Train a working dog that can trial, not a trial dog that can't work Level 1

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Train a working dog that can trial, Not a trial dog that can’t work

MAYCON MOURA

Copyright © 2023 Maycon Moura All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9798372737969

INDEX Glossary .................................................................................... 3 Introduction ............................................................................ 4 Stockmanship ......................................................................... 6 Selecting the Right Dog....................................................... 7 The Right Age to Start Your Puppy.................................. 8 The Right Type of Training ............................................. 12 Teaching Your Puppy Obedience................................... 13 Pressure Points ..................................................................... 21 Comfort Zone and Pressure Zone ................................... 23 Communication and Rewarding ..................................... 25 Decision Making ................................................................. 27 Limitations ............................................................................ 31 Side Commands ................................................................... 34 Round Pen ............................................................................. 36 Round Pen Exercises in a Larger Space ....................... 48 Starting the Outrun ............................................................. 51 Transition to Verbal Side Commands ............................ 56 Whistle Commands ............................................................. 61 Preparation for Level 2 ....................................................... 62

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Glossary Lay down

To lay down

Stay

To stay

Away

Side command for counterclockwise direction

Come by

Side command for clockwise direction

Go back

To go further away from the livestock

Walk up

To walk straight toward the livestock

Come here

To come to you

Broke sheep

Sheep that has been taught to stay by the handler’s legs. They are taught this by being exposed to older, fully-trained stock dogs for a period of time.

Pairs

A pair is a cow and a calf together.

Working pairs is one of the most challenging tasks for a working dog as the cow is protective of the calf and will fight a dog.

Trial

A stock dog competition or show is called Trial.

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Introduction A well-trained stock dog saves you time, stress, and headaches. On the contrary, a poorly trained one does the exact opposite. Successful stock dog training involves numerous steps, and it is important to be patient and open minded throughout the process. Every dog is unique, and it is our job as trainers to adapt and think outside the box.

Training a sheepdog or a cattle dog starts with the same foundation. The training is commenced with sheep, and not cattle. Sheep are forgiving; they do not hurt a dog if they make a mistake. However, cattle are not as forgiving, and can easily injure a dog. This book focuses on Level 1 of the training process, and the same steps can be followed for both a sheepdog or a cattle dog. It is not until Level 2 we start focusing on cattle with exercises, such as bite control and more. However, a majority of Level 2 and Level 3 will concentrate on training that applies to both cattle dogs and sheep dogs.

Our methodology of training a stock dog is based on keeping a low stress environment where both you and the dog can learn. We want our dogs to enjoy their job, and to achieve progress every step of the way. Moreover, a happy dog that loves its job will always work better than one that is forced to do it. An incorrect training methodology can break a dog, despite how well it was bred or how much drive the dog has. Stock dogs are extremely smart animals; the training must make sense and be understandable to them, otherwise they will start to resent it. Our job, as trainers, is to protect the integrity of these dogs and to

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never expect something that has not been taught in the first place.

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Stockmanship The first step in the training process does not focus on the dog, but rather on you as a handler. In order to teach our dog what to do, we must, first, know what to do ourselves. Stockmanship takes practice to learn, there is no other way around it. You must get familiar with how livestock reacts to body pressure and positioning, and you must know how to position yourself to get them to move in the direction you want. Different livestock reacts differently, and we must adapt accordingly. The best way to learn good stockmanship is by starting with a small group of sheep and move them around by yourself to different places inside a round pen or a smaller fenced area. Once you feel comfortable with sheep, try some calm steers and go up gradually from there. The more you practice, the better prepared you are going to be to teach your dog to do it. Just as we will discuss later on in this book about a dog’s pressure points, livestock has the same pressure points.

These are head, shoulder, and backend. A dog’s body pressure and our body pressure towards the livestock has the same effect on the livestock’s directions, but the amount of pressure that we need to apply can differ a lot.

While we might have to come close to the livestock to make them move, a dog might need to stay far away to cause the same movement. This has to do with the difference in the amount of presence. You will see the same thing happen with different dogs. While some dogs must work close to the livestock, others make the livestock move from a longer distance.

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Selecting the Right Dog The preparation of a great stock dog starts at the time of breeding. When you purchase a puppy, always look for a serious and experienced breeder. Look for a breeder that can help you find a puppy that will fit the type of work you are going to do. There are different criteria for a dog that is going to work cattle, for one that is going to work sheep, and for one that is going to work both. These criteria must be kept in mind when choosing the right puppy for your individual needs. It is key to know the puppy’s stud and dam and, if possible, how previous offspring have performed. Further, it is of great importance to evaluate the combination of the parents. The parents’ qualities and weaknesses should complement each other.

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The Right Age to Start Your Puppy There is no “right age” to start training your puppy.

Every puppy is unique and matures differently. Even puppies out of the same litter mature differently. It is common to see people starting puppies on sheep when they are very young, barely three or four months old.

Personally, I would never let a puppy engage with livestock before the age of ten months. The reason for this is simple.

They are not mature enough to endure the pressure of training, therefore, to get them started only to examine whether they have the drive and subsequently wait until they mature enough for the “real” training is senseless. I often tell my clients – If you have a well-bred stock dog out of a proven bloodline, you do not need to try them on livestock to see if their drive is there; believe me, it is there.

You do not want to awaken their drive until they are of age, for it will only lead to unwanted behavior. Starting a stock dog on livestock is like turning on a light that can never be turned off again.

