Working the young dog

Well as our job continues my little Kate has her ups and downs. This could be attributed to the fact that she is pregnant.

As in all training, repetition is the key to success. I pick up a bale on the tractor and place it over the round bale feeder then get out of the tractor and with my main dog start to move the cattle away from the feeder. The young dog usually moves right in with my main dog and start to move the cattle away. This is when I start to introduce the command "walk up"

It is important that once you have the cattle away from the feeder that you stop the dog. I use the command "there".

Doing this procedure over a couple of weeks usually is all that is required before the dog start doing it on there own. This is the sign of a useful working companion.

To finish off each feeding session I like to
add a little more training in such as moving the
cattle together. Again I use the walk up command.
From this training I will start to move to the gathering
command,which incidentally, she has been doing it on her
own up to this time. This would be a good time to start putting commands to it. I want to do this slowly as she has it figured out what way to go around the cattle.

Onward and upward .. the training continues.

Feeding Cattle using dogs

Well it's that time of the year again. Each year at this time I, along with my dogs, head north to look after a ranch for 2 months while the owners get away for a holiday.... hmmmmm what's wrong with this picture ... I'm here and the owners are in Mexico??????

One of my main jobs here is the daily feeding of the cattle. I feed using round bale feeders and when the cows are hungry it can be a real gong show around the feeders. Not only that it can be very dangerous; first to the cattle ... I'm lifting large round bales that can kill if they are dropped on the cattle, and secondly, when I am backing up or moving around with the forks down it is a potential mine field for the cattle. and Thirdly, when I am cutting the plastic and netting from the bale I'm in danger from hungry cows.

So what is a person to do? Well the obvious answer is to use dogs to keep the cattle back until the bale is placed and I'm out of the way. Of course that is exactly what I do and it not only make the job a lot easier, it gives the dogs the work that they so want to do and enjoy doing it.

Where do you start in training your dog to do this very valuable and useful job? I like to start away from the work area and do a little basic training. If you have been following my post you will know that I'm not really big on commands but there is one that I always teach my dogs before I let them do this type of work. The command is "behind". I want my dogs behind the tractor and hay wagon when we are moving to the work site. The second command is "get them or get out". I want the cattle away from the feeder and the dogs in the early stages need to learn this command. Eventually both of these commands will be used only rarely as the dog begins to understand and will get the job done.

In my next post I will give more detail in keeping the cattle away from the feeders using my partners.

Trialling

I mentioned in my last post that I would talk about trialling in relation to working stock dogs. My comments may be somewhat controversial and are general in nature.

To start with, a blanket statement: “Trialling dogs do not make good working stock dogs. Working stock dogs can become good trialling dogs”.

Now that the roar of the trialling fraternity has died down somewhat I will tell you why. When a trialler takes a pup for training, in most cases, they will start the dog in a round pen and eventually start putting commands to the pup to cover “every” move the pup makes. As training moves along the commands become more intense and increase in numbers. Then it's off to the pups first trial and what do you hear?If the pup has been trained to whistles, then all you hear is a constant stream of whistles. If the pup has not been trained to whistles then what you hear is constant commands, usually hollered at the poor pup. The poor pup does not get a chance to use it's God given instincts to get the job done. And if you think that this only happens to the young dog and inexperience handler, take a listen to the open handlers when they step up to the post.

Now take a non trial trained dog ie working stock dog, one that has been allowed to use it's instinct, and you will see a very different performance. Again, usually, the dog will work more on it's own, using its head with little input from the handler. I should qualify handler: I'm referring to a level headed calm handler. An experienced handler and mature experienced dog will seem to be working in sync even if the stock doesn't want to join in the show. Will the team get the job done? Yeesss. Will they be as successful as the accomplished trialler? Maybe. Chances are the trialler will win because they are use to working under the time constraints of a trial. But you take that trialler and there dog out in the real field and then see who gets the job done most efficiently and with out any significant loss of weight of the cattle/sheep with minimal stress.

