep or cows. He is a great pet. Frizbie, and tug are favorites. He is very focused on me and this is good since he has such disdain for other dogs and will turn on them if they wish to play. There are very few dogs that do not inspire a growl and tiff. I have abandoned the dog park for this reason. I can control him with hand signals and keep him away from trouble for the most part, but who really wants dog fights - who knows how far another dog will take it.

Is there training techniques to avoid the personality conflicts with others? He is extremely good with people and children. Perhaps not typical of the breed.

[KatieP]

My poor 17 week old BC wants to play with our 3 adult cats and our other two older adult dogs who just think that she is a big pain in the rear.. Their attitude is "Kid go away you bother me"! Poor little girl, she is just so desperate to play with them. Once she calms down, she can play nicely with the grandchildren ages 20 months to 11 years. She wants to do what ever they are doing.. it's so cute.. If they dig in the sand box, she digs in the sand box, if they are on the swings, she is right there next the swing set.. They blow bubbles, she catches them. She does not retrieve as of yet, it's more of a game of come and get me, but she will chase a ball, stick, frisbe, just about anything you throw.. She also makes her own toys.. a plastic bottle tossed over and over again in the air.. she plays soccer with the big ball and will kick it all around the yard with her front legs and chase after it.. She's very smart. She knows it will roll down hill and will take it to the top and let it go and chase it going down.. I am so intrigued watching her play. We are on our 4th big ball because eventually she pops them. These dogs are just so so smart.. it amazes me daily. Sleeping now under my chair after a hard morning of play.

[geonni banner]

Mine plays with both my cats. They get the zoomies twice a day and it's just bedlam. She and my half-grown kitten usually come and play king-on-the-mountain on top of me when I wake in the morning. She likes most dogs - not Husky types - and plays tag. She loves Frisbee, ball, Wubba, stuffies (she has 20 or so of those and will fetch them by name) and will play chase the string like a cat. She swims with her dog friends and wrestles with both her dog and cat friends.