jill & ron

Steve, you said that To stop a pup from chasing a vehicle, you get in and start to move the vehicle very slowly, when the pup chases you correct it to the point it thinks you are about to kill it. What do you use as correction, verbal, physical, ???

OK, so I took advice from previous posts. Chloe, 6 mos, is now always in the house or tied on a 20 ft. line. She is sometimes tied near the heifer pen during chore time, but we never take her near the cows. Time is in short supply around here right now, however, we try to play, on leash, each day, and I get in obedience time whenever I can, which is not as often as it should be. Two BIG problems: incessant barking, and not coming to any of us when called. She has escaped the leash three times in the last 2 days. Today she lunged hard enough to break the leather collar. On the first escape, I was working in the yard, she would come just close enough, and then dash away before I could grab her, or even touch her. I figured I would let her run for a while, she stayed close, and after a bit came close enought to be petted and then CAUGHT! The escape this am, she did the same thing, coming close before racing away. Her mistake, going into the corncrib, where Ron went on one side, I on the other, and she was trapped. The third escape, which broke her collar, left her running around during chores. She stayed quiet for much of the time, but soon started the barking and wanting to nip at heels and chase, paying no attention to me at all. By now my fuse was starting to get pretty short. When the kids came home, they chased until she got tired,(she was too smart to go into the corncrib again) and then pounced. Since we no longer have a collar, she must spend the day locked in the lvstk trailer tomorrow. I have friends who let their BCs run loose all day but are contained at night. The dogs always come when called. Chloe always came when she was younger, but suddenly decided it was not the cool thing to do anymore. I am doing my best to be patient and react quietly, without yelling, but I am near my wits end. HELP!

As a post script. The shock collar we have has tone also. THe plans for using it is not at a replacement for training. Chloe has begun chasing the vehicles, making circles around them. When driving a dump truck, you simply cannot see her running in front. Her play with the cats also gets somewhat rough. For her safety, we need a very definite recognition of the NO command, so far she pays no attention. We are very careful when leaving the yard, and when we get within 20 ft of the hot wire across the lane, she stops circling. Our concern is others ie. the meter reader, or visitors won't be as careful or as patient as we are when leaving the yard.

Responding to our fence and boundries for Chloe. We have only approx 3 acres at our home, also live right on a gravel road. Some of the locals travel WAY too fast with a lot of grain truck traffic in spring and fall. All but a small section of frontage is enclosed with woven wire and 2 barb fence, and all has a hot wire in addition. We extended the hot wire to dog height to cover the unfenced frontage, including our lane. After running into the fence about 3 times when she first came to live with us, she won't go within 20 feet of the low hot wire. This may sound cruel, however, it was that or her life. As for "keeping her away from the cattle, not an option", we are VERY crowded here at calving time, without keeping her in the house, on leash, or locked in the lvstck trailer(we don't have a kennel yet) all the time, we can't keep her away from the cattle. Most of the time she is out alone she does not bother the cattle, she usually only shows interest when we are around the cattle. Since we started getting calves, she stays indoors or is leashed during a.m. chores when there is more going on with the pairs. We have 2 groups of pregnant cows that we turn into a small lot for feeding once a day. We let her help chase them out when they are done eating. As I said, our cows are very quiet, many have been shown by the kids in 4-H shows, and so far we have tried to halter all keeper heifers as yrlings(makes AIing and working them alot easier) Except for a stubborn one now and then, we usually can corral them by using their gluttony against them. Chloe is not going to be used as a herding dog on large scale in wide open spaces. No, I don't know a lot abour border collies, but am learning all the time. Visits to the library are getting limited results. Am now reading a book by Jon Katz, and since have learned yelling and excitement are not a good thing, so we are trying to use positive commands and voice tones. At this time, she is not alone on the farm all day very often. We are also SE contractors, so things are slow now except for the occasional days of trucking ag lime. By the time construction season gets in full swing, the kids should be home more.

Thanks for all your help! OUr puppy is definitly an important part of our family now. Wouldn't let her go any more than I would let one of the kids go. I would be very interested in any tapes or books that will help us with her training. I participeted in dog obedience classes in my 4-H days, so I know what I'm doing with that, however, I will need a lot of help with the rest of her education. As for keeping her away from the cattle now, not an option. The cows are only at the home farm for calving, Jan thru April, then it's back to pasture. I've gotten a lot of different opinions from people about the care of a BC. Some say that she should be kenneled during the day. We let her run free at our home place, approx 3 acres, all fenced so she does have boundaries. Will it just take time and patience to get out of the puppy stage with the short or non-existent attention span?

We have a 5 mo old pup, Chloe. Have had her since she was 3 mos old. We have a cow herd, all cattle are quiet, never had a dog around before. We would like to train her for working the cattle. She has the instincts, nipping at tails & hooves, barking, however, there is no control. I am working obedience training with her:( heel, sit, stay on leash). She is out of control. Won't come when called, or when she does, makes a pass and dashes away without being touched. Also, will not stop barking and herding when told to. Especially dangerous for us, she wants to herd the new calves. New mothers don't take kindly to this practice. We have started taking her on leash in the mornings when we are doing chores. Her attention span is very short, won't focus on me, but on the cats and birds and anything else that moves??. We have considered using a shock collar to enforce commands, "bad" or "no". What do we need to do?