Training Part 2 – The start

Each day I would take the dog to the calves. Initially this was done off leash but that changed very quickly. The leash and in this case, a choke chain tells the her that this is not play time and that I am the leader and she must react, at this stage, when she is told to do.

The area that we do the training is fairly large so the calves are usually spread out. Some at the lick, others laying around and others at the feeders. There are also some calves in a treed area that make up this paddock. The ones in the trees I am not concerned about at this time.
When I enter the area I remove the leash and choke chain and do not let her move until I give the command. I will give the command to “Get around” as I begin to walk to the central part of this paddock. I expect her to start picking up calves which she does.


If she miss's some or one, I stop her and call her to me. I will then face the stray(s) and tell her to get around again. By using this method, she will eventually get the idea not only to look around but to react to that stray.











Now that she has started to work I start to move the main body of calves. Of course the whole idea is to get all the noses pointing in one direction. By me doing this eventually she picks up that this is a team exercise. If she has any instinct and or stock sense, she should begin to flank. If there is a brake up I will call her and motion or walk in that direction so that she will swing around and pick up the culprit.





More to follow

Training restarted

I have been off and away for a few months, got a new knee. As a result the window of opportunity I had with my new bitch pup passed me by.

You will recall from an earlier post, I had started her when she was 5 months old. I know that a lot of people will say that is far to young and I agree with you. If you are starting a pup that young you have to be very careful and protective so that no harm comes to her. I do not recommend starting at this age.

Well along comes January and my annual ranch sitting job for some friends of mine. Feeding 160 head daily, moving them from area to area and doing physical checks twice a day is a golden opportunity for some REAL practical and stock dog training. In the mornings I fed all the stock. The training here is moving the stock away from the feeder and holding them until the bale was unwrapped and in the feeder. I will elaborate on what and how I did this in a later post.

In the afternoon it was more formal training in a paddock of calves (64). The task was to round up the 64 calves and move them from the feeding and resting area, out into a large field. The second task was to catch the calves, turn them and return them to feeders.

You may recall that when I start a dog I use minimal commands. In this case: “get around” and “there (stop command). The whole idea behind this is I want to develop that natural instinct. In short, I want her to start using her head

In my next post(s) I will take you through each step that I followed.

Until next time …..