cross_7
Well-known member
I copied this from another site and I'm sure he wouldn't mind. He has said things that I didn't grasp at first then as I began to understand it was like a light come on in a dark room
A few years ago I had been using a dog to move cattle and I was having trouble with getting the job done and the dog taking commands
I had asked a question and I'm paraphrasing what Tony said and I may be off a little but he said
Let the dog handle the job. Let the dog learn from his mistakes and learn to handle cattle on his own without you hollering "away to me" "come bye" "down" and so on
Who would want a dog that couldn't handle cattle without being told how to ?
The light came on at that point
I'd take the dog to the cattle and tell him to "bring'em" and I'd head to where I wanted them.
It was up to him to get them there, I never said a word. It turned out he did a better job without me giving him orders on how to do it.
Tony McCallum
teach the job , not just commands. l think todays approach involves way too much lie down, come bye, way, etc without any purpose but control. Piddling around with training in a pen until the dog obeys and then home they go leaving the cattle in the same spot as they started. That will sour a dog and take away independent thought. l watch people ordering their dog this way that way , drive fetch left and right to a point if they stop speaking the dog has no idea what he was really doing there. So my suggestion is start small, help the dog learn the job, successfully complete some part of a job each time you take it out
A few years ago I had been using a dog to move cattle and I was having trouble with getting the job done and the dog taking commands
I had asked a question and I'm paraphrasing what Tony said and I may be off a little but he said
Let the dog handle the job. Let the dog learn from his mistakes and learn to handle cattle on his own without you hollering "away to me" "come bye" "down" and so on
Who would want a dog that couldn't handle cattle without being told how to ?
The light came on at that point
I'd take the dog to the cattle and tell him to "bring'em" and I'd head to where I wanted them.
It was up to him to get them there, I never said a word. It turned out he did a better job without me giving him orders on how to do it.