Into the Field

 I was recently asked to help prepare a group of Heifers for an annual Fall Fair Cow Dog trial. My job is to dog break the cattle which should calm them down for when they go to the arena. The trial is indoors and when you take a bunch of cattle that have never been exposed to that type of surrounding it can take a great deal of fun away from the trial.

This is a perfect time and place to evaluate the training my pups have received to date. I had my new pup, Wage, with me as well as this mother, Kate, and of course my main dog, the old guy. Each morning we would round up the Heifers out in the field and bring them into a paddock. We would then separate a few and move them into another paddock and work them for about 1/2 hour. We then join the separated ones up with the rest of the herd and move them back out into the field. We did this up to 4 times a day.

Wage working the flank

Here he keeping everyone on the straight and narrow

While moving the cattle I used as few commands as possible. Mostly “there” and occasionally a directions command “go bye” or “away to me”. This gives me an excellent opportunity to find out where we are in the reaction to the commands. So now that we are back home it back to the side commands.

Even in the paddock he is keeping order

It was very interesting to watch Wage, he is 8 months old, work the flanks with very little direction. He would swing out and run along to near the head of the herd and then turn into them and run back to where we were driving from. This appears to be natural to him. He exhibited the same technique in the paddocks. He certainly did not pull any punches when one of the Heifers stepped to far of the line.

After 3 days of this, training in the training paddock is not going to be as exciting. Back to working on sides

"Go Bye"

I am frequently asked why the "Go Bye" command rather then the traditional "Come Bye" command? I learned a long while ago that a dog can be come confused by the "Come By" command. Just think about it for a few moments. How do most of us call our dog to us, the recall. The vast majority of us call our dogs to us by using the command "COME". No we know that the dog usually reacts to the first word it hears ie "Come Bye". To avoid the possibility of confusion I use the "Go Bye" command.

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

Side #2

This week we start to train on the “other” side, the “Away to Me”. It's interesting when we started the training this week, Wage, would automatically go to the Go Bye. Now I would like to think that he has that command down pat but I suspect that it has become instinct.

In order to counter act that "Go Bye" command I have had to adapt to it and change my approach. I get behind the sheep and get them moving along the fence line and give the "Away to Me" command.  When he moves up towards the head I call him back and go through it again. The heading instinct in this breed is so strong that it does present some challenges. Of course this is counteracted by the easy by which these dogs can be trained. To finish off the training session I do a couple of “Go Byes”.

You can imagine the added complexity of training if we started on cattle. It probably would be harder on fences and the trainer.

And the training goes on.

And the training continues

Training is moving right along with the sides being the key. I move the sheep, in the mornings, to the training paddock. It is 130ft by 60, ideal for teaching sides. Not to big so that the trainer is not run off his feet.

With straight sides and corners, I can teach 1 side at a time. The dogs have the stop command ("there") down pat as well as the "stay" command. When I get the sheep positioned and the dog in the stay position I can get the sheep moving along the side. I then send the dog with the appropriate command and he/she heads the sheep and we then work on the walk up command and bring them back to where we can do it all again. A week of doing this then I will start working on the other side.

On the walk up

Wage, the young dog, comes with me to the field each evening to round up the sheep. It seems that I have to go less distance each night and he is out there looking for them. He is now rounding them up and moving them back to the barn, mostly on his own. I don't think he realizes that he is being trained!!!!