Worrying Stock

[Chris]

I'm after some advice on Ty's unacceptable behavior of worrying stock.

We live on a farm 10 acre farm with three others around us. We normally have 6 large steers and 6 younger steers. At this time of year due to hay making we have to have the steers in the paddocks close to the cottage.

At the moment the young ones are right out the front of the cottage and the big steers by the shed in the back yard.

None of my previous dogs ever worried the cattle and had a healthy respect for them but Ty will suddenly rush the fence all fluffed up, tail very high and woof woof then strut away. I do everything I can management wise to try and keep him away from them to reduce stress. This morning I took them to a side paddock and we had a good game of tug etc, back to the cottage the boys had a drink and settled away from the big steers. I turned to weed the veggie garden and suddenly Ty is rushing past and charging the gate, now the steers have never been herded by farm dogs so they have no fear and often jump away then turn back and Ty backs off then.

With my own stock I can try and keep it to a minimum but were I get caught out was like the other night. Took the dogs to the far back paddock away from our stock. Most of the paddocks in the area are quite steep and uneven. I was having a great game with the dogs when I suddenly felt like I was been watched, at that second Ty took off through the long grass at the boundary fence. The neighbors 30+ young steers had heard Ty barking and come to see what was up, as Ty appeared at the fence line this herd just took off down the hill in a stampede. I worry one day an animal will trip and hurt itself and if Ty somehow was ever to get off our property (very unlikely but!) a farmer has the right to shoot him.

One thing I do know is when younger Ty got away from us a few times and got in with the steers, he does not bite them he just herds them which is a good thing but it would be SO much better if I could get him to ignore and respect these animals, a 400kg steer could do him some damage if it wanted too.

As soon as a charge happens I run off looking for the toy to have a good tug etc but he's often looking over his shoulder to see what the steers are doing and often they are leaning on the fence watching <sigh>

Thanks for any ideas.

[Lee Charles Kelley]

Do you play "Dance with Me" with Ty? That's my name for an exercise from Natural Dog Training (Kevin's book), where you get the dog to jump up on command, then you back pedal, keeping him up on his back legs, plugging his energy into you, for increasingly longer and longer distances. Add some tug and you've got a really powerful training tool: playing tug-of-war while the dog is up on his back legs and you're moving backwards is one of the best ways to satisfy the dog's need to chase large prey animals. If he gets that satisfaction from playing with you he'll no longer need to go after the stock.

Also, are you playing "Chase Me" with Ty? That's where you tease him with a tug toy or tennis ball, invite him to jump on you to get it, but before he can make contact you run away, praising him and laughing at him. Then you zig-zag, change directions, fake left and go right, fake right and go left, throw in a stutter step, fake left and go left, stop and start, etc. Keep it short -- say about 20 seconds -- then let him bite the toy.

Another helpful exercise is the "down while running."

LCK

[Chris]

Thanks so much Lee. I have done some 'Dance with me' with Ty but there has been some resistance due to our past 'methods' but slowly getting over that and he's getting so much better.

I did try getting him up today and then tugging and that went pretty well.

I do a fair bit of running and zig zagging away, he's very good at jumping up to head height to within inches of my nose but not so good at the contact but will work more on that. I can see a few scratches coming up but hey it's only skin

I will have a re-read of the Down while running and do some work with that.

Thanks again I really appreciate it.

[neilsattin]

Hi Chris,

Good to hear that Ty hasn't suddenly decided that trying to take down a steer would be a good idea.

This is also a *classic* opportunity for you to use the redirection/rechanneling techniques to attract that energy that Ty wants to give the steer. It would require your going out there with Ty on lead (long or short - long would prob be better so you could combine the immediate push with more of the "chase me" that Lee suggests), and with the intention being to wait for your opportunity to do some redirection work so you're not distracted by doing whatever else you thought you were supposed to be doing out in the paddocks.

(for those of you with the DVDs I'm talking about "redirection" on DVD #1 - here's a link to a description of how to rechannel your dog's drive in an energized moment)

Don't forget that there's video instruction for how to do the running down on the 2nd DVD. I'm not sure where you're at with your "down" work - but if the running down isn't immediate for you, you might want to go back a step to ensure that you're adding drive to a "normal" down with pulses on the collar. It makes for an easier transition, both as a physical cue when you're doing the running down, and as an intermediate state of "down in drive".

Keep us posted! And remember that "worrying stock" isn't a problem with your dog - it's an opportunity for you to show Ty what to do with his energy in yet another situation. Being the steer isn't too far away from being the moose, after all!

[Chris]

Thanks Neil, I do do a far few in drive downs with Ty in our normal play/train sessions, like when I zig zag run back and forward etc then I'll throw in a down. Normally we don't have a lead on in this situation due to the area so I've now got a longest rope to put on him that won't hang up so we can add some pulses to the collar.

Just having the rope on him near the steers seems to settle him a bit and last night we just did basic downs and some 'Dance with me' about 8-10 m away from the steers who were all very interested to watch Ty's training session with no problems at all.

Twice today I've walked him past the younger steers and after one look at them he looked away and we carried on with more fun stuff so already showing an improvement.

Thanks again for the help