The results

All that training and what can you do with it?

Well when you are on a working farm or ranch, there's probably a need for a dog every day.

In the following picture you will see some dogs in a down position in front of a herd of cows. So whats the story: When I feed the cattle each day I'm greeted by a bunch of hungry so and so's. So not to run over cows or knock them over, I send the dogs in in advance and they move them out of the way and hold them until I release them.

When you are holding a 1500 lb hay bale on the front of the tractor, the last thing you want is cattle around you. You have to take the netting off of the bale and if you have been around hungry cattle then you will know it's no fun getting knocked around or stepped on by a big old fat cow.

Life is so much more comfortable when you have a trained dog working with you.

Until the next post

And the training goes on

In this post I will talk about one of our new pups, which by the way is for sale. Her name is Kate and she is an interesting dog. It is amazing to watch the change from day to day as she gains confidence. It is also very interesting to see her when she goes to the cows. You would think that she was a different dog.

I first took her to cattle at 3-1/2 months to see if she had any interest. At first she was a little hesitant but started to warm up and gave me a good indication.

Now at 5-1/2 months she is definitely showing great potential. Now the question is should she be subjected to a structured training program. If you have followed any of my previous post you will likely know that I will let her learn on her own under supervision. I also like to have her exposed to actual work. What does that mean. If I am moving cows with my dogs, I like to have her along and right in there. The key here is moving ie all noses pointing in the same direction. There is less chance she will get hurt this way.




Having said that sometimes the pup just wants to do what is in it's "jeans". Here Kate is after a stray. She was successful and got the cow back with the rest of the herd going in the opposite direction.








In this picture, if you look closely, you will see a dog by the gate. This is my main dog, Jim. He and the pup moved the herd to the gate. Jim went around and stopped them and held them there while the pup stayed at the back to hold them together. This allowed my to go to the gate and open it. Now I don't think you can get a better training situation then this. This is what my training is all about: real life situations. When the pup learns lessons like this she becomes very useful at an early age. The pup benefits and I benefit ... win win. Incidentely I did not tell her to do what she is doing. Breeding and breed make life a joy.

Around and Around

A friend of mine was telling me that he has a dog that keeps circling around the stock and he has a hard time stopping it. This dog came from a friend of his who trained it for him.

It was interesting when he showed me the problem. He brought some sheep into a paddock and the sheep immediately went to the high point and, the dog began to circle. I asked him how his friend had trained the dog. He said in a round pen.

My opinion on round pens is it is a good place to train out the natural instinct of a dog. It makes training a dog to specific commands relatively easy. Also, when training in a round pen so many people think that is a good place to train balance. What is balance to a herding dog, or should I say working dog? To a working dog it is not a 12 and 6 placing, it is balancing on the head of the sheep in relation to you. It could be a 9 and 12 position.

Again, it is my opinion, that if you are going to train a working dog do so where you are going to use it on conditions that you are going to use. GET RID OF ROUND PENS. This should be come a mantra.

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 …..

Exercise, Disipline, Affection

If you watch any TV these days you may recognize the title. You hear this frequently on the Dog Whisperer TV show. Well this applies to the herding dog as well, particularly the young herding dog. 9 times out of 10 when I am asked about the potential of a dog/pup, I find that the dog/pup receives no exercise, discipline is not consistant and affection is ALL ways given at the wrong time.

On the exercise part of this, the owner will ALL ways say that the dog/pup has the run of the place and gets lots of exercise. Again 9 times out of 10 this is not exercise. A dog needs to focus on the running part of the exercise and this just does not happen when they are "playing" around the yard or fields.

Now I understand the time limitations of the busy rancher/farmer. Some times taking a 1/2 hour first thing in the morning can be very theraputic. Using this time to exercise the dog/pup can also make the difference between a real valuable working stock dog and just a pet. I usually recommend that the owner take the dog for a run at least for 20 to 30 minutes. Now before you turn off, there is a simple way to do this. Most ranch's have a quad, 4X4, ATV, or what ever you want to call it. This is an excellent way to exercise your dog. At an appropriate speed ie. the dog running just behind the quad, at a comfortable rate, it not only benefit the dogs physical well being, but also his mental state. As an added bonus, the bonding will be strengthened also. And as an added added bonus, it will do the handler a world of good as well.

Thoughts?

The Stop Command

I recently watched some super cow dogs performing at the annual DMS cow dog trial in Vanderhoof BC. Not only was it a good trial, the competitors were top notch. Competitors and dogs came from through out the Pacific North West and through out BC.

One handler and his dog caught my eye. When the dog was given a command it responded immediately. When the down command was given that dog hit the ground and you could not get a hair under him from chin to tail. I'm almost convinced that the dog has a flat underside.

Why do I mention this? Well I no longer teach my dogs, or handlers, the down command. I want my dogs upright and always maximum visibility to the cattle. Also teaching the dog the down command wastes a tremendous amount of energy. This is critical when moving large numbers of cattle over long periods of time. Remember that my main aim of this blog is to train WORKing stock dogs.

Now if you are training a competition dog then you might want to teach the down command. I do not see any need for it. Some may argue that is the only way you can get a good stop (?) on a dog and that you can always train a dog to stand. You may be right and if that works for competition folks then who am I to argue. There is no reason however that you can not get a perfect (?) stop at the stand position. It's all in the way you train the dog.

It is a pleasure to watch the competition dogs work. Most competitions do not allow the dog to think on it's feet. Time and points are the main concern. Still it's nice to watch.