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Before your puppy is of age to start training, there is one rule that must be followed if you want to have a great stock dog. Do not leave your puppy loose around livestock, and this includes horses. This is probably the most common problem I face when training dogs for clients.

Daily, I see dogs that are only a few months old that have been already freely exposed to livestock. If they have been exposed only to sheep, most of the time, it is possible to fix them, but if it is to cattle, then sometimes certain habits or memories cannot be fixed, and consequently, great dogs go to waste. Throughout my many years of working as a trainer, I have found that the very best dogs are too smart to stay around in situations they do not understand, or only get in trouble. If you are to let loose an exceptional yet untrained stock dog among cattle, he is going to go in with his full heart. He is most likely going to get kicked and hurt badly. He will understand that this was not a good decision and will, in the worst case, stay away from cattle altogether in the future. The problem is not that the dog is lacking drive or courage, he is simply too smart to continue doing something that is only going to get him in trouble. If you, on the other hand, teach this dog how to use his strength and talent in the right way, you will have a dog that understands its job and enjoys it. Your dog will understand that if he gets kicked by livestock it is because he did not do what he was trained to do, not because he should stay away from cattle.

Training stock dogs involves using a lot of common sense – think about it in the same way you would teach something to a child. If you want your child to learn how to swim, you would not simply throw him in the water, in 9

hopes he would figure it out on his own. We know all too well when it comes to children, this approach would fail and lead to horrible consequences. Still people tend to think training stock dogs is different. Letting a puppy or a young dog free among cattle to figure things out on his own is the exact same thing as throwing a child in water without teaching him how to swim.

To sum up, before he reaches the age of training, let your puppy be a puppy. Let him play and just be a pet. The absolutely best preparation for a good stock dog is to let them live their life as a pet when they are puppies. It is commonly thought that good stock dogs must be treated differently than other dogs – they must be kept in a kennel and must not be a family pet who knows how to play and be loved. This is wrong. The more attention and love they get, the better dogs they will become. A dog’s bloodline 10

and inherited drive to work plays a very big role in determining how good of a stock he is going to be, but how the dog has been kept and treated while growing up is just as crucial. The best stock dogs I have trained are dogs that have lived in a family, and not been around livestock when they were puppies. When dogs like this come to me for training, they are open minded and ready to learn. They are not afraid of new situations because they have been around kids, other dogs, and different places before. And most importantly, they do not have bad habits in relation to livestock. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. A good stock dog learns extremely fast, and like I always say, they learn bad things a hundred times faster. Having stock dogs around livestock in a way that they can learn bad habits will negatively affect that dog’s future as a stock dog, provided they even make it that far. The truth is, some dogs are simply too “messed up” to be fixed.

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The Right Type of Training There are certain exercises and rules to be followed when training your stock dog, but there is no standard recipe that will work for all. Every dog needs a training protocol tailored to their individual needs. An important mindset to have throughout the entire training process is to never expect your dog to know something that you have not trained it to do. When we think like this, we do not end up confusing the dog, and this results in better progress.

For example, if you have not trained your dog to lay down before introducing him to livestock, then you can certainly not ask him to do it when he is working livestock. It will lead to terrible confusion, and he might think you are upset with him because he is going after the livestock, which is, on the contrary, exactly what you want him to do. Now if you had taught the dog to lay down away from livestock, and you are confident that he knows the command well, then you can ask him to lay down when livestock are present as well. Please remember, the first time you ask your dog for a lay down in front of livestock, he is still fresh, and the new situation is very exciting for them. He might not respond to the command as well as he normally does, and that is okay. Since he knows the command that you have taught him beforehand, but is now choosing not to obey, it is okay for you to gradually become sterner and demand him to lay down.

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Teaching Your Puppy Obedience The first step of your puppy training is obedience.

Herding comes later; obedience is the key to success. You can begin basic obedience training when your puppy is five months old. You must have good control of your dog away from livestock before you begin to expect them to demonstrate the same before livestock. Teach your dog to have a good “lay down”, “stay”, and “come here”. You are more than welcome to teach other commands and tricks; however, avoid training that requires a great deal of constant eye contact with your dog, such as a perfect “heel”. The reason you do not want to force excessive eye contact from your stock dog is because you do not want them to look at you when you start to work livestock. You want their eyes on the livestock and ears on you. Some eye contact is, of course, not a problem; it is necessary for the obedience training as they should pay attention to you.

What I am referring to is constant eye contact as is seen in professional obedience dogs and protection dogs that are trained for competition. These dogs do not leave their handler’s eyes for a second. This is not a good habit to teach stock dogs. To avoid any problems, I recommend not teaching your puppy to heel at all until after livestock training. Instead, always keep your dog on a leash if not in a confined area.

The most important part of puppy training does not place emphasis on the puppy. It hinges on you being a good teacher, and on your self-discipline. It is understandable that you might want to let your dog near livestock to see his reaction and drive, but this is where 13

they learn bad habits. You must be disciplined enough not to do this until the time is right. One of the biggest issues with puppies that have been around livestock before having proper training is that the owner has called them off too much. As an example, a puppy gets loose and, subsequently, chases livestock, thereby causing problems.

