Ben Means Clinic

When we got there, we sat down and tried to make sense of what we were seeing . . . and I leaned over to Shannon and said, “Wow, I guess that’s where ‘kick your dog out’ comes from . . .” because there was a cowboy in there with his dog on a lead trying to teach her flanks and kicking her in the side and saying “out.”
This was day 2 of the clinic and we were just there to audit, so obviously missed the point of this . . . and spent the next half hour or more watching this happen for some time while trying to figure out what was going on.
Ben’s wife, Leslie, came over to us and introduced us to Ben, saying we might have questions. No dogs, me and my trusty little notebook, he smiled and went back to the dog in the pen. I started to ask Leslie what was going on and found that what I was seeing was quite possibly what “that other method” of training that Aussie people do with lines was.
She told me that Ben and Bob Vest trained together a lot, not mentor relationship, exactly, but training buddies. And so this line work thing I was seeing was likely related to what Vest outlines in his book, and how other people who learned from him likely train. It was in stark contrast to the “circle jerk” method (that’s what Leslie calls it) that I current employ now.
Here’s the basic pitch that we got from Ben about what he does:
Give him a dog that’s totally raw – even not leash trained so he doesn’t have to fix that – at a year to a year and a half in age and in 30 days, he’ll hand you a finished dog.
Aside from the poor introduction when we first arrived, Shannon and I got kinda excited about that – because I’d been told that people using this line method are “light years ahead” of what I will forever call “the circle jerk” method, and if you recall, I was really unhappy with how long training was taking and how impractical it was.
30 consistent days of short works and you’ve got a finished dog? One that won’t run to head for fun, who will monitor speed, and respond to commands? That is amazing!

So here we go -
Ben said repeatedly, “I’m here to give over everything I have. If you have questions, please ask them. I’m taking my character to Heaven, but my career has to stay here.”
It was only a few hours, but here’s what I got:

• You shouldn’t start, or even really expose, a pup using his system until a year to a year and a half. Why? Because he says that his system is rigid and if you try it early, the puppy will remind you he’s just a puppy and roll over and give up. Fair enough. Emotional maturity to handle the line work was key.
• Dogs should not watch other dogs work, dogs should be all business – out of crate, working, back in crate, no cuddling, no socialization.
• You start in a small, square pen – say 10 ft by 15 ft and two head of cows (or sheep or whatever) in it. You want square corners in the pen to teach his commands.
• You need to watch the commands – you want to give them somewhat in a surprising manner so the dog doesn’t form the habit of looking back at you for direction.
• The dog doesn’t move out of this small pen into a slightly bigger space until he or she can:
• slow down on “easy”
• get out on command
• get over (this is why square corners) which means move laterally along the fence rather than trying to get “out”
• take a “there” (aka, face stalk, walk up)
• But: if the dog starts to get bored with this work, you have to move on to a bigger space. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be known by the dog.
• When you move on, you double the pen size – until you get into arena and pasture work, at which point, you’re done. I really, really wish we’d been able to see this, but all we saw was the first step in the tiny pen. Shannon bought his 30 day training video so hopefully we’ll see what day 30 looks like and how that progression goes.
• What you do in that pen is put them on a choke chain (“I don’t use pinch collars because I’m too heavy handed”) and then you let them approach their stock. If they are “neutral-minded,” aka, not thinking about rushing in or biting (and man, one dog was air snapping while this happened) and not pulling on the lead, you’re good.  They can move cows out of corners, keep driving straight, whatever.
• BUT, if the dog does get close, you basically use the line to snap them in the other direction with a flank command. The kicking out thing helps them square the flank and keep a good arc. It looks really bad if you don’t have good timing, but this guy got it down by his second work that we saw:
• And then you’re starting over again, with your dog flanking out around you. You want them to hit the fence with the “out.”
  
