A Boy, His Dog and an Incredible Story | Soccer Collies

A boy, his dog, a ball, and an incredible story. Improvements in sport can come from the most unexpected places. Read along as Zak tells the tale of how he was introduced to Dog Soccer, and how getting a soccer collie changed his game for the better.

We were sitting in the stands at the stadium in Tampa waiting for the Tampa Bay Mutiny game to start. It was a perfect day to watch a soccer game with the sun shining on our backs and not in our eyes. I was there with my mom & dad and my sister Katee. To start the game three referees walked to the center circle with a woman who made a signal with her arm and her dog dribbled a soccer ball in a straight line from the corner of the field to the center circle in about three seconds. I dumped my popcorn all over the place as everyone in the entire stadium stood up and cheered in a huge roar. I looked at dad and said, I want a soccer dog! Can I have another popcorn?

After the game started, the woman and her dog walked through the stands where we were sitting, and we got to meet her and pet her dog. She told us her dog's name is Silk and she's a Border Collie. A Border Collie, aren't those the sheepherders? I asked. Yes, and they also herd ducks, chickens, cows and even children like you, she replied. Mom said we need one of those dogs for you guys and your friends. The woman said that Silk is the opening act for the Mutiny home games and she receives a lot of praise from the fans every time she attends the games with Silk. We all thought Silk is very sweet, well-mannered and just a beautiful dog. Plus, she's a great soccer ball handler and after meeting her, I really wanted a soccer dog like Silk.

A few days later since it would be mom's birthday, so we headed off to the Humane Society with a soccer ball to check out the rescue dogs while mom was working. We wanted to surprise her with a soccer dog for her birthday. I bounced the soccer ball in front of every dog at the shelter. Most of the shelter's dogs were scared of that big ball and they moved away from us and wanted nothing to do with the ball. However, there was a huge German Shepherd who got very excited about us and the ball. He was jumping all over the place in his tiny little jail cell-sized space at the shelter. So, we took him out to the doggy playground where there's lots of room for running to see what he would do with the ball. I kicked the ball across the yard and he ran after the ball, pounced on it like it was a small animal and he destroyed the soccer ball in two seconds with his powerful jaws and sharp teeth. That's probably not going to work for us I thought as dad gave me one of those looks.

Then we drove over to the county's animal shelter and found out they had just released a mother dog with eight puppies to be adopted. The mom looked and acted like she was a Border Collie, but the puppies were all different looking. One was mostly white with black spots all over, one was white and grey with black spots, three were mostly black with a little bit of white on their chest, noses, and feet, two were black and brown with really cool markings on their faces, and one was a beautiful blonde color with a black face, a white chest and white polka dots on her legs and feet. We learned the puppies were born at the shelter and the blonde one was number eight, she's the runt, the lady said. What's a runt? I asked. She's the youngest puppy, she was born last, she said. Let's get her, Katee and I both chirped up at the same time. Okay, let's do it, dad was all in on the plan. I'm the youngest so I thought how perfect, I don't have to be the runt in the family anymore. Dad said there's a new runt now and we named her Ms. Z after me Zak. How cool is that? Dad said he likes Z's.

Ms. Z and I became best friends because I spent the most time with her, we did everything together. She even slept in my room, on the bed, don't tell my mom. More than anything I wanted her to play soccer with me, so I took the tennis ball away from her and we got her one of those mini basketballs. She was only nine weeks old when we started working with her to play soccer and she had sharp little teeth and pink spots on her nose. It didn't take long before Ms. Z was pushing her little ball around the house. She would try to bite it and it was a little too big for her to get her mouth around it. She would growl at it and bark like she was yelling at the ball for not doing what she wanted it to do. I think she wanted to pick it up in her mouth, but it wouldn't fit. She did get the ball rolling around as she was trying to bite it and before long, she was pushing it and steering it with her nose and her legs. It was amazing! Just like that, we had a soccer dog in our family.