The owner tries to catch the puppy; however, he is unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the puppy creates problems for himself and gets hurt. The owner continues to call him off, but to no avail. Eventually, the owner has no option but to become sterner and, in the process, he creates a very uncomfortable situation to catch the puppy. Consequently, the puppy now associates livestock with stress and a feeling of discomfort. He also remembers the owner trying to stop him from going after the livestock. Some of the puppy’s drive has been destroyed and bad habits have been learnt.

If this happens once, it is already not a good thing, but if it happens regularly, you will end up with a dog that has learnt so many wrong habits, it would no longer be possible to fix him. The bottom line is, do not let your puppy free around livestock or horses.

When starting obedience training, the first thing to start with is to introduce a positive stimulus. I use hotdogs cut into small pieces for this. Start to do what is called “charging” the treat. Give your puppy small pieces of hotdog from your hand and say something positive such as “good boy” or “good girl”. Once your puppy understand that it is good to stay around you and he has garnered interest for the hotdog you can begin the training.

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Lay Down Start by having your puppy on a leash so that you can keep his attention.

To teach your dog to lay down, you first need to get your dog in a sitting position. To do this simply hold your hand with the treat over your puppy’s head and move your hand slightly backwards. Your puppy will eventually sit down in an attempt to get to the treat. Once he sits say “good boy” and give him a small piece of the treat. Now that your puppy is in a sitting position, the lay down position is easy to teach.

Hold your hand with the treat close to his nose and move your hand in a straight direction towards the ground between his front paws. Do not move your hand away from him as he will have to take a step forward to get to the treat and we do 15

not want that. When you hold your hand on the ground in between his front paws, he will eagerly try to lick and get to the treat in your clenched hand. He will eventually lay down to try to get to the treat and once he does so, you must immediately reward him by opening your hand to give him the treat and say, “good boy”. It may take a few attempts, and it may take a while before he lays down, but that is perfectly normal. Repeat this exercise until the lay down comes easily and without delay. You can start to say the words “lay down” from the beginning. It takes many repetitions before they associate the word with the movement, and you must stay patient. People often ask me how I get my dog to respond instantly to the lay down command when I work them on livestock, and it all starts right here with the obedience training given as a puppy.

When teaching them this way, they learn to love to lay down and to please. A dog that loves to listen and that understands its job will always work better than a dog that is forced to do it.

Once your puppy responds well to the movement of your hand towards the ground and lays down quickly, it is time to remove the hand movement. Since you have been using the lay down command along the entire training process, your puppy has been paying attention to it, but he may not have understood yet what it exactly means. Now is the time to make that happen. Start by getting your puppy’s attention, you can do this by saying his name, or if that does not work, give his leash a light tug. Once you have his attention, say the words “lay down” and wait for his response. Some dogs will think for a moment and then lay down. Others may need help from you by using the 16

movement of your hand towards the ground. It is okay to do this movement after you first give your puppy some time to think about the command. When your puppy lays down, immediately reward him. Repeat this exercise over and over until your puppy responds to the command without any hand movement. Do not stop rewarding him.

Your puppy still needs to be rewarded every time he does something you want him to do.

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Stay Once your puppy knows the lay down command, it is time to teach him “stay”. For this exercise, you still need to have him on a leash. Start by telling him to lay down and then say the word “stay”. Following this, take a few steps backwards and tell him again to lay down. Wait in your position for a few seconds and then walk to your puppy again and reward him. Do not walk away and call your dog to you. This will confuse the training exercise for the “stay” command as you will mix “stay” and “come here”. In this exercise, your puppy’s job is to stay in his position while you move. It is important to do this exercise in small steps so as to not teach your dog bad habits, such as moving before you allow him to. Continue the exercise by moving further and further away from your dog while he stays in a laying down position. Tell him the word “stay” every time you start moving away from him. If he tries to get up, immediately tug on the leash and tell him to lay down. Once he lays down, say the word “stay” again. Once he stays in his position well while you move backwards, start moving in a circle around him. He will try to get up when you move behind him since he wants to be able to look at you. Be sure to tell him to lay down before he gets up. Always reward him with hotdogs in between each repetition so that he understands that he is getting rewarded for staying in his position. Once you confidently know he continues to stay 18

while you move far away from him and around him in circles, you can start to do the exercise without a leash in a fenced area where he cannot run away.

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Come Here Start by having your puppy on a leash. Tell him to lay down and stay and give him a treat. The treat will take his attention and help you with this exercise. Walk away a short distance and say the command “come here”. If he does not want to come, tug lightly on the leash and pull him towards you slightly. Say come here again, and once he comes to you, reward him with a treat and say, “good boy”.

Repeat the exercise over a short distance many times until he comes straight to you without hesitation. Continue by moving further away from your puppy while he is still on a leash and repeat the exercise. It is important to remember that even if your puppy knows this exercise well, it does not mean he can be free around livestock. If your puppy sees livestock, you want him to go after it. For stock dog training, it is necessary your puppy has a high drive, and we certainly do not, in any way, want to inhibit that drive.

Calling him away from livestock before herding training has even begun will lower his drive, and consequently, the action of rewarding him each time for coming back to you instead of going to the livestock will teach him bad habits.

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Pressure Points Just like livestock, dogs too have pressure points.

Pressure points in your dog relates to your body positioning and pressure towards your dog when working.

When training your stock dog, three crucial pressure points must be remembered, i.e., Head, Shoulder, and Backend.

