2017 March April

Stockdog Corner
Terry Martin • Hico, Texas
A Good Dog will Be Useful
I
am afraid this will be short. My deadline was January 15
and thank you, Cynthia for giving me a little extra time. I
realize this is just life, but since 2017 began two weeks ago,
my television had died, my computer died, and I lost a much
loved dog. It has been and still is a hard to time even find a topic
to write about. But upward and onward.
I will go to some phone calls I have received lately, because
people almost always have interesting things to say and to think
about later. Two of them were from ranchers who I enjoy talking
with as their ideas about working dogs are so often similar, but
they have far difference experiences, as we all do.
The first one has had and worked Aussies and some other
breeds for a few decades at least.
He, like me, was apparently
lucky in the beginning to have
a really great dog and so he/we
thought they must all be like that.
I understood his experiences as
he used this really good dog
when he had no experience with
working dogs or in training
them. This was before the days
of video, computers, or stockdog
clinics. So what did we do with this first dog?
First, we took it with us when doing chores – feeding, checking
fences, riding horseback out among the cattle, and moving them.
The dogs, his and mine so many years ago, simply learned by
seeing what we were doing and figuring out what we wanted
done. Sometimes the dog got yelled at because its instinct was
putting it in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes it got
a “good boy” when that same instinct made the dog useful. This
was his training. The rest was hard-wired into his head when he
was born. These were dogs who wanted to please although their
strong instinct did cause them to displease us – a lot – at times.
When we had the cattle almost into the pen and the dog ran and
chased them away – BAD DOG. When one cow ran off as they
approached the gate and the dog ran and chased it back – GOOD
DOG. When the dog figured out which was good and which was
bad – BETTER DOG. We possibly told that dog to “go get him”
or something to that effect when that cow ran off, but we didn’t
think of it as a command at the time. If we did that more than once
just perhaps that helped him to become a better helper.
We used dogs to work the chutes in those days (as ranchers do
now). The dogs were pretty happy to bite those calves’/cows’ legs
I can’t tell you how many people
have told me “I don’t need another
dog to lie on the porch while
I do all the work.”
when they were in the chute (our chutes made out of wood poles
with space between them) and had to be told, often more than once,
to stop biting them when we had one already in the headgate. They
figured it out and pretty much learned to push the calves forward
when we told them to and to leave them alone otherwise. Our dog
learned that when the chute was empty we would go back into the
pen and push more into the chute. Amazing the first time he did that
all by himself! Instinct combined with intelligence/experience/and
a desire to please. No formal training but it still is training even
when the rancher does not realize it.
These days many ranchers and farmers are far more savvy about
working dogs. They use the Internet, watch videos, talk to people
via e-mail and phone. They go
to clinics to learn about how to
work a dog or find someone close
by who uses dogs. The other man
who phoned me had done his
research but had not yet bought
a dog. He had trained bird dogs
before so sounded like he was
pretty dog savvy. People like this
are definitely going to train their
dog or buy a trained dog. IF they
get a good one, they will get farther much faster in having a useful
companion. I use the IF, because a lot of this is in the quality of
the dog. Without DESIRE TO WORK and INHERITED ABILITY
TO CONTROL LIVESTOCK combined with WILLINGNESS TO
PLEASE, neither the experienced stockman/trainer nor the clueless
one will have more than a companion to go along and keep him
company (or to lay on the porch or play with the kids). I can’t tell
you how many people have told me “I don’t need another dog to
lie on the porch while I do all the work.”
It may be just me, but when I take a dog out on stock the first
couple dozen times, I am kind of looking for a dog that will fit
the needs of the clueless rancher. He is really far from clueless,
because he knows livestock, he knows animals, and he knows what
he needs to get done. It’s very important that he gets a dog that
will have working instinct that can be put to use early on simply
by the dog figuring out why he is there and what is desirable for
him to do. What does your young dog do if you simply turn him
loose with stock (obviously the dog must be able to be called back,
but all dogs need to learn this) and watch him. Could this dog be
(STOCKDOG CORNER . . . continued on page 113)
AUSSIE TIMES March-April 2017 79