It wasn't long until all Ms. Z wanted to do was play ball with someone. When she saw me, she would not even come over to say hi to me. Instead, she would look around to see where her ball was and then she would bring it to me. She didn't want to be petted; she would just say let's play! She became obsessed with playing ball. I would walk across the room, and she would push the ball between my legs as I was walking. She would play with the vacuum, she didn't care, whoever pushed the ball back to her became her best friend, even the vacuum became friendly to her. She made best friends with everyone we met who would touch the ball with her. Everyone loved seeing her excitement for the ball and they would stop what they were doing and play ball with her for a bit. She started to think every human was born to play soccer with her.

When Ms. Z was about five months old, we took her to meet my cousins who are twins. One of them threw the ball to Ms. Z and she caught it between her open mouth and her front paws. I still remember the twins saying together "she caught it." I don't think that's allowed in soccer, is that a paw ball? I know there's a rule against handballs. After that, we started working on her catching the ball and I was able to stand ten feet or more away from her and toss it to her and she would catch every ball I threw within her reach. I came to realize that she is claiming the ball and that other dogs will not try to take it away from her when it's in her possession. That's one of the main rules in the dog world, if I have it, it's mine, if I walk away from it, you can have it. Dogs don't share bones or food and they don't share the ball, it's my ball when I have it.

I've been playing soccer since I was four and the coaches always put me in the goalkeeper position because I was pretty quick on my feet and I'm not afraid to dive for the ball. My focus wasn't all that great though, it's boring watching my teammates run after the ball while I'm stuck in one spot. One time I heard sirens from a firetruck, and I was looking towards the street, which was behind my goal, so my back was towards the soccer field. You guessed it, here comes the ball down the field and everyone was yelling ZAK a lot louder than they normally do. I turned around just in time to stop the ball from going into the goal. I stopped the ball and I'm pretty sure I stopped a lecture from mom and dad too.

When I was on our under-eight team, they convinced my dad to coach the team and dad put me on the field in the forward position. I was free to run and play and I'm not sure what happened that year, but I ended up scoring the most goals in the entire league. A lot of the other kids will just kick the ball away when it comes to them, but I want to hold on to the ball. I'm able to dribble around all the kids and I talk to them too as I get the ball past them. Just let me get close to the goal and I can put it in the net. After that year everyone wanted me on their team, and they started calling me Zak Attack. Dad says I thought I was so good that I didn't need to practice. It was about that time that we adopted Ms. Z and my life will never be the same again. 

Ms. Z made me practice, she was so loud it was like she was yelling at me to play with her. If I wanted to quiet her down, I'd have to play ball with her. As soon as I touched the ball, she would silently stare at it and wait in the ready position right in front of the ball waiting for me to kick it. She would run really hard and fast to get to the ball before anyone else could and then she owned it, it was her ball. Ms. Z would use her paw and turn the ball in the direction she wanted to go. She had total control over the ball, and she could stop it on a dime if she wanted. I would stand in the goal and kick it out to the field and she would go get it and bring it to me. After a while she would bring the ball right to me and at the last second before I could grab it, she would change directions and using her shoulder she would push the ball into the corner of the goal. She became a great goal scorer and I became better at everything I did with a soccer ball. My kicking skills really improved from playing with Ms. Z several times a day. She could play all day and never get tired or bored with playing soccer with me or anyone else.

Now, I'm eleven and I'm playing competitive soccer on a great team in St. Petersburg called Strictly Soccer. My dad said I outgrew his coaching abilities, and we found an excellent team with a very good coach. Now, I'm also not the best player on the team anymore. Dad brings Ms. Z to St Pete and after practicing me and my teammates and some of the parents will form a circle around Ms. Z and a very soft ball. When Ms. Z pushes the ball out of the circle, she has scored a goal. She scores a lot of goals and everyone is smiling and laughing when Ms. Z scores goals against us. We figured out a way for us to score too. We score by heading the ball to the ground before Ms. Z can touch it which is not easy at all. She is so quick to get to the ball before it hits the ground. This game helps us improve our heading skills and our goalkeeping skills. We call the game Dog Soccer and it's a real competition for big kids and little kids against soccer dogs like Ms. Z.