Applying body pressure towards your dog’s head will stop your dog or change its direction. Applying body pressure towards your dog’s shoulder will “open” your dog up, i.e., it will make the dog go further away from the livestock or ensure it keeps its distance. And lastly, applying body pressure towards your dog’s backend will turn the dog in towards the livestock. To get a better picture of how the different pressure points affect your dog, you can think of when you work a dog inside a round pen. The sheep should stay in the middle, since they are broke, while the dog is 21

near the outsides of the pen, and you are positioned in between them where you have control of the situation.

When your dog starts circling around the sheep, you should always maintain your position so that you are applying pressure to your dog’s shoulder.

This means you will have to continuously move in a circle around the sheep to follow your dog. When you want your dog to come to a stop or change direction you must step ahead of the dog until you reach its head position. Common mistakes that many people make is not following the dog’s movement around the sheep properly and not maintaining pressure on the dog’s shoulder.

People start staying behind and, instead, 22

start applying pressure on the dog’s backend. This will lead to the dog starting to make tighter circles and, soon enough, attacking the sheep. Training a stock dog takes constant movement from the handler. Only when a dog is full trained and able to work off verbal and whistle commands can one achieve a break.

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Comfort Zone and Pressure Zone There are two zones which your dog will need to be taught. These are called the pressure zone and the comfort zone. Unless you ask your dog to enter the pressure zone, your dog should work in the comfort zone. Working in the comfort zone means that your dog is moving without applying pressure to the livestock. When you need your dog to move the livestock in a certain direction, he needs to enter the pressure zone. As soon as he enters the pressure zone, the livestock will move in an effort to escape the pressure zone. It is important to know that different types of livestock have different pressure zones and that different dogs apply different amount of pressure as well.

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Communication and Rewarding There are numerous important variables when training working dogs, and communication and rewarding are two of those. We must always make sure we are communicating with our dogs in a way they can understand what we want from them. Consider, for example, a situation where we are trying to make our dog go to the “come by” direction and he keeps trying to go “away”.

Instead of yelling at the dog and punishing him, it is our responsibility to find a way to make him understand. The most common mistake people do is expecting too much of the dog before teaching it properly. In a situation like this, we must use the tools we have, i.e., our body positioning, to communicate. If you want your dog to go in the “come by” direction you 25

must block the “away” direction with your body. This means you must move yourself to a position where the only way your dog can get to the livestock is by going to the “come by” direction. Once he starts going, you have to immediately reward him verbally by saying “good boy” or any other verbal reward he is used to. Once he is on the move, do not forget to move yourself back to a position where you are applying body pressure on his shoulder.

More about body positioning will be explained in the “round pen” section of this book.

Communication comes in many ways; it can be verbal or based on body positioning. Moreover, rewarding is just as important as correction. We are often very good at correcting our dog when we do not want them to do something, but we are not as good at rewarding him when they are obeying our commands. Rewarding is crucial to make your dog recognize correct behavior. If everything he hears is “No!”, he will be very confused and scared while working. You will end up with a nervous, confused dog that does not enjoy its job.

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Decision Making There are two types of decisions we can make; these are rational decisions and emotional decisions. Since I started training stock dogs many years ago, I have consciously chosen to make careful decisions while training dogs for every action has consequences. However, it was not until a friend of mine put this thought process in actual words that I genuinely started to apply it to my program.

This friend was Mike Massey, a renowned dog breeder. He talked to me about rational and emotional decisions and their effect, not only on dog training, but on decisions in life as well. When training dogs, we must always make rational decisions, and honestly speaking, making only rational decisions would benefit us tremendously in life as well, but doing so can be extremely hard. However, when training dogs, we have to be disciplined enough to always practice the same because dogs do not understand us in ways that other humans do.

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Rational Decision Rational decisions will solve your problem, avoid new problems, and lead to success. While training a stock dog, when everything seems to be going wrong, we must stop and study the situation, and think about what the problem is and how it can be solved. Sometimes you even have to take a break and simply go home, give it a thought, and come back with a different approach tomorrow. An example I often tell people is when I trained a Hangin’ Tree Cowdog named Cracker’s Bo. Bo was an exceptionally strong dog, but to the point where he was hurting livestock.

When I got Bo for training, he was already five years old and had been trained well, but not with the finesse and responsiveness that I expect from a dog. Just as I would normally work on a young dog, I started with Bo inside a round pen with broke sheep. I encountered many issues with him – he abused the sheep by biting them uncontrollably and even broke the leg of a sheep one day.

The first action someone would usually take would be to punish Bo physically, but I knew better, and I had seen similar behavior before. This kind of behavior comes from dogs with lack of confidence. They bite the livestock because they do not trust themselves to stay face to face with them without biting. The bite is necessary, but it must be controlled and used when needed. To stop Bo from abusing livestock, I put him on a leash inside a small pen with sheep, and made him walk up to sheep and stand face to face with them without biting. If he tried to bite, I would correct him with the leash and hold him off from the sheep. I did this for a couple of months before he got comfortable facing the sheep, and he came out of that 28

training understanding that he was more powerful than the sheep, and that if they tried to fight him, all he had to do was give them a quick bite on their nose, not a full force bite without letting go that would significantly hurt the sheep. This is an example of a rational decision.

