Hi My 14 month old collie cross has a bad habbit of chasing cars, bikes and rounds people walking towards her or in the distances. She runs around them barking growling and trying to nip their ankles.
She becomes very fixated and if I call her as soon as she sees any of the above I have a 70% chance of getting her attention, but if I miss that oppurtunity she is off causing mayhem and havoc.
I have taken to taking a ball out and diverting her attention in chasing the ball, which by the way she will not bring back to me she picks it up and either takes it further away or just drops it and waits for me to walk to it and throw it again for her. This will work most of the time but she still will take off after a car if she feels like it.
I have asked the regular walkers to say no to her when she comes up and she will back off and come back to me, but those people who don't know her  seem to be fair game to her.

She is fine with people walking a dog and won't round them up just walkers and joggers seem to be her idea of a good time.

I have spoken to dog trainners who say keep her on the lead or just recently one said go right back to basics in the house and teach her to heel, sit, stay and wait.

Do you have any ideas what I can do. I am at my wits end and dread taking her to the park encase she scares any one.

This seems to be a common problem with dogs of collie breeding; hundreds of years of selective breeding to herd can't be undone overnight. Do you do any activities such as obedience or agility or flyball with her? It sounds as though she badly needs something to discipline her mind as well as exercise her body. I'm sure a collie expert will be able to help you.

Yes I know exactly what you mean - there is a point where they become fixated on the object to chase and no amount of calling is going to get her back.  You must train to get the focus on you - I am still doing it!  Get a new ball and only play with it at home.  Make it really exciting and interesting.  Have a special word when starting to play - get lots of treats to get her to bring it back.  Be consistant with training words - Fetch! Give! - Find your ball.  Play hide and seek with the ball at home and give treats when it is brought back.  Refine the retrieve when she starts bringing it back everytime.  Get her to sit and 'hold' before giving it.  Collies are excellent at training their owners by throwing the ball on the floor and waiting for you to pick it up.  When she plays well with the ball and brings it back take it out on the walks.  Call your word the instant you see something in the distance that is going to distract her and make yourself the most interesting thing around.  Praise and praise (and treat) for coming back.  I still don't let my dog off lead anywhere near traffic.  She is much better at ignoring people, bikes and runners now.  Oh and those throwing sticks that the ball fits on the end are excellent for giving a really long throw so the dog has to concentrate on where the ball lands and has to run fast to catch it.  Keep it interesting.  Hide the ball in your hands - pass it to someone else to throw - keep your dog on it's toes working.   Sorry to be long winded - this is what works for me.

Lots of very good articles on here.

http://www.dog-secrets.co.uk/behaviour--training/how-do-i-stop-my-dog-chasing.html

With chasing dogs, it's important to get the alternative right - eg a bird chasing collie may prefer frisbees or a ribbon on a stick. A terrier may adore a kong thrown in leaves to simulate a rat....and so on.

Think the problem here is not chasing it is attempting to round up and how you stop a collie rounding up I have no idea, we spent years breeding to produce a dog that would do just that so stopping it may well take years as well.

All I can suggest is to keep the dog on a lead until you are sure you have 100% recall, if that proves possible.

Agree with everyone else and in particular the behaviourist.

You need to not go back to basics it should be continual training sessions with your pup or rather adolescent :-) Your asking a dog to go completely against her instincts, it's not possible unless you divert her thoughts or find something else to use her instincts on i.e, balls, frisbee's etc.

Personally, anything with Collie in it, I would be getting her involved in agility, flyball, even the KC bronze, silver and gold will give you fun work to do with your girl, she needs to be doing something or she will quite rightly find her own entertainment. Chasing, rounding up and nipping the heals of bikes, dogs and people will become her outlets if you do not give her something else to do.

I would also keep her on a long line for her own safety as well as others, until you have her under control, she is at the worst stage of her life for disobediance, it is to be expected at this age and perhaps until she reaches 2 years of age, if she were my dog, we would be joining an agility class for her fun and training and be walking on a long line until she is fully mature and obediant. :-)

try this DVD Really Reliable Recall by Leslie Nelson, its great and my squirell chaser now comes back instantly if i call 'cheese' in a really high voice. it only took about a week to learn also.

As soon as I read the heading, I knew the breed before reading the post!  If I didn't give my BC the mental stimulation he needs, I expect he would be the same, he is born to herd.  I find that exercise alone is not enough, he needs to use his brain too.  I would be joining classes and getting into activities with him.

Thank you all for your advice. Tess and I  go to good K9 citizen trainning, where she plays with her lead most of the time or trying to trip me up etc. She sees that as a very good game. We have also done puppy kindergarten and basic obediance and I know she can do all the basic stuff if she really wants to but ususally she does not want to and it is a battle of wills.
The dog club say she is to young to start agility yet and so put us in the good K9 class.

So would you agree that not going for a walk is not a good idea as this will just make her bored at home

Citizen training is not enough to occupy the mind of a collie, try hide and seek games and tracking games in your own garden also lots of recall work. Have you said how old this pup is as if it is too young for agility it will be still a pup and perhaps should be having more concentrated work on obedience and any other exercise you can think of to help occupy her mind, a young pup should not be dashing round in circles anyway so using up the energy in training exercise would be a good thing.

try hide and seek games and tracking games in your own garden

Agree with Nova about the above.  My boy gets so satisfied when I hide something, especially if I'm crafty, and he can't get it out first time, so has to work out how I fitted it in.  Have to say, I love to see him working things out.  Really makes you realise that they are so clever.  I have really tried to outwit him at times, but they are pretty one track minded if determined to suss something out.  I get an awful lot of pleasure seeing his success.  I wasn't saying that they don't need the walks.  I was trying to get across that they need more than exercise.  Mental stimulation is what gives you a satisfied Collie.  When you say that she has basic obedience but only when she wants to, I guess she finds it boring.  Putting some excitement into it will help. 

She is 14 months old, and already gets very bored with basic obediance. Doing the same thing week in.

I will try hide and seek with her later and see how we get on. I have also just baught her a hoop launcher, a bit like a ball launcher but instead of a ball it has a plastic ring which can be launched and it bounces differently every time so it will make her have to watch it or she wont get it.
Thanks