urbanfarms

This isn't all BC exclusive, as I have 3 different breeds in my house, but funny nonetheless! #1 I taught Sage, my Lab, to fetch beer out of the fridge. (My Fiance loves this trick!) She loves the trick and all the attention she gets for doing it. I sometimes forget to remove her tug rope off the fridge door handle. So, when she is feeling very neglected, she runs off, opens the fridge herself, and searches for things to bring me. Once, when the beer was not stocked, she grabbed a wine bottle and drug it all the way to me in the living room. She will also sometimes open the fridge searching for a little snack...... rascal! I guess that's the price paid for beer delivery! #2 My BC, Nell, has this weird thing with the things she gets fixated on touching her. She will stalk the cat, but if the cat turns on her and starts walking towards her she will back away through the whole house, not loosing sight, but not letting it touch her either! She just walks in reverse until Kitty turns his back again. It's really funny when kitty chases her throughout the house! She will also not let any toy that you are holding touch her. She will do the same thing. You can chase her in reverse by holding the toy up to her face. Weird! 3# My friend's dog has a "stink face". Her boyfriend chews tobacco, and they discovered one day by accident, that if they hold the snuff under her nose she will wrinkle her nose and show her front teeth. She then snorts and runs away. Its the funniest thing I've ever seen a dog do. I want to try and get a picture of Cadence's "stink face"!

So, I've been having a few problems with my doggies this winter and any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm from MN, and it's been REALLY cold here lately. Like 20 below with windchill cold. Way too cold to go out and throw frisbee or ball or do any livestock work. My 3 y/o female, Nell, has started rummaging through the bathroom garbage and shredding stuff, and my 4 y/o male, Bandit, is just plain getting fat! I know they need more stimulation. So I bought the book 101 Dog Tricks by Kyra Sundance. It's so fun and we all love doing the training and learning new tricks. However, It's treat based training, which is fine, but it's not helping my chubby Bandit! My dogs are VERY toy driven, and I'd like to switch to training with toys, however, I can't get them to focus on me with a toy present. They just stare at it. They won't take it out of my hand (so I haven't been able to teach "take it" which I'd love to do). If I start trying to get them excited, they just get more fixated on it and sometimes whine. Like I said before, I'd love to get them to switch to toys as reward. I know they would do just about anything for a toy! If only I could figure out how...... If anyone's got any advice, I'd love to hear it! Thanks!

Thanks to everybody for their input, I truly appreciate it! As for finding help or sheep, I have tried for quite awhile with no success. I have found a trainer, but she is 2 hours away atleast. I simply don't have the money with the way gas is right now. I have trouble finding anyone to let me use their livestock because they automatically assume they will be run a lot and they do not feed them so that they can run it all off and not get nice and fat (or so I'm told). As for how I am setting her up, I have previously had her in an alley all winter driving the tame milk cows through the barn and keeping them off of me when I feed. Now that it is nice out I have taken her out to the pasture with the milk cows and she takes off aiming to get herself a bite of some heels and thats about it. I had too much trouble with this as the cows would not stay by me. They have internal clocks telling them it is time to be milked and head straight for the barn once the dog gets their lazy butts up . SO, I took her to a small yard with pretty mild heifers in it. I would say it is the size of a large round pen, but square. I tried to stand in front and she wouldn't do much of anything. I think she thought I was discouraging her. Also, I think there are just too many in the pen for me to circle and around with her and keep up so that she won't break them up. I am thinking of purchasing 3 or so sheep to train her on and then selling them when she is ready to move on to the pasture. By the way, she is 2 years old, and has always been difficult to get near the cattle's heads. Thanks again to everyone!

Ok, I've really screwed my dog up. A stupid beginner mistake for sure! I started my female in our milking barn with no particular plan in mind, just wanting her to help perform some common tasks on the farm, so I didn't start her the way that your suppose to. (MISTAKE!) I guess she was kinda started more or less driving, instead of gathering. So, now into the warmer months I have found that we have new tasks for her that include gathering the cattle, and she won't go around them either way unless I go with. She has now learned to always stay in front of me and never go out on her own. I try to encourage her and she gets confused and excited and breaks them right down the middle. I know it is completely my fault and she simply doesn't know any better. So here's the question: Where do I go from here? Now that I have read the books (A little too late) and seen how it's suppose to be done I am dumbfounded. Should I just start completely over from base 1?

Thanks for the link! Hopefully it helps with Bandit. However, I can't use the same method with the other dog. I haven't worked them together since I got them and even without the dominant dog around the passive dog still needs a lot of encouragement to do much of anything. Any ideas on how to re-spark his interest?

Thanks for the info, it is very confusing but it does clear things up a bit!!! Interesting stuff!

I have been reading up on BC colors and have read several breeders rip on colors other than black/white, red/white, and blue. Was wondering what others think? Also, was wondering if anyone has any info as far as color genetics is BC's? I read on one website that there is no blue merle gene. The dog either is or isn't. This leads me to believe that if you breed a black/white to a blue, no matter the black/whites genes.... you can still get blues?? Is this the same for other colors? I'm very confused! Just out of curiousity, I love learning about color inheritance in animals.

