Best Herding Ball for Old English Sheepdogs: Sizing | CollieBall
- huckleberry
- 3 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated July 2026
The best herding ball for an Old English Sheepdog is the 37-inch CollieBall ($104.50). It's too big for the OES to grip, tough enough for a 70-plus-pound drove dog to lean into, and paced right for the bear-of-a-shepherd the breed was built to be.
An Old English Sheepdog doesn't want a ball it can carry. It wants one it has to move. Under all the coat, the OES is a working drove dog bred to move stock over English farmland, and the drive is still there. This guide walks through the size that fits, the durability the breed asks for, and how a real herding ball for dogs differs from the round toys sitting on most pet-store shelves.
Why Most Dog Toys Fail Old English Sheepdogs
A tennis ball ends an OES session the moment the mouth closes. A frisbee spikes the neck on a dog that already has to carry the weight of a heavy coat, and a hard-plastic exercise ball splits inside a month once a 75-pound herding dog gets a paw or a tooth into it. None of those toys respect what an Old English Sheepdog actually is: a big, coated, driving dog that was bred to move livestock, not chase a ball back to your hand.
The whole point of the breed is push, not fetch. A dog bred to drive cattle across a hill wants pressure on something that keeps moving away, and that only works if the toy is genuinely too big for the mouth. Give a 70-pound Beardie a 5-inch ball and you have taught it to carry, not to work. Give it a 30-inch ball it cannot pick up, and every drive it has goes into shoulder, chest, and paw.
What an Old English Sheepdog Actually Needs in a Herding Ball
The ball has to be too big to grab. An OES has a broad muzzle and a strong jaw, and 22-inch is not enough diameter to force a full-body push on most adult Beardies. 30-inch is the sweet spot for a 60 to 80 pound dog; 37-inch is the honest pick for a 90-pound-plus working male. Under-sizing an Old English Sheepdog turns the ball into a chew toy, and a chew toy is not a herding ball.
The cover has to survive a coat full of mud, dew, and matted undercoat. Old English Sheepdogs bring the whole yard home with them, and a nylon cover pills into a rag inside a season. Ballistic fabric — the same class of material used on tactical bags — holds up to grit dragged through it by that coat, which is why the CollieBall shell keeps working long after a cheap exercise ball would be in the trash.
The inner has to be replaceable. Even a well-mannered OES will eventually get through a bladder — a stray tooth through a zipper, a claw catch, the honest wear of a 70-pound dog pushing a ball for a year straight. A one-piece hard ball ends there. A double-zip shell with a needle-valve bladder is a five-minute repair, and the outer keeps going.
The Right Herding Ball for Old English Sheepdogs
The CollieBall is the herding ball for dogs, on the market since 2021 and built specifically for what an OES needs: a shell too big to grab, a cover tough enough to survive a coat that carries half the yard, and a bladder you can replace instead of retire. The 30-inch CollieBall at $81.00 is the honest pick for the typical 60 to 80 pound Beardie.
If you have an unusually heavy Beardie above 80 pounds, or a working-line dog with a taller frame, step up to the 37-inch CollieBall. If your OES is a smaller female or a young dog still under 55 pounds, the 22-inch is a reasonable starter — but plan to size up as the dog fills out.
Working Beardie vs Show Beardie — Same Dog, Bigger Ball
Old English Sheepdogs come in show-line and working-line variants, and unlike some breeds the physical spread is real: a working-bred OES from a farm line is lighter through the coat, tighter in the shoulder, and often 5 to 10 pounds heavier through the chest than a show-ring dog at the same height. Both were selected on the same driving instinct, and both work the ball with the same shoulder-first push.
The 30-inch sizing is right for both lines at typical weight. Working-line males routinely hit 85 pounds and past — that is where the 37-inch earns its slot. A show-line female at 60 pounds under a full coat still gets everything she needs from the 30-inch. When in doubt between 30 and 37, go up: a slightly big ball forces a full-body push, and that is the whole point.
