Sheep Ball Game

[beachdogz]

Saw this mentioned in a recent post, and I had to Google it because I had never heard of it.  I did a search on this site, but because of the nature of the search engine, I got too many results for "sheep"  "ball" and "game."  So I am asking this in a new post.  I am wondering if anyone who has been in the breed for years has any thoughts on this game and whether it is (or would be) beneficial, detrimental, or neutral for a dog to participate in this type of game. 

[Journey]

Anything you do with your dog, for the sake of doing things, I would think would be beneficial! That said, this "game" is absolutely useless for working dogs. 

[NCStarkey]

As Journey stated, any activity that you do with you dog is beneficial.  However, activities like "sheep ball" and "treibball" are just games.  Actual "herding" requires livestock.

nancy

[urge to herd]

I've no experience at all in working sheep with a dog. I have heard/read of border collies becoming fixated/obsessed with a particular object or pattern of behavior. In my very amateur opinion, at best the 'sheep ball' game would be neutral. Or the dog might need to be trained out of behaviors that it learned in 'sheep ball'. At worst, the dog might become fixated on playing sheep ball at every opportunity.   IMO, it would be risky.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

[beachdogz]

Thank you all.  I am not interested in pursuing it;  I was just curious as to how seasoned BC owners/trainers perceived it, since I had never heard of it.  Agility, Search Class and Barn Hunt keep us busy enough!  lol

[alligande]

Just another game you can play with your dog, as others have said despite using the terms that are used in working sheep it’s just another game. I would have no problem having a go for fun but I would not use herding terms as my dogs do occasionally get to work sheep recreationally and understand come by and away. 

[Meghan]

We've started playing this with our pup Bailey, just for fun. He loves it and it really tires him out, so we've found it's a great thing to have in rotation, particularly if the weather is terrible outside. It stimulates him mentally and physically and has improved his focus, so personally we've found it to be a good thing, as a fun game to enjoy with him.