Tougher Cows; Better Handling

I need to write this one as soon as I can so I don’t forget. I feel like today’s lesson was invaluable. And it has a lot to do with my ego.

Shannon warned me that this new batch of cows, they’ve traded out since the others were getting too soft, were difficult and they were used to getting gang-worked old-school (aka, a lot of dogs on cows, not a lot of control) so dogs really have to have some power to get the work done. Then she pulls out her little Zeda and they look pretty good to me.

My turn.

Rippa’s still green so lacking confidence on outruns, so what’s she do? New cows? Outrun and FLY BY. OUTRUN AND FLY BY. My handling falls apart because unlike their other cows, my presence means a lot and I’m trying to stay out of Rippa’s way. She’s working up close and picking fights with this one cow – and that one cow, when not occupied with Rippa is pushing on another cow – literally picking its hind up with its horns and basically bullying it. I have no idea what that’s about.

We take a break. I watch her work Ruby – who works a lot wider and gets a lot more done.

I get it.

These are the kind of cows that people talk about that need a dog to back up their bark because they’ll run right over a dog. But they work pretty good if the dog stays off them. They work off people, too.

We have a conversation about what I saw – and Shannon teaches me something about cows I didn’t know. Dominant cows really make a difference during your work. This one Holstein is top-banana and it is hating on this other black cow. Anytime they get close, the Holstein pushes it out, aggressively if need be. That’s what was going on there. She says that in a herd, the dominant cattle will push the weaker ones out to the flanks, like, “YOU, YOU get eaten. Not me.” It’s a dynamic I’ve not really seen before (or didn’t know to see), and it makes a difference.

My next work is a lot better because now I’m seeing what’s happening – this Holstein keeps breaking up the group because the black cow gets close to him. Rippa pushes the black cow in, Holstein pushes it out. It’s work. You’re not totally working a herd, you’re working individual cows and dealing with their problems. Why? Because one little dog isn’t enough to worry about if you’re used to a bunch of them.

I watch Shannon work Trent, and he is such a nice dog. Now knowing what I know about the dynamics, I’m seeing how he handles them. Trent has POWER. He also has BITE. He will grab on and hang on as long as it takes. But he’s also really reading his cows – staying off when he needs to, watching the head, watching it go in, letting it go, moving on. At first I’m thinking “Well, yeah, he works wide and they like that,” but after she stops putting commands on him, he moves in close. And he takes his positioning immediately. This is what having a total dog is about. This is what I want, ultimately. She tells me it took a lot of work to get him to work wide. I feel better  - because it’s taking a lot of work to get it on Rippa. She’s taking it . . . but started dog taking it, not perfect yet.

She send me in alone with the cows and starts directing me. Just me, no dog.

This is invaluable. She has me do the “hook the eye” think that Curt Pate was talking about where you go toward the side that you want them to turn and they look back at you and that turns them that way, rather than pushing them away.  She has me find the balance point.

Here’s the thing: it’s not really where I think it’s going to be. All the little diagrams about how you go to the rear and it pushes, go to the shoulder and it pushes out, and go to the eye, it stops? No. It’s different on every cow, but you can stop a cow back behind the shoulder because they’ll turn to look at you. You have to watch those stock and really pay attention. If you can’t get out wide enough to push, hook that eye and they’ll turn toward you and keep going and they’ll turn. Not in big, outward circles like I think of with dog training, there’s an “in run” too – where the dog or whatever can go to a spot, hook they eye, and then run back they way they came and that will turn just as much as a dog running all the way around to push the head way.

This. Is. Huge. At least to me.

We get Rippa back on, and I learn another big lesson. I’ve been watching Shannon work her dogs and all of them have bite. Good bite. Rippa, on the other hand, is a real preservationist. She tells them she’s going to do something, but she’s a little worried it’s going to hurt if she backs it up. I don’t like this. I don’t like this so much that I forget about the subtle handling tricks I just practiced and latch on to the “sic ‘em” mentality and just want Rippa to grab a hold and back up her warnings. Don’t get me wrong, Rippa does from time to time, but not EVERY TIME.

I’m in the midst of the eight billionth “sic ‘em” fight we’re having with that dominant steer when Rippa pops in and then gets out of it and the steer, sensing the pressure is off, pops right back the way we want them to go. And here I am with my ego worrying my dog doesn’t have enough power. Rippa has enough power, but she doesn’t have enough cow sense yet to stay out wide enough to not create problems. And *I* don’t have enough cow sense yet to show her to do it. So when she comes in tight and the cow puts its head down for the attack, it can’t run, so it wants to run her over. If she would just say, “Hey, I am here” and then get out of the pressure zone, the cow would turn. And I’m not letting her because I’m riling her up because I want my dog to hit the head.

Stupid. Super stupid. Better to have a confident dog that takes pressure off and waits than one that goes all fool hardy into a fight. And I’m creating it. Shannon’s been trying to get me to stop her from doing it (and me) by having her stop once she’s turned her problem cow so she can learn to relax and take pressure off, but my ego got in the way of this lesson.

So, yeah, I needed to get it down before it fades. You need bite sometimes, but you need prudence other times. The solution is NOT always to go harder in, sometimes it’s to go further out. Hook their attention, then do something unorthodox.

Heads down? They’re just looking at you. They really don’t need to fight. Out! Out! They see you!

Anyway, not a bad work, Rippa gave it a good go – she took her commands pretty well for being on cattle (which is really, really adrenaline pumping) and she let angry Rippa go after cows challenged her. She also had no issues walking up calmly on heads. I’ll take it.

But I’m parking my ego about what she should do at the door from now on and just trying to learn to read the stock. Help your dog get it done. Don’t worry about anything else.