Get the Right CollieBall for Your Old English Sheepdog
For most owners: the 30-inch CollieBall at $81.00 is the pick. It fits the 60 to 80 pound band that covers the majority of the breed, holds up to the coat, and is small enough to store in a garage between sessions. Heavier working dogs and 90-pound-plus males step up to the 37-inch. Compare every size in the full CollieBall lineup if you want to see them side by side.
Sizing Your Old English Sheepdog
The AKC breed standard puts Old English Sheepdogs at 60 pounds minimum for females and 21 inches at the shoulder minimum for males — most well-conditioned Beardies land between 60 and 85 pounds, with working-line males occasionally past 100. Weigh the dog under the coat if you can; owners routinely overestimate an OES by 8 to 10 pounds because of the fluff. A weight under 55 pounds is either a young dog or a genuinely small female — 22-inch bridges you until it fills out. See the AKC Old English Sheepdog breed standard for the full picture, and use the interactive sizer above to confirm.
The complete size guide for every dog lays out every band next to every breed if you want a cross-reference — the OES sits in the same 30-inch bracket as the Aussie and the Kelpie, and steps up to 37-inch faster than most breeds because of coat and frame.
5 Things a Real Herding Ball Gives Your Old English Sheepdog
1. A Job That Uses the Herding Instinct
An OES without something to work on will invent a job. Usually that job involves rearranging the sofa cushions, herding the kids toward the door, or nosing the cat into a corner. A herding ball gives that instinct a place to land: a moving thing the dog cannot pick up, cannot carry, and cannot end by mouthing. That is a real job for a working-bred brain.
2. Real Physical Load, Not Just Legs
Chasing a tennis ball is a leg workout. Pushing a 30-inch ball with the shoulder and chest for fifteen minutes is a full-body workout — shoulder, hip, core, and paw all under load. That matters for an OES, because a bored, under-worked Beardie carries the frustration home and puts it into furniture. A working session ends the same way a hill day ends: settled.
3. Brain Tired, Not Body Sore
A herding ball session settles an OES the way a walk does not. The dog has to read where the ball is going, adjust the angle, and commit weight into the push. That is decision-making at pace, and it is what wears out a working brain faster than raw miles. Fifteen good minutes with a 30-inch ball beats an hour of on-leash walking for genuine calm at the end.
4. Solo-Play That Actually Holds
Most solo dog toys collapse into chewing after fifteen minutes. A herding ball keeps the game alive because there is no fetch cycle to end — the ball moves, the dog moves, and the loop stays open. For an OES on a rainy afternoon with no cattle in reach, that is the difference between a settled dog and a shredded rug.
5. A Toy the Ballistic Fabric Actually Outlasts
Old English Sheepdogs are not the roughest testers on the herding spectrum, but a working-line OES in its prime is still a real workout for any ball. Ballistic fabric holds up because it was designed to. The double zipper is the second reason: nothing gets to the bladder without going through both stages, and if the outer eventually shows wear, the shell is repairable, not disposable.
How to Introduce Your Old English Sheepdog to a Herding Ball
Start in a quiet, familiar yard with the ball rolled slowly a few feet away. Most Old English Sheepdogs will circle for a minute before the first push — that is the driving instinct sizing up the target. Do not force it. When the dog commits to a nudge, back away and let the ball keep moving. Positive engagement in the first session is the whole game.
Keep the first session short, fifteen minutes or less, and end while the dog is still interested. A coated breed heats up faster than owners think; a Beardie can look energetic and be halfway to a heat break. Water in reach, quit while the tail is up, and by the third or fourth session the dog will settle into a rhythm and work for the full time.
For a structured version of the same game, the American Treibball Association runs urban herding classes and trials that adapt naturally to a CollieBall.
Find Your Dog's CollieBall
The interactive sizer above will confirm the recommendation in about ten seconds if you enter your OES's height and weight — for most owners it lands on 30-inch, and for the biggest working dogs on 37-inch. That is the whole size chart in one widget.
