More on troubleshooting, and farewell

Teaching a dog to stop.

01-04-2007 | Anna Holland

Many people seem to have problems with young dogs so we will have another ‘troubleshooting’ article.

A dairy farmer rang recently for some advice on his young beardie that wasn’t happy to stay behind the cows - wanting to go up the side or trying to get in front. Also, when it heads a couple of cows that go past a gateway, it then heads them again, after they have turned, before they have a chance to get through the gate.

I asked if it had a good stop (sit) command – apparently not.

I then told him how to teach his dog to stop so that when it hears ‘sit’ it stops still.

After it has learnt the word - obeys the word, I suggested that each morning and afternoon as he brings the cows down the race to put his dog on about a 10 metre length of thin rope. That way the dog could toddle along behind the cows but if it tried to push them too hard or go up the side he could check it, as he had control with the rope.

By stopping the dog, when it gets too keen and giving it a moment before asking it to ‘walk’, and then allowing it to continue, steadily, the dog will soon learn what it is allowed to do and what it isn’t.

It was an advantage that he always walked to get the cows – could be tricky with a bike — but honestly if you have a good stop command and a walk command, that is all you need to control the situation.

A stop is also needed for his other problem - when the dog heads the cows that have passed the gate. If the dog stops and stands after the cows have turned, they have a chance to calmly head back, find the gate and go through it without a yapping dog at their heels or heading them again.

Yet again I will say – if you don’t have a good stop, and a good re-call, don’t take your dog to work – well, not if you want to keep your hair.

This same man proudly told me how this pup rushes off and waits for him at the gate into the cows. As I said, fine if the dog is older – reliable, but with pups I want them either securely contained or close by – I want to know what they are doing.

I asked him, “If you were walking your five-year-old to school would you allow her to rush ahead, crossing roads etc to wait at the gates until you get there 10 minutes later?”

Another common problem that people experience with young heading dogs, is they may be reluctant to head – they will run out and as soon as they get to the sheep they slow right down and follow them, or they go round and round the sheep in circles.

Don’t worry, many dogs do this and it is only because they don’t know what else to do when they get there – both problems are easily solved - if you do it right.

Your dog isn’t going to head the sheep if it isn’t keen to ‘play’ with them, so first you have to achieve that (refer to a past article) then you take it away and teach it to lead, sit, walk up on sheep, circle, move off your stick etc – all the other basic lessons I’ve written about.

This is what I do when I have this problem with a young dog. I use a gateway to create urgency. Let me explain.

I take quiet but freemoving sheep into a small holding paddock that has a gateway into another small holding paddock (you could use big yards) and with the dog on a lead let the sheep drift (briskly) through the gate. It is important that you aren’t too far away - initially you want a short run for your dog.

You will no doubt be whistling and yahooing in order to get them to do that and the young dog will be getting a bit anxious beside you – thinking that they are getting away.

Then unclip him - “sis, sis, sis away” and most times off he’ll go and be so keen that he’s forgotten to slow down, and low and behold he’s headed them. “Good boy Mate”.

Don’t scold him if he heads again, or cuts one off or nips one – the whole point was to have the enthusiasm to head – which he did. And this is what you want him to do each time he hears the word ‘away’ – head.

Once he has that – urge to head – you can work on the cutting in, nipping etc as we have discussed before, but not before he is really keen and has the ’I must get in-front’ attitude.

You can do this exercise several times but don’t wear him out.

The next day I will sit him down - with eyes in the back of my head make sure he stays there — and I will push the sheep through the gate. They are usually sick of going through the gate and being headed, so I need to do it. And boy is he ready to hear ‘away’ – the sight of me going off with the sheep without him is unbearable.

Incidentally don’t train young dogs, on stock, in the heat of the day - it is too hard on both sheep and dog.

How do you stop a young dog excitedly circling sheep?

Take him away from sheep and teach him ‘sit’ – ‘grrrr, no’ – and do the lesson on the rope with him going around you, in circles, moving off your stick. Naturally all this is not over-night.

Now go into a large yard or small holding paddock, all of you next to the fence, you walk backwards and with the aid of the stick teach your dog to pull the sheep to you.

This has been in one of my previous articles.

So often I hear “my pup will only work stock with my other dogs – he won’t on his own”.

That is his instinct – to work with the pack, as a team, to bring down dinner.

I always try to get a young dog interested in stock, on its own, in a big yard, with no other dogs around. He is not looking for his kennel mates because we have, to that point, had lots of one-on-one time together, so he doesn’t feel insecure with just me.

If he isn’t interested the first time he sees sheep, I don’t worry, I try again another day. All of this is in a previous article.

There is nothing worse than two or three dogs playing follow the leader when they work, looking over their shoulder to see if their mate is coming and dancing around in circles in front of you and suggesting “I don’t know what you mean” when asked to do something on their own.

And this will happen if you don’t, in the early stages, train him on his own, allowing him to gain enthusiasm and confidence in himself and his ability.

When he starts going to work as a member of the team, work him on his own sometimes, other times hold him back and let his colleagues do the work, and let him go and help them from time to time. That way he is learning manners and to do what you want, when you want – not when it suits him.

I think it is very important when training young dogs to not have rigid methods for doing things. All dogs are different. I am constantly thinking about new ways of doing things, how I can improve or make something easier for a dog to understand.

Most dogs may respond very well to a particular method you have but occasionally a dog will come along with a personality that doesn’t suit the way you have always done it. That doesn’t mean he is at fault or there is something wrong with him – he just needs a different approach to learn and reach his potential.

And that is the difference between a true dog handler and a person who ‘breaks in’ dogs.

I have a lovely young huntaway, Guy, here at the moment and he really hates, with vengeance, the rope. Some dogs hate the rope, they fight it and I let them fight as I know they will eventually give in, but Guy sulks.

I could insist but knowing his bloodlines and nature I know that it would make him worse and it could very likely ruin him.

This same dog, if you put sheep in-front of him, is a completely different animal. He stands tall, confident, pours out the noise – aggressively, and just wants to work.

So I am doing things differently with him. We play around in the yards and holding paddocks and I’m letting him work the sheep like a ‘noisy’ heading dog learning balance as he pulls stock to me.

I have to keep him well off them – by using my stick, and move more briskly than normal, but he is so much happier and coming ahead with leaps and bounds.

Once he has grasped the ‘sit, careful and basic side commands’ he can go to work and learn the rest through experience, although it will be a bit more confusing for him, not to have the fine tuning, but there is no reason at all why he won’t turn out to be a cracker.

On a final note, please those of you with foul tempers and no time, don’t get young dogs to train - leave it to the people who know what they are doing, who do it for the love of training a young dog.

And don’t grizzle at the price; be prepared to pay them top dollar for the hours and hours of patient dedication that they have put into that dog.

And to those of you with the gift to train dogs – train more, and help the people that buy them how to work them – spend some time with them, answer their questions, show them how it is done and why - because they have probably never been fortunate enough to see a good dog and handler in action.

  Printable View