Cracker’s Bo

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Emotional Decision An emotional decision will lead to aggravation, create more problems and cause regrets. Sometimes dogs need correction, there is no way to run away from that. All training involves both positive and negative stimulation, but we must be disciplined enough to know when to apply what. If you find yourself making emotional decisions when training dogs, take a break and come back later. It is never going to solve anything. A good example of an emotional decision would be if a person were to punish Bo, the dog I mentioned before, instead of finding a rational solution when he is abusing livestock. Punishing Bo while he was in the middle of abusing livestock would only lead to more damage and frustration. A dog like Bo gets so amped up when biting livestock, he shuts out everything that is happening around him. The only way to train a dog like that is to maintain a calm environment where he is aware of what is happening and of what we are trying to teach him. When Bo was young and attended his first stock dog trial, it ended with him taking hold of a cow’s nose and not letting it go. People had to hold the cow and physically open Bo’s mouth to release his grip. He had completely shut out everything else that was happening around him, and it was only him and that cow that mattered in that moment. Bo is a special dog and a unique example; however, all dogs are different, and they require different training approaches. Please remember to always make rational decisions, and if you are not in a good mood or are not having a good day, do not train a stock dog that day.

You might wonder how things turned out for Bo after all this training. Bo ended up winning many trials, and 30

to top it all, he participated in the 2021 Hangin’ Tree National Finals and became the Supreme Champion. He was later sold at an auction for $38,500.00. He moved to a ranch with more than twenty thousand acres of land in McAllen, Texas to work roughly five thousand head of cattle. Sadly, Bo died in 2022 as a result of a rattle snake bite. It was a huge loss for the stock dog industry, and he will forever be remembered as one of the best Hangin’ Tree Cowdogs to have ever lived.

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Limitations As discussed before, there are things we can and cannot do with our dogs. Not taking puppies to livestock before they are old enough is one example of a limitation, and not starting a dog on cattle is another one. We simply do not run before we walk. Be thoughtful about your training and how much you can expect from your dog. It takes time to train a good one and it must be done in steps.

I often see people trying exercises that their dog is not prepared for and sometimes they are not prepared for it themselves either. The reason that people tend to rush the training process is lack of patience and discipline. Training takes time and repetition, you might not see a change every time you do a session but over time you will if done correctly. Trying an exercise that is too advanced for your dog only too see how he handles it will cause problems for you to fix later on and can in the worst case lead to habits that you cannot fix at all. The foundation of a working dog is the most important part and it will take longer time to build the foundation than anything else. I often use my dog “Favela” as an example when explaining how important the foundation is to people. Favela is one of my absolute best females that I have ever had. She became the 2021 Rodear America Green Dog National Champion and Green dog of the Year. “Green dog” is a class within Rodear America for young dogs. However, Favela was a dog that I had to spend exceptionally long time with the foundation. I spend well over eight months working her only inside the round pen with sheep. There was a time that I thought she was ready to move to a bigger area and when I did she showed me that she was not ready yet. She did not take my commands 32

well at a distance and she got too nervous with the larger space. Instead of forcing her to work in the bigger area I went back to the round pen again. I taught her everything from side commands to small outruns inside the round pen and once she finally matured and was ready to move out, the rest of the training came naturally. She understood to translate the exercises she had done in the round pen to a large space. She was relaxed and she listened.

When training a working dog, do not be ashamed of going back to the basics. In fact it should be a part of your training to sometimes go back to the basics. The is no such thing as a full trained dog that without training is going to stay full trained forever. It takes continuous training to keep a dog that way. I go back to the basics with all my dogs when necessary, it does not matter if they are National Champions.

“Favela”

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Side Commands The side commands “come by” (clockwise direction) and “away” (counterclockwise direction) are taught from the very beginning inside the round pen. By always saying the command when sending your dog in a direction, your dog will start associating the command with the side. To begin with, your dog will not understand the verbal side commands, what is going to make him move in a direction is your body positioning. Both body positioning and how to gradually transition to only using verbal commands will be discussed hereinafter.

I get asked sometimes if it is possible to teach side commands when livestock is not present, and you should not do that. The side commands should always relate to the livestock, and we need the dog’s drive and focus on the livestock to teach the side commands properly. When working a stock dog, picture a clock with the livestock being the middle of the clock. Your dog is not moving right or left, he is moving either in the clockwise direction or the counterclockwise direction around the livestock. When we think like this, we do not end up confused, the clock’s 34

directions are the same for both the dog and the handler, no matter which position we are in. However, the dog’s left and our left will be different, depending on which position we are in.

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Round Pen When your dog is at least ten months old, obedient, and listens well to the commands “lay down”, “stay”, and “come here”, you can begin round pen training. If you do not have a permanent round pen, you can set up one using livestock panels. Make sure that the panels are high enough and with a net so that neither your dog nor the sheep can escape. I recommend a round pen of at least 20 panels that are 10ft each. This will give you a round pen that is approximately 64ft in diameter.

The second part necessary for a good set up is “dog broke” sheep. Dog broke sheep are sheep that have been taught to stay by the handler’s legs. They are taught this by being exposed to older full trained stock dogs for a period of time until they understand that staying by the handler is the safest place to be. If you do not have dog broke sheep, 36

you will have to get some. You can either buy from someone who trains working dogs, or ask someone with a full trained dog to break sheep for you. Do not attempt to conduct any training in the round pen with a young or untrained dog without having broke sheep. You will not be able to teach anything worthwhile. Instead, you going to end up creating chaos and frustration.

For the round pen work, use three to five sheep.

