Lucy Playing Treibball (herding ball or push ball) in the house

Lucy demonstrates her natural ball handling skills on a rainy day for this new competitive dog sport from Germany that is making the rounds. I guess the border collie side of her is coming out! I experiment with different value treats to see their impact on her enthusiasm and focus.

Here's a video on how to train it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCjo9knehw0

For a full game, 8 balls are placed in a field and the dog must push them to the goal where the handler waits) in a 15 minute time limit. Great fun and exercise for all dogs, big and small. All you need are some yoga balls shoulder to head height of your dog.

Here's a link to the rules.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5839548/treibball_a_new_dog_sport_fr...

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• treibball
• herding ball
• push ball
• border collie
• nanaimo
• bc canada
• north
• america

[azmauigirl]

Great ideas! My 2 dogs love to play soccer, herding, whatever with any ball they can find, but unfortunately it has to be a hard basketball type of material. They have quickly punctured all other balls, even those used by horses with an outer lining of protection. We did just find a great lightweight ball that so far seems to be hard enough not get get puntured for any one else interested. It is sold at Target for kids, some (not ours) had the snow globe effect inside. So far so good!

[supernaturalbc2009]

@azmauigirl Thanks for the tip. I get all kinds of people asking what kind of ball it is and where to get it. I've also suggest beach balls for smaller dogs. it really is aboutt aking the time to teach the dog that nose pushes and shoulder pushes are the only thing that gets rewarded. Lucy tended to want to use her paws. Jessie wanted to bite it. A few extra training sessions for just 'push' and never rewarding paws or bites has helped alot!

[corgiman23]

What type of ball are you using? Sorry if it is an actuallly called a treliball do know what those are. My corgi loves to "heard" his jollyball around the yard like this he would do it all day if I let him quite funny to watch too.

[supernaturalbc2009]

@corgiman23 It's a yoga ball, one that is used for core exercises or to sit on at the computer.

[azogal53]

Love your videos, Donna. Really nice and looks like so much fun -- but my little dog would have a hard time interacting with the ball.

[supernaturalbc2009]

@azogal53 I am curious why? If its the size, choose a smaller soft ball that is between shoulder and head high for your dog. I used the clicker to shape the desired behaviors of push, around. Lucy would actually prefer to paw it. Jessie plays too but has her own style. She does more nose butting and no herding. She'd prefer to bite it but I reward only for the push. It's a great game even if you only use it as shaping practice starting with you holding it between your legs.

[glaplante1]

Our border collie, Mica, LOVES push ball! Great video and thanks for sharing!

[azmauigirl]

I wish I had known earlier about breakng it down because Maui started the biting the day after I brought her home at 8 weeks. We were so new to all of this, and she was going after a soccer ball padded, etc. about 3 feet diameter, huge in comparison. She was soooo cute, You know the drill. Then exactly one week later, POP! Couldn't believe it. No success, yet, in distinguishing the biting. But perhaps you have some tips?

[elisahafdis]

she is so cute :)

[Rickyagility]

I think Ricky would love this! Thanks for the idea!