National exposé is not a balanced view: MPC

The Manitoba Co-operator | December 13, 2012 33
LIVESTOCK
h u s b a n d r y — t h e s c i e n c e , s K i L L O r a r t O F F a r M i n G
briefs
Cattle hauler
fined after losing
his load
a Pilot Mound-area cattle
producer has been fined
after several cattle fell out
of a gooseneck trailer he
was hauling en route to
brandon.
Motorists notified
carberry rcMP dec. 5
that there was an injured
cow lying on the transcanada
east of carberry.
the animal was severely
injured and euthanized.
Officers corralled a second
cow that had fallen
off the trailer in the same
location and transported
her to a local livestock
yard. three additional cattle
from the same load are
still missing.
the 52-year-old driver
was charged under the
highway traffic act for
transporting livestock in a
manner that would cause
injury or unnecessary suffering
and fined $295.
Canada testing
for ractopamine
winniPeG/reuters
the canadian government
started testing dec.
7 for the feed additive ractopamine
in pork and beef
to be shipped to russia, in
order to comply with a new
russian requirement, a top
canadian pork industry
official told reuters.
the canadian Food
inspection agency (cFia)
has provided meat
processors with testing
guidelines and is responsible
for signing certificates
to make sure the
products meet russian
standards, said Jacques
Pomerleau, executive
director of canada Pork
international.
Meat imports to russia
from producers using ractopamine
must be tested
and certified free of the
feed additive, the country’s
veterinary regulator
said, denying dec. 8 the
requirement is a political
retaliation.
the move, imposed a
day after the u.s. senate
approved a bill to expand
trade between washington
and Moscow that also
sought to punish russian
human rights violators,
could jeopardize north
american meat beef and
pork suppliers.
it would potentially give
advantage to chinese and
european union meat
producers, where ractopamine
is banned.
the u.s. Meat export
Federation said the u.s.
department of agriculture
had no testing and certification
program in place
for ractopamine.
By Daniel Winters
co-operator staff / brandon
border collie pups don’t come with an
instruction booklet.
that’s too bad, because how they
are introduced to livestock handling early
in life makes all the difference in the world,
said Martin Penfold, a cattle rancher, shepherd,
and videographer from Moosomin,
sask.
take the example of the farmer who was
convinced that his two-year-old border
collie was “nuts” because even as a pup, it
constantly harassed the cattle in corrals.
One day the farmer decided to teach the
dog a lesson it would never forget.
“now it won’t go in the corral at all,” the
farmer told Penfold, adding that he may
have been “a bit nasty.”
“the fellow didn’t know what he was
doing, and had already ruined the poor
little dog,” said Penfold, who has worked
with border collies for 40 years.
the key to training stock dogs is to
understand the breed’s natural tendencies
and use them to get each pup off to a good
start, Penfold said in a presentation at the
recent Manitoba ranchers’ Forum.
the most common mistake made by
inexperienced and uninformed border collie
owners is to allow the dog to roam freely
about the yard like any other breed. inevitably,
this results in the development of
annoying habits and misery for both the
owner and their livestock.
to prevent this, it’s necessary to keep the
often manic, black-and-white dervishes in
a run at all times, and only release them for
exercise, training, or when there is work to
do.
Penfold, who has produced a series of
dVds on training border collies, said he
starts his dogs off on a lead and teaches
them the basic commands such as “lie
down” — a fundamentally important lesson
akin to teaching a horse to “whoa.”
he does this by simply stepping on the
lead, which forces the dog to lay on the
ground. when it does this by voice alone,
the lesson is complete.
a teachable moment is never far away,
added Penfold, owner of rural route
Video, a video production company.
when taking border collies out for exercise,
he said he’s always on the lookout for
good opportunities. when crossing a road,
for example, he teaches them to lie down
and wait, and cross only when he determines
it is safe to do so.
the next step requires an understanding
of the border collie’s natural instinct to
circle a herd or flock in order to gather the
animals together and drive them towards
its owner.
an owner should never interfere with
that tendency, he said. instead, they should
use it as a training tool.
Penfold takes a dog out for its first livestock
working session in an open area with
a dozen dry cows or ewes. as the dog circles
the animals, he introduces commands
such as “away to me” and “come by,” which
indicate whether he wants them to move
clockwise or counterclockwise.
the trainer’s job is to be patient as the
dog learns on its own how to move the livestock,
and provide “balance.” that means
walking a few steps in different directions
to provide the dog with a natural target to
move the herd towards.
the verbal command, “there,” is used
to indicate to the dog that it has reached a
desired pivot point for “swinging in to the
herd” to move it in a specific direction.
“they get to understand it by continually
doing it,” said Penfold. “it just gets
filed away into the computer and eventually
they get to understand what it means.
in three 10-minute sessions, you’ve got a
working dog.”
“Gathering” towards the owner comes
naturally to a dog, but “driving” — moving
the flock or herd away from the owner — is
much more difficult to master because it is
the opposite of its instinctive behaviour.
Penfold said only 10 per cent of border
collies have what it takes to be an excellent
stock dog. there is a lot of variation in the
breed, and the ability to listen and handle
livestock is “100 per cent genetic,” he said.
For people who are serious about using
dogs, investing $300 to $400 on a topnotch,
well-bred and well-started animal is
worth every penny, he added.
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You can teach a young dog
the trick of proper herding
Stock dog expert says getting a young border collie started right
can mean the difference between heaven or hell
Stock dog expert Martin Penfold explains how to get border collies started properly, at the recent
Ranchers’ Forum. photo: daniel Winters
but owners still need to know how to
handle the animal, he added.
Penfold recalled how in the 1960s, legendary
scottish stock dog handler tommy
wilson had amazed crowds of Londoners
in hyde Park with a demonstration of his
skills.
an earnest Daily Telegraph reporter
asked him what was the hardest thing
about working with dogs.
“aye, that would be selling a border collie
to an englishman, because the dog will
always be smarter than the man,” the scot
replied.
what the highland shepherd really
meant, said Penfold, was that inexperienced,
uninformed owners’ attempts to
force a dog to conform to their vision of
working livestock instead of capitalizing on
the dog’s own instincts, is the true root of
all training errors.
daniel.winters@fbcpublishing.com
file photo