A couple of years ago three of my best friends got their own soccer dogs by visiting the animal shelter and bouncing a ball in front of every dog. The dogs will tell you if they want to play ball with you. They get excited or they run and hide when they see a basketball or a soccer ball. The dogs that get excited about the ball will be much easier to train to play soccer. If they don't even like to play ball, then find another rescue dog that does if you really want a soccer dog. Your dog will like what you like and if they like a tennis ball they will also like a bigger ball if you encourage them to play with a soccer ball. You need to take away the small balls and only play with a bigger one and be excited with them if you want your dog to play soccer. They will be excited to play with you no matter what game you're playing. Training your dog needs to be fun for them and if they're playing with you and you're having fun then they will be having fun too.

One of my friends lives in an apartment and he taught his dog to play soccer in their hallway. You don't need a big yard, a hallway is the perfect training area because the ball doesn't go all over the place. It mostly goes forward and backward so my friend's dog quickly learned to bring the ball back to him as he stands at the end of the hallway. When his dog pushes the ball past him the dog has scored a goal. Now all of us are getting pretty good at playing soccer and we owe it all to our Soccer Dogs. The more we let the dogs touch the ball the better they get. If you kick the ball and then you go to it, your dog will think that's what the game is, and they will not learn to bring it to you. You need to be patient, stay in one spot and encourage your dog to bring the ball to you. Then give your dog a lot of praise and petting when they bring it to you. You can also watch some videos about how to train a dog to play soccer.

Your dog wants to please you and get you to touch them with your hands. When they jump on you their goal is to get your hands to touch them. When they jump on us, and we push them away with our hands as we are smiling and laughing then we are teaching them to jump on us. We need to spin out of the way as they jump or lift your knee to keep them from jumping on you. Only touch them when they sit and they're calm. If you pet an excited dog, then you are teaching them to be excited around you.

Last weekend my friends and I took our four soccer dogs to the Strawberry Festival and in between the bands playing we became the intermission entertainment. Right in front of the stage, we used a one-hundred-foot rope to form a big circle with the crowd. There must have been three hundred people around the circle playing and watching the Dog Soccer Games with us and of course, the dogs always score a lot of goals. It's not fair because we are playing against the dog's strength which is speed and agility and their reflexes which are much quicker than ours. Sometimes the ball hits someone before they can even blink, it's so funny how quick the dogs are. Plus, we are not kicking the ball hard at them, we have removed human power from the game, and we play using our quickness. 

 We started using a very soft ball because a soccer ball is hard on the dog's teeth. They bite the ball when it's in the air and a soccer ball wears the points off their canine teeth. Their big fangs get flattened down when they bite a basketball or a soccer ball. The only problem using the soft ball is the dogs pop them a lot easier than they can pop a soccer ball or a basketball.

We are going to take our Soccer Dog Team to our school for our School Party coming up soon and let all the kids at school play this cool Dog Soccer Game that we created. Maybe we could get the teachers to play too, that would be pretty fun to see the dogs score against the teachers and our principal. I want to see our teacher dive for the ball. Heck, there are fairs, festivals and schools all over the world. I think we're ready to take on the world with our Dog Soccer Games. Is the world ready for Dog Soccer Games, and Dog Soccer Tournaments?

Since all the dogs in our group are Border Collies, we decided to call our Soccer Dog Team the Soccer Collies and we will be playing Dog Soccer Games at a fair, festival, or a school near you. Please like us on Facebook and be sure to check out our website which is SoccerDogs.Org where we help ball-motivated rescue dogs to find a soccer-loving home. A soccer dog will make you a better soccer player too so go rescue a ball-motivated dog from your local shelter. Save a dog's life and it will make your life much better.

About the Author

Zak Lukas was my son. He died on 12/7/2002 in a jet ski accident when he was sixteen years old. I adopted Ms.Z and named her after Zak to help me through the grieving process. She brought me a ball within an hour when she was nine weeks old and Soccer Collies became a dream come true for me. Now we bring smiles and laughter everywhere we play Dog Soccer Games plus many ball motivated rescue dogs find a new home with a soccer loving family because of the game we created. Zak had a very full and exciting life. I pray we all live like there's no tomorrow. Enjoy every moment, be responsible and considerate of others. Know where you're going when your life is over.