The Perfect Stock Dog DVD?

[AerBear26]

Anyone seen it? Thinking of buying it. Is it all it claims to be?

 

http://www.theperfectstockdog.com/Videos.htm

 

 

[Sue R]

I've never heard of that DVD or those particular folks. I guess I'm a little put off by the use of the word "perfect".

 

There are good books and DVDs available. The basic principles remain the same no matter what the stock. I like Derek Scrimgeour's Talking Sheepdogs for a very basic understanding of stockwork principles. Try Vergil Holland's Herding Dogs: Progressive Training; Bruce Fogt's Lessons from a Stock Dog. Anna Guthrie's Working with a Stockdog is a good book about understanding just how to work with a dog on sheep and cattle. Check out the videos from Geri Byrne (www.bcollies.com/videos.htm) featuring top trainers (the series by Mike Hubbard also deals with cattle as well as sheep).

 

I think that books and videos are helpful when first learning about stockwork with dogs but that actually working with a trainer is going to be the best pathway to understanding how to work with your dog.

 

I'm sure others can make good recommendations for you.

[Pam Wolf]

Ben Means is an old cattle man who has some very nice working cattledogs. His training/working is primarily on ranches, not trialing. He has been around a long time and is well respected as having very good dogs. Haven't seen him in years, but his dogs used to have very good stops (something lacking in many farm dogs) and are very strong dogs that had good biddability.

[toney]

I have had that tape for years. Ben Means starts his dogs on a line. My new purchase is going to be Shane Harley's web series. You can see excerpts in you tube. Stockdogtrainingcourses.com

[Sue R]

Thank you, Pam, for sharing your knowledge about these folks. That's the best help of all to answer the OP's question. He sounds like a very good resource.

 

Ben Means is an old cattle man who has some very nice working cattledogs. His training/working is primarily on ranches, not trialing. He has been around a long time and is well respected as having very good dogs. Haven't seen him in years, but his dogs used to have very good stops (something lacking in many farm dogs) and are very strong dogs that had good biddability.

[AerBear26]

Thanks guys. Very interesting.

[Jeanne Joy]

As Pam said, he's been around a long time. Ben Means wrote a booklet, The Perfect Stockdog, in the 70s. It focused on cowdogs and it was one of the only stockdog training publications available back then.

 

As always,

jeanne

[Riika]

I asked about this awhile back on a different dog forum. The best answer I got was a warning that the cows in the video are dog broke already. Although I will get it if/when my puppy starts showing to instinct, I would be very careful for the reason that I guess the cows can spook if they aren't used to dogs. Although, here is my story of my current puppy's dam.

She was herding chickens at 2 months and at 6 months moved to our 2 year old steers, and "dog broke" them herself. No, we never tried anything with her-she'd ALWAYS be in there and would keep them in the corner of the pen. They couldn't move to eat or drink or anything. We actually tried for months to get her to stop and finally had to start tying her up.
When she was about 1.5 years old, I started trying to train her to actually herd them but I really had no idea what I was doing. One day, the cows broke out of the pasture and I was on horseback trying to herd them up. They would just stand and look at me even if I smacked them, but I didn't have a rope or anything to whip them with, so it was only my hand. Riika was with me and she dove right in and sent them on their way. And we're talking big momma's with calves at their sides and not "dog broke." So....... I think it depends on the instincts and age of the dog.