I named my female BC "Nell" because of a song in one of my favorite movies A KNIGHTS TALE. The knight is riding his horse and sees the woman of his dreams. He is singing to himself, "Twas there I met a pretty lass, she said her name was Nell." Kind of silly but I loved that movie and that scene in particular. I never heard the name at the time and only later realized it was a common name back in the day. My male, Bandit, is named so because as a puppy he was always stealing my undies out of the laundry and running like the wind all over the house! It was the funnest, of course, when we had company! Hope you enjoyed the stories!

I've got a bit of a challenge.... I'm not sure it's even possible. I've gotten a couple dogs that the owner was fed up with because he couldn't "train" the dogs. They are super sweet and I've always loved them, so I decided to try and make cowdogs of them yet. What an undertaking!! They are both unneutered male, (go figure!) one is definately VERY dominant and the other is obviously the underdog. Bandit, the dominant dog had SEVERAL very bad habits. Including, but not limited to: barking like mad, running tight circles in place, and gripping BADLY. He is also always trying to sneak away during training on me. I started him on a long line and he is doing well. I did this for weeks every single day and finally started trying to take the line off and he went directly back to his old habits. He will unless the line is on, but he is nearly unaffected by anything else, or he will become discouraged and run off. I feel that he was yelled at alot and so he gets overwhelmed and simply tries to escape. I am just wondering how to get the same behavior off line as on it..... Hmm... Also, does anyone have an opinion on whether or not to discourage the constant barking or just let him do it until his confidence is up? Ok, now for Jakey. He is super sweet and not scared of anything, has some great natural talent. However, I feel that Bandit would dominate over Jakey when it came to the cattle and so he is discouraged to do much. Once in awhile he will get ambitious, but not too often. I wonder if anyone has any ideas to get his courage/ambition/desire up? Thanks!!!!

Hey there, I could really use some advice on my 2 young BC's! My 3 and 2 year old have been with the cattle since they were little pups and I have been training them with more structure just in the last year or so. Here's my problemo: They both do pretty well for beginners on everything else, except for driving! This drives me bananas wondering what I should do because it is so important with the cattle and our daily chores. I will walk them up behind the already moving cattle and they can hardly contain themselves from biting heels. Gripping is great with some cattle, don't get me wrong but they will do it until the poor cow falls over (Dairy cow). We can't have that with milk cows. I started them on a long line and would give a quick jerk on the line to divert their attention and it seemed to work well, but every time I take them back off the line they revert to the behavior again after a short time. Now my youngest dog won't go forward without reassurance, and when I try to boost her confidence she goes straight for the heels again, as if I ok'ed it by encouraging her to go ahead. Any ideas? Appreciate it so much!

I'm sorry, where are my manners.... My name is Shannon, by the way. Thanks again to everybody.

Thanks to everybody with all the support and advice! I have tried to find help for so long and most people snub me. It's so great to find people willing to help! I live in Sunburg, MN. Which is about 20 miles north of Willmar, MN. I really see how a lot of the suggestions can pertain to Bandit. See, I bought the dog for my hubby and he has been doing exactly what you said most farmers do. Despite my arguing against it, he thought it was the best way. Finally he has relinquished some control over his training to me after nearly 2 years of this behavior. We still live about a mile away from the farm site, because the older couple that are selling it want to continue to live there. So he is kenneled at home, which makes him listen better I would imagine. But, at the farm he can roam free, in which he acts the opposite. I also see how we just are expecting too much from him without him really understanding what to do. I can see how my hubby's training "methods" can cause him frustration. I am always telling him to stop yelling at that dog because he is only confusing him more. We do have some calf pens, but I would also appreciate some names if anyone has any contacts, I really could use someone to be able to see what he does. Also, names of good training books would be great too. One more thing, I got my own BC and take her along with me to the farm when I ride horse, do chores, ect. I didn't plan to work her with cattle, but at around a year of age she has shown a lot of interest and some natural talent too. I decided to give her a try and started her on a long line in baby steps. She also is gripping excessively. My question in this, is using a tug on the line when she goes for the grip a way to break her of that? I have been trying to teach her to grip by command by saying the word and encouraging her. She mostly does this and seems to be learning. But I worry about confusing her on correcting her gripping with the line when she goes for it without the command. She is otherwise coming along pretty well and takes corrections and redirections very well. Thanks again!

Hi all, I'm new to this and to herding, so I would appreciate your patience with me and advice!!! I bought my hubby a male BC almost 2 years ago. We have a dairy farm and are trying to teach him to bring the cattle down from the pasture and into the barn. He is very obedient in the barn and in the yard, but out in the pasture if you call him or try to direct him he will just run off and go back to the barn. It's as if he's all for moving cattle when he can do it his way, but if you try to gain some control he will stop all together. I tried a long line, but he won't leave your side when he's attached to anything. Also he grips terribly. But again, if he can't do it his way he won't do it at all. I just don't know, because he only does this when working cattle. Otherwise he is very good. Thanks to anybody who has time to respond!