Less than that number will make the sheep nervous, and they will start looking for a place to escape, whereas more will cause them to spread out too much for this exercise and you will, consequently, not be able to keep the dog away from them. To work your dog in the round pen, you are also going to need a horse lunge whip. The whip is not to be used to punish your dog, instead it is an extension of your arm to apply pressure on your dog to move in the directions you want. Additionally, the lunge whip can be used as a correction tool when you “crack” the whip to make a loud noise. This sound is unpleasant for the dog and can be used to correct him when he gets too tight or when he does something undesired.

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When the round pen is ready, start the training by walking towards the sheep with your puppy on a leash. Do not correct your puppy for pulling on the leash, that is what we want them to do, and we are also going to need that pull on the leash for future work with bite control on cattle.

After walking around for a little while, start running towards the sheep with your puppy, still on a leash, to make your puppy interested and to make him think something fun is going on. Make the sheep move so they catch your puppy’s attention. When your puppy gets interested in the sheep, let him off the leash to run after the sheep. Only let him do this for a short period, no longer than a couple of minutes. The first time in the round pen is to get him engaged with the sheep. We do not want him to get tired.

By doing so you will build up a greater excitement every time you come back to the training pen.

The second time you come to the round pen, you can start asking a little bit more from your dog. Start by walking around the sheep with your dog on a leash like the last time. Since we have given the dog good obedience training away from livestock, and because the dog knows “lay down” well, you can now start asking the dog to “lay down” while on a leash in front of the sheep.

Your dog might not respond; in 38

that case, you can tug on the leash to get his attention.

Make him lay down several times until you get a quick response without hesitation. Once you have that, walk around the sheep and position them in the middle of the round pen (again, please note that this is only possible with very broke sheep), lay your dog down close to the sidewall of the round pen, and tell him to stay. His “stay” most likely will not last very long and that is okay, you just need to be quick to get in a position in front of the sheep once you let him off the leash. However, before letting him off the leash, get your lunge whip and hold it along your body in a “neutral position”, any movement with the whip will apply pressure to the dog and cause him to move. When you let him off the leash, do so while standing in front of him in a way that you are blocking the view of the sheep – you won’t be able to fully block the view, but you want to ensure to stand in front of your dog. Once he is off the leash, walk backwards in a straight line towards the sheep while keeping your eyes on your dog until you are close to the sheep.

Repeat the “lay down” 39

command if your dog shows intention to move before you allow him. Keep your whip in a neutral position until you get to the sheep. If your dog is still laying down where you left him, then pick a side you want him to move towards. Do so by blocking the side you do not want him to go to by using your body and by holding out the whip. The whip is not to be used to point to the direction you want him to go to, it is used to block the side you do not want him to go.

If you want your dog to go “come by”, block the “away” direction.

If your dog did not stay where you left him and has already started going toward the sheep, then you must get in a position where you are applying pressure to his 40

shoulder and pushing him further out from the sheep while circling around them. This is where we must learn how our body pressure on the dog’s three different pressure points affects his movement. A shoulder position will keep your dog circling while maintaining distance from the sheep. A head position will stop or turn your dog’s direction, and a backend position will put you behind and leave space for him to get close to the sheep and eventually “explode” them (my way of describing the process).

In the round pen, the first thing we want to teach our dog is to maintain a good distance with the sheep while circling in different directions. Some dogs will favor a side and move further and be more relaxed in that direction, and then, when going in the opposite direction, they will get tight. These are all possible issues that we need to know how to work on. A way to correct a dog that is coming in too tight is by maintaining a proper position on the dog’s shoulder and then by using the whip to make the “cracking” sound while verbally using the command “go back” or “out”. Don’t forget to reward your dog when he gives more space to the sheep. Reward him verbally and by “giving him the stock”.

Giving the stock means letting him bring them to you.

When your dog gives space to the sheep instead of standing in between the sheep and your dog on a shoulder position you step 41

behind the sheep and let him bring them to you a few steps. Lay him down again and move back to your position in between the sheep and the dog.

This may not seem like a reward, but to the dog it is the biggest reward you can give him. What he naturally wants to do is to bring the livestock to you; it gives him purpose and satisfaction. It is important to conduct the training in a purposeful, sensible way. Just circling your dog non-stop in a direction is senseless.

What you must implement is simple but different exercises.

Exercise of the Eight When laying the foundation of a stock dog we must teach the dog to have stock sense and to know the balance point. An exercise that helps teaching this is what I call 42

“The Exercise of the Eight”. In this exercise we allow the dog to move more freely and to lead the sheep towards us while we continuously walk backwards in the figure of an eight. When we do this the dog must move to different sides to apply pressure towards the sheep so that they follow us. It also teaches him the balance point where we are at 6 o’clock and he is at 12 o’clock.

Look at the drawings here to understand the exercise and imagine yourself walking backwards following the arrows in the formation of an eight. You apply body pressure for your dog to open and then you release the pressure and walk backwards and let him bring them straight to you. Keep a calm environment where both you and your dog can learn. This exercise forces your dog to think about what he is doing and teaches him to lead the sheep to you, no matter which direction you are going. It 43

also teaches him to keep a proper distance to the sheep and most importantly – stock sense. After doing the exercise of the eight for a period of time you will notice that your dog becomes more relaxed and comfortable with the situation inside the round pen. I cannot put enough weight on how important this exercise is as it gives your dog a purpose and it lays a vital foundation for the rest of the training.