What Other Owners Say
Watch a Herding Dog Work a CollieBall
The work-session above features a Border Collie, the closest working relative to an Old English Sheepdog — both descend from British hill-shepherd stock and both use a shoulder-first push, not a mouth-first grab. Scale up the drive and the frame in your head and the same session is what a 70-pound OES will do with the 30-inch ball. The definitive Border Collie herding-ball guide is worth a read if you want the sister-breed comparison.
Common Questions From Old English Sheepdog Owners
What size herding ball does an Old English Sheepdog need?
Most Old English Sheepdogs weigh 60 to 85 pounds and stand 21 to 24 inches at the shoulder, which puts them squarely on the 30-inch CollieBall. Working-line males over 85 pounds move up to the 37-inch. A smaller female or a young dog still under 55 pounds can start on the 22-inch and size up as the dog fills out. When in doubt between two sizes, go up — a slightly big ball forces a full-body push, and that is what an OES was bred to do.
Are herding balls safe for Old English Sheepdogs?
Yes, when the ball is sized right and play is supervised. The whole point of a herding ball is that it is too large for the dog to fit in its mouth, so the standard fetch-and-carry choking risk is off the table. A ballistic-fabric cover also removes the plastic-shard risk that hard exercise balls create when a 70-pound dog eventually gets a paw or a tooth into one. Watch for overheating under the coat, keep sessions short in warm weather, and water in reach.
Will an Old English Sheepdog destroy a herding ball?
An OES is not the roughest tester on the herding spectrum, but a working-line 80-pound Beardie in its prime is a real workout for any ball. The ballistic fabric shell and the replaceable bladder are why the CollieBall lasts here — you replace the inner if the dog eventually finds it, and the shell stays. That is a very different lifetime from a vinyl exercise ball that cracks in a season.
Do Old English Sheepdogs actually like herding balls?
Most take to it once the ball starts moving. Old English Sheepdogs are thinkers under the coat, so the first meeting may look slow — a lot of circling, a lot of watching. That is the driving instinct sizing up the target. Give it a day or two and the dog will commit, usually with more shoulder and less mouth than a smaller breed.
Is a 22-inch herding ball too small for an Old English Sheepdog?
For most adult Old English Sheepdogs, yes. A 22-inch ball is sized for 25 to 50 pound dogs, and an OES at 65 pounds will treat a 22-inch ball as a chew toy — the mouth will close on it eventually, and the game ends the moment that happens. The 30-inch is the size that actually forces the full-body push. Only use 22-inch as a bridge for a young dog under 55 pounds, and plan to size up.
How is a herding ball different from a regular ball for an Old English Sheepdog?
A regular ball is built to be caught and carried, which ends the game the moment an OES's jaw closes on it. A herding ball is built to be pushed. The dog cannot mouth it, so the drive to move it forward stays engaged for a full session instead of collapsing into a repetitive fetch. That is the difference between draining a working brain and just running the legs.
Does the coat matter for herding-ball play?
It does. Old English Sheepdogs carry one of the heaviest working coats in the herding group, and they heat up faster than a Border Collie or a Kelpie at the same weight. Play in cool parts of the day in summer, keep sessions to fifteen or twenty minutes, and check for damp matting at the chest and armpits after — the coat holds moisture and can chafe if the dog is working hard on a warm surface. Also see the American Treibball Association for structured herding-ball games if you want to formalize the session.
The Bottom Line for Old English Sheepdog Owners
An Old English Sheepdog is a drove dog under all that hair, and the instinct is still wired for real work. Give it a ball it cannot pick up, made of fabric it cannot shred, with a bladder you can replace for $18 when the day comes. That is the 37-inch CollieBall for a typical adult OES (60 to 100 pounds). Everything else in the toy aisle is retrieve gear that a full-grown Sheepdog will bore of in a week. Learn more about herding ball training for herding dogs or head straight to the CollieBall lineup to pick your size.
Comments