i was watching my son and his team play football as the boys were warming up there were quiet a few people walking dogs some on leads some not there was a very friendly choc lab who wanted to play footy with the boys but as soon as the owner recalled him he went running back any way as the match started and the lads were getting into the full swing of the game there was a bloke with a gsd of his lead the dog came bounding over onto the pitch a lot of the kids stopped dead in there tracks the ref blew his whistle to stop play the owner of the gsd wondered over not a care in the world walked across the pitch didnt even call his dog back and carried on walking the dog then followed and play carried on!! i was just so amazed at the lack of responsibilty this owner showed he could clearly see there was a footy match going on and there were kids there some were scared of the dog and its just luck nothing bad happened!!

This a public park? Just wondered, cos here we have a tiny park where people love to take their dogs, but most days it is taken up by football games, which I must admit is very annoying at times. Peoples dogs do tend to run on now and then (including mine) when a ball accidently gets tangelled up in the area, but this cant really be helped as the park is so small and everyone has a right to have fun. Maybe the guy didnt notice there was a game?? lol, or maybe he didnt think his dog would respond to a recall so thought best he retrieved it instead? :)

One of my Beardies is ball obsessed which is good in one way she plays football with my son in the garden  and in the park it stops her from being interested in anything going on around her BUT if she is off lead and someone has a ball and we havent got hers shes a gonna, always have to be very observant in that situation and keep her on the lead ,she will run right across a massive field if someone has a ball because she wants to play too ,but people dont see it like that and get annoyed especially where children are and quite rightly so.This man must have seen them palying football from a distance away I think it was very inconsiderate of him.

Roni

Well I spent 5 weeks training and working on my rescue collie that was football obsessed. I had really started to make good progress and then one day I walked past a man and woman playing football near the goal posts. I called the dog back and they laughed at the way he stared at the ball. I briefly explained the above and carried on walking, really pleased that he had come with me. As we walked around again he ran towards the ball and glared at it. I called out to the woman to please not kick the ball while I went to get him. She asked if he was a youngster, I said yes, she ahhhhhhh'd and promptly kicked the ball for him! I was furious. It put us back weeks. I shouted at her thanks a lot and if he punctures her ball she had no one to blame but herself. Since then I have had to work doubly hard and he is now back up to where he was then. It is so infuriating when people just carry on kicking the ball. Not only does it reward the dog, but makes it impossible to get them to come back.

Oooooooo, I'm steaming again now................

yeah i can understand how angry you can get especially if you asked them not to kick the ball its hard enough to train dogs as it!! but this wasnt just a kick about it was a proper footy match with 22 playerys e,t,c on the pitch and it was quiet a big park with a footy pitch 1 side and an open field the other side so he could of at least kept his dog on the lead untill he got onto the open space of the empty field from the impression i got he seemed to think we shouldnt be there! it sounds like youve done a excellent job of training of training youre collie. :)

A few years ago, I took my dog out when there was a game on and he was not on the lead as he wasn't really interested in balls and didn't leave my side round the edge of the pitch. However as the players got a little rough and the ball got kicked to where we were and about 5 players chased after the ball, Barnie thought that these guys were going to attack me so his natural protective instincts came out and he was barking and growling at them, nearly bit one of them. I put him straight back on the lead and this player shouted abuse at me even though I was very apologetic. The referee booked the player for abusive language and said that as a public park, we had the right to walk around as we weren't interfeering with the game and told them to calm down.
Was I irrisponsible, I don't think so, as he did what dogs do and protect their owners.
Ever since then, if there was a game on, I either had him on the lead or went to a different area of the park. You don't know how they will react unless you try.
I would agree that if your dog has a ball fettish and you knew that he was going to try and get the football, keep them on the lead.

No good keeping them on the lead if you're trying to train them not to do it - in order to correct the unwanted behaviour and reward the more appropriate behaviour, you have to give them the opportuntity to make mistakes or the right decision. What you don't want is someone to reward them for chasing the ball, ie by them kicking it. I taught my collie that if he goes after the ball, it is picked up and all the fun stops. Most people will cooperate with this. When he comes back to me we have a game and so he has learnt me and the other collies are much more fun. He has gone from running the entire width of a park to get to a ball to walking right past one and hardly noticing it.

By the way, if you check out Agilitynet's home page and scroll down to the bottom, his story, I Spy, has been reported on the rescueme pages. Go to http://www.agilitynet.com/