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Below is a step-by-step guide to how I would conduct a session in the round pen with a dog that responds well to “lay down”. Without a good “lay down”, we cannot do much in the round pen, therefore, it is vital this has been taught well before entering the round pen.

1. Pick up my lunge whip and put my dog on a leash and walk him around the sheep while telling him to lay down occasionally.

2. Position the sheep in the middle of the pen.

3. Position my dog in a lay down position along the sidewall of the round pen and tell him to stay.

4. Take off the leash while standing in front of my dog to block his view of the sheep. You are not going to be able to completely block his view of the sheep, but you want to make sure to stand in front of him.

5. While holding my whip in a neutral position, I start walking backwards in a straight line towards the sheep in the middle of the round pen while keeping my eyes on my dog and making sure he stays laying down. If I notice he intends to start moving, I repeat the lay down command as many times as necessary until I get in position.

6. Once I am in position in front of the sheep, I choose a side that I want my dog to start circling to, and I do so by blocking the opposite side with my body. If I want my dog to go “away”, I move to the right and hold my whip to the right to block the “come by” side.

7. When my dog starts moving in the “away” direction, I walk to the position in between my dog and the 45

sheep where I put pressure on my dog’s shoulder, and I continuously follow him while he is circling around the sheep.

8. I let him circle the sheep only two or three times and then I move my body position further ahead to where I put pressure on his head. When I get to that position, my dog will notice me and that is when I tell him to “lay down”. If he tries to change direction and does not “stop”, I keep moving my body to block his head and repeat the “lay down” command.

It is important to keep the lunge whip in neutral position when asking the dog to lay down. Any movement with the whip will make the dog move.

9. Once he lays down, I change to move him in the “come by” direction. I do so by blocking the opposite direction. When my dog starts moving in the “come by” direction, I walk to the position in between my dog and the sheep where I put pressure on my dog’s shoulder, and I continuously follow him while he is circling around the sheep.

10. I repeat this change of direction throughout the training session, and I additionally reward him by giving him the stock when he does good and when he gives more space away from the sheep.

11. When he gives space, I tell him to “lay down”, I change my position by going behind the sheep, and I start walking backwards while telling him to “walk up”. When he walks a few steps towards the sheep, I tell him to “lay down” again and I go back to my original position between my dog and the sheep. Do not send your dog on a side command when you are behind the sheep, that will lead to poor flanks which 46

is something we will discuss in Level 2 while learning “square flanks”. I incorporate the exercise of the eight into the end of the training session when my dog is more relaxed.

12. I always end the training when my dog does something good. I reward him by giving the stock, and once he has brought them to me, I lay him down, walk to him, put him on a leash, and walk out of the round pen. You must always have a leash on you and put your dog on a leash to walk out of the round pen. Do not try to call him to you and risk that he will take off and run to the sheep and, consequently, mess up the good training session you just had.

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Round Pen Exercises in a Larger Space When you have good control on your dog inside the round pen, when he is no longer trying to attack the sheep, and is listening well to the commands “lay down”, “stay”, and “come here” when livestock is present, you can move to a larger confined space, such as an arena or smaller fenced pasture where the sheep cannot escape. I personally use an arena that is 200ft by 300ft. When moving to a larger space, you should continue to use the same well broke sheep that you used in the round pen. The larger space will get your dog more excited, and it is important to not try anything new. Do the exact same exercises as you did inside the round pen and work on getting your dog relaxed and staying further away from the sheep. Work on both directions with your dog and reward him by giving him the sheep when he does good work. Work in the middle of the arena or small pasture where you have lots of space, where the dog does not get tight because of the fence being too close to the sheep. Repeat this exercise until you and your dog feel comfortable and have good control as this will prepare you for the outrun.

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Starting the Outrun When you have good control of your dog both inside the round pen and in the arena or small pasture, and when he is no longer trying to attack the sheep and is listening well to the commands “lay down”, “stay”, and “come here” when livestock is present, you can start training the outrun. The foundation of the outrun starts inside the round pen. When we stand in between the dog and the sheep and teach our dog to always go along the sides of the round pen to come behind the sheep and then bring them to us, we are teaching the dog a small outrun.

In the beginning of teaching the outrun we must stand in between the sheep and the dog. If we were to stand beside the dog and send him on an outrun before he was taught properly, he would simply cross our front and run straight to the sheep. We must be in the middle to block that path, pressure must be applied to the dog to keep a desired distance from the sheep, and he must come around them from behind. In the beginning, we stand close to the sheep.

Slowly, we can move closer and closer to our dog until the day we can send him on an outrun from our feet. The most important part in teaching the outrun is not to rush the process. We must teach our dog that it is never okay to cross our front or run straight to the livestock. This can be prevented by teaching the process in small steps and on a short distance to start with.

To teach the outrun, you will need to move to a larger enclosed space, such as an arena or a small, wellfenced pasture. As mentioned above, your dog must do the exercises inside the round pen well and with control before 51

you move to this step. There is no set time for how long your dog needs to be worked in the round pen before you can start to work in a larger space. Every dog is different, and you must be disciplined enough not to rush the process. Some dogs naturally prefer to keep a bigger distance to the livestock and such dogs can move to a larger space faster, whereas a very pushy dog that stays tight would need to stay longer in the round pen. Both types of dogs can make great working dogs, they are just going to spend a different amount of time on different exercises. That is perfectly normal.

