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Boosting Confidence


Guest caseyolee
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Guest caseyolee

I was wondering if there is a good way to boost confidence. If a cow faces my dog, he high tails if for the hip. Is there anyway to boost his confidence so he might take a grab at the nose of the cow instead of being suck a scaredy-cat? He hasnt been kicked or anything (yet).

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Guest Penny Tose

There is a cow dog list on yahoo. Also I would go over to bordercolliesinaction.com and ask Geri Byrne for advice and a list.

 

I do not own cows, and I no longer work my dogs on cows. I used to work the older, now retired dogs on cows until I decided it was a stupid thing to do unless I owned cows.

 

Penny

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Guest Penny Tose

Many people start dogs intended to work cattle only on sheep. I noticed you posted elsewhere in the forum about sheep fencing and so on.

 

One nice thing about starting on sheep is that they are a confidence booster for the dog, and you can get some control over the dog, and the dog can learn some finesse with livestock all without worries that go with starting on cattle.

 

If you decide not to get sheep, you might think about starting your dog on calves.

 

Sheep are harder to keep in than cattle and are not unduly inconvenienced by four strands of barbed wire if in the mood for whatever is growing on the other side of a fence or pressured by a young dog.

 

You might call Cheryl and Dick Williams in Hopbottom to find out who is near you.

 

Penny

 

<small>[ February 10, 2005, 07:59 AM: Message edited by: Penny ]</small>

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Guest Smokinjbc

Hi,

 

I'm not an expert and no where near a big hat- but I have alot of experience working cows with less than super-confident dogs. My first cow dog spoiled me, she just naturally would take a nose and had such good cow sense when handling them. But dogs I've had since then were not as strong on cattle and I've had to work around that. First of all, you do have to decide if you want to risk injury to your dog. I've personally cut back on my two current trialing dogs on cattle trialing (we are switching more to sheep, but keeping my eye out for a good cow dog pup :rolleyes: )both because we lack cattle to practice consistently on and because I feel that if the dogs are not natural at working cows, i.e- able to take care of themselves out there and do a good job, then I don't need to be risking them in that endeavor. Keep in mind that a dog that lacks confidence does "invite" cows to be aggressive- I've seen them chase many dogs right out of the arena or pasture if they sensed any weakness.

 

If you are set on making your dog a cow dog- then you can work around his lack of heading ability. I have a dog that has been moderately successful at trialing on cows but never takes a nose. I trained her on sheep first, and made sure I had very good control and could keep her at a distance from the cattle. She will hit a heel pretty hard so I can use that but I have to be careful to not let her get in a situation where she needs to take a nose- she just won't. In my personal experience, you can't train that part in- they either have the courage & inborn knowledge to head a cow or they don't. In some cases, a dog a friend of mine has, and one of my personal dogs- I don't even think its a lack of courage- they show bravery elsewhere- but simply it never occurs to them to take a nose. However, using basic stock sense and good training on the dog- if you have reasonable stock and keep your dog at the border of the flight zone and also keep your dog from getting the cattle rattled- you may be able to do something with this dog.

 

You need to get to very dog broke cows- I was lucky enough for a while to have a bunch of cows that had a GREAT dog working them every day- so if they saw something black and white, they turned and went where they were asked to go without fighting. If the cows you have fight your dog, they are not going to be appropriate for building confidence. Everything you ask your dog to do, he absolutely must win that situation- even if you have to move the cows yourself. If he shows any signs of distress or wanting to quit- then immediate go back to something he is more comfortable with and quit on a good note as soon as possible. If I understand your post right, he is going for the hip/flank area- don't allow him to do this- this a cheap shot, it does him no good in building confidence and could easily get him very badly hurt. If you don't have the control yet to keep him from making those shots, go back to sheep and get it.

 

Another thing that I found helped (using dog broke cows) is teaching the dog to walk up to the front of the cow and stop and wait for the cow to turn away. That alone helped my dogs get confidence (even if it was a memory of a better dog that got them to turn LOL) and they would become more forceful and convincing when walking up on the head- plus that built-in pause helped give the cows a non-confrontational chance to cooperate.

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