• If the dog comes in harder than a snap and redirect will work, you spin him around quickly and “recycle” him as Ben called it – aka, he’s lickety split back where he started.
• You’ll start with a lead rope, go to a 16 foot gold line, and eventually wean off, when you get to a bigger pen in a few weeks’ time.
• At that point, you’ll let them off, but only when they’re hitting the fenceline on those flank commands, and let them go to head, but only a little before you’re back to having them drive again.
• He says training a dog to fetch is like trying to train a bird dog to point – it will come, no reason to bother with it. All this restraint and driving training will transfer.
• When the dog is off the line and fetching them to you, if the dog drives them past you, she’s not allowed to go to head to get them. He says dogs create situations where they can go to head so why reward that, especially since he was probably wanting the cows to go that way anyway.
• Instead, you call the dog to you and wait for the cattle to slow up and stop (they will, at least training cattle), or you hit them with a “there” and let them keep driving that direction past you.
• He doesn’t believe in going backward – you get it right and expect nothing but forward progress.
• He uses long commands for stuff like “look back” aka, “You’re missing one” because it makes the dog think instead of instantly react to what he’s seeing (the herd he’s in control of)
• You don’t let them work on their own unless you know they’re thinking what you’re thinking. This leads to less commands to get a job done.

My big thought on this is – OMG how frustrating for the dog! The reward is walking calmly on a line behind the cows? I can TOTALLY see why this would shut down Aussies and why he doesn’t take in Aussies for 30 day training with this method.  Not gonna lie, I’m pretty sure every dog and handler trying this were frustrated to the gills, but much of it is for the same reason people get frustrated in any clinic: not totally getting “it,” not having good timing or leash handling, and not being used to it – especially if the dog had a start on him or her already because suddenly the rules had changed.

You clearly cannot just give this method a try mid-stream. It’s completely based on not allowing the dog to build bad, or any kind of other habit for that matter. It definitely doesn’t let the dog do that – but I think you have to have the right kind of dog that forgives the heavy handedness and the right timing to be effective.

I think you could use this to help square flanks out on cattle, because it’s really hard to do fine tuning work no cattle since they’re bigger than you and often scared of you. These cows asked for scratchies from me. They were cool.  If I had the right set up, I have a feeling The Fury would tolerate this kind of handling, but I’m not sure that it’s going to fix years of bad habits from me at this point – better to stick with what I know works.
Another thing that I thought was interesting was that his take on all of this wasn’t really developing instinct like how I see the “circle jerk” training – it was simply controlling the speed. Everything he was doing was focused on that. He was talking about how he didn’t like dogs to wear because then they were just going at the speed they wanted, but behind the stock. Obviously, wearing is important in the right situation, but not with  a couple of head.
I also love how he emphasized your body English in controlling the dog – being aware of what you physically are doing because the dog is reading that. So true.

Thank Shannon for a lot of this. She knew the right questions to get all this out of him.
Final thoughts?
Last time I posted, I said that I thought the key to getting dogs to working early and up to their potential was “raising them right” – aka ranch raising, being around stock, and letting them play good and early so they’re not intimidated. Shannon and Dustin’s year-old pups went to the CVASC trial and won started. So, the 30 day thing is pretty cool if you’ve got your timing right and the right dog (I do not think many/all Aussies could handle it because of how heavy handed it is and how they’re bred to think for themselves, and the Woods’ dogs seem the same way), but if you have to wait a year – is it any better than what we’re doing if you’ve got a setup like the Woods? In this case, the dogs would just be beginning training, whereas DSW dogs already have that foundation in place and they’re ready to at least trial.

I think we have to see this video of his to see what the finished product at 30 days looks like, too. But that’s my big thing there . . .

But if you don’t have set up like they do? This might very well be pretty awesome, but again, timing and skill in execution are key – and 30 solid consecutive days of being able to work are also key. Not too many people training at home in their spare time can make that happen.

Honestly, I don’t love how it looks on the dog end – dogs keen on stock really will put up with a lot, but it definitely doesn’t feel like the kind of training I like doing. Stockdogging requires being hard on keen dogs from time to time, and this definitely sets up consequences for them, but I’m not sold, at least not from what I saw. If the video is illuminating, I’ll check back in. Would LOVE to hear opinions from those who do Means-method training! taraaussies@gmail.com

Update: See my comments about the video.