I remember trialling at the Calgary Stampede, not very successfully I might add, and a number of participants and general audiance coming to me and saying how they liked the way my dog worked. Of course he is a working stock dog. I rest my case

Be who you are and say what you feel....
Because those that matter...
don't mind...
And those that mind... don't
matter."

Trialling

I recently attended a sheep dog trial, unfortunately I was not competing. I provided a demonstration before the trial to explain to the audience how sheep dogs are trained. Most of the audience were either town folks who new very little about stock dogs, or those farm folks that did not use dogs in there daily farm work.

I have found over the years when participating in trials that there was NEVER an explanation as to what was actually happening. Some times, very rarely, a diagram of the course was put up where folks could see it but for all intents and purposes it was for the competitors. The exception to this is the Calgary Stampede World stock dog competition. An other problem was that the competitors kept to themselves and away from the limited viewing area. It was almost as if the competitors did not want to talk to non-competitors. It's almost like this is a private club and spectators are only tolerated.

The trial I attended was a fall fair held at Burns Lake British Columbia, the announcer gave a running commentary of what was going on, explaining the whys and wherefores of each run as well a little about each competitor. Not only that, the announcer sat in stands so what he was explaining was what everyone was seeing. With really tough sheep it was amazing to see how long spectators stayed, yes even the open competitors were not doing well. There was a lot of good feed back and with the competitors making themselves available to anyone who had questions the overall interest was high and made for an enjoyable experience for all.

I believe that this approach to this “sport” promotes it, as well as interest in stock dogs in general. Who knows, this may even bring more people into the world of trialling.

Be who you are and say what you feel....
Because those that matter...
don't mind...
And those that mind... don't
matter."

No Sheep on the Range

In our part of the country, ranchers have the ability to turn there cattle out on Crown land (Government controlled land) often called "range" each summer. This is similar, but yet not, to community pastures found in most ranching communities in North America.

In BC I am not aware of any range that includes sheep. Apparently the ranching community, namely the Cattleman's Association will not allow it even though it is controlled by the Ministry of Forest (in name only). I wonder who is in charge. Now any arguments in support of not allowing sheep on range has no basis in common sense, science or logic. Regardless of the efforts of sheep people, they have not even been allowed to make a presentation in support of allowing sheep on the range.

There is a number of very good reasons to allow sheep with cattle on the range. Among some of these are:
1. Sheep usually will eat what cattle won't,
2. Predator control: Sheep will have a human and usually sheep dogs with them which naturally will control predators.
3. Range management. Despite what MoF people say, they are not managing the range. It is left up to ranchers to do it and if you have ever been out there you can see that the job is not being done very well. This is a general statement as there are some ranchers who do an excellent job and others who have no idea where there cattle are the whole summer. There are a number of good common sense arguments for including sheep on the range. Just take a look at the rest of the world.

We are all in this for a common purpose, to provide food to our population. Let's get our act together .... shake your head.

Mean while back to training.

Beginning Training

At a recent clinic most of the participants came saying that there dogs did some work but they wanted to know how to control the dog ie sides and stopping. The common comment when the dog did not do what was expected was that the dog does work at home, or the dog will only work for me. These are common comments and point more to the handler then the dog. At this particular clinic every dog demonstrated to me, at one level or another, the ability to work. In other words if the drive was not strong, it can in most cases be brought out with the proper approach to training.

An other interesting observation is when the newbe trainer stands in one spot and attempts to direct the dog with their voice. As anyone who has successfully trained a working herding dog will attest, training is hard work and fantastic exercise. When a dog has good instincts, it is up to the trainer to help the dog understand what it is YOU want it to do. The only way I know how to do this is if you are there with the dog.

As far as the participants are concerned, they deserve high praise for participating in a clinic. As in most training situations, if you do not put into affect some of what you have learned with in a couple of days you will very likely have forgotten most of what you learned with in 10 days. Good on you and practice practice practice.