When teaching the outrun, once again picture a clock. You and your dog’s starting point is 6 o’clock, the sheep are in the middle of the clock, and the point where you want your dog to stop while doing the outrun and start bringing the sheep to you is 12 o’clock. He should then bring the sheep in a straight line to you from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock. The end result of teaching the outrun is that you will be able to send your dog from your feet, but that is not how we begin the training. As has been stated before, in the beginning, your position is going to be right in front of the sheep where you face your dog that is laying down further away from you so that you have a way to block the dog from going in a straight line toward the sheep. You must be able to apply body pressure on your dog to go around the sheep and come up from behind. Gradually, as your dog understands the distance he needs to keep when doing the outrun, we will move closer and closer to our dog and leave a bigger space between you and the sheep.

This has to be done in steps and there is no timeline for 52

how long it will take or how many repetitions must be done. It all depends on your dog’s learning process.

Here is a step-by-step guide to how I would conduct an outrun session in an arena with a dog that has completed the exercises in the round pen and arena with good control and responsiveness to “lay down”, “stay” and “come here”. If your dog is not responding well to these commands in the round pen, then it is not the time to move to a larger space. I work in an arena that is 300ft by 200ft. When I start teaching the outrun, I use the same sheep as I used in the round pen since they are very broke, thus, the change for the dog is less drastic.

1. I start by walking with my dog on a leash to place the sheep in the middle of the arena.

2. Once the sheep are set, I walk with my dog on the leash to the spot I want him to start the outrun from. I start with a distance of only about 100ft. I get my lunge whip, and I lay him down and tell him to stay.

3. I remove the leash while I am standing in front of him, blocking the view of the sheep. You are not going to be able to completely block his view of the sheep, but you want to make sure to stand in front of him.

4. I walk backwards while holding the whip in a neutral position until I am only a few feet away from the sheep while continuously keeping my eyes on my dog to make sure he stays in the same spot I left him. I repeat “lay down” if necessary.

5. I then pick a side. If I want my dog to go “away”, I will move to the right and hold the whip to the right 53

to block the opposite direction and then I give him the “away” command. My dog still has not learnt the side commands, but with the help of my body positioning he understands which direction to go in.

6. When my dog starts going in the “away” direction, I move towards his shoulder to apply pressure for him to open. If he starts going too tight, I move more toward his shoulder and crack the whip and tell him the command “go back” which has been used inside the round pen. If my dog goes far too tight, almost straight, I stop him by laying him down and I start the outrun over. It is important not to let your dog get by when acting incorrectly and learning bad habits. If things are going wrong, lay your dog down and start over.

7. Once my dog goes further out and starts coming behind the sheep, I release the body pressure on his shoulder and start walking backwards towards the spot where my dog originally started the outrun. I call this spot 6 o’clock.

8. Once my dog reaches 12 o’clock in relation to the 6 o’clock spot where he started, I tell him to lay down.

9. Then I continue to walk backwards and tell my dog to walk up. When he gets close to the sheep, I lay him down and let the sheep walk further to me, and then I tell my dog to walk up a little more. The walk up and bringing the sheep to me is the reward and it makes him understand the purpose of the exercise.

10. Once I have let my dog walk the sheep up to me enough, I lay him down again and I walk to him and put him on a leash. I do not call my dog to me as it 54

could risk him doing something unwanted and ruin the exercise and learning process.

11. When I have my dog on the leash, I walk with him to position the sheep once again in the middle of the arena, and I do the same exercise again. I repeat the exercise in both the “away” and “come by” direction. Please note that some dogs will have a harder time going in one direction, and consequently, you will have to spend as much time as necessary before you can move on.

12. When I have done this exercise with me standing close to the sheep and I see no intention from my dog to come tight, I move a few steps closer to my dog and leave a slightly bigger space between me and the sheep. I then repeat the exercise in both directions until my dog is consistently doing the exercise correctly and then I, once again, move a few steps closer to my dog. I do this until I can stand right beside my dog and send him on an outrun in both directions. When you have managed to reach the stage where you can send your dog from your feet, it is important that you always position your dog on the side of you that you are going to send him to. If you are sending him to “come by”, you position him on the left side of your legs and send him. By doing this, you never let him cross in your front. Not only does crossing in your front teach him bad habits and poor flanks, but in a competition, it would also cause point deduction on your outrun.

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Please remember that throughout all the steps mentioned above, the distance between the dog’s start point to the sheep was the same, i.e., 100ft.

When you start increasing that distance, you will have to go back to the position where you are in between the dog and the sheep to ensure he does not get confused and does not try to cross over in your front. Repeat the same step by step instructions as mentioned above every time you increase the distance of the outrun.

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Transition to Verbal Side Commands Throughout the entire training process, we are using the side commands when sending our dog in different directions. What is making our dog really go to the desired side is our body positioning, but by doing this the dog starts to associate the command with the side. It takes time for the dog to start understanding this and repetition is the only way to get it engrained. To make your dog pay more attention to the side commands and start relying more on your verbal command rather than on your body positioning, you should start saying the verbal command before moving your body or holding out the whip to block the opposite direction. Say the command, and if he does not understand you, repeat the command and move your body to block the opposite side to apply pressure. Once he starts to move in the desired direction, reward him by saying “good boy”. If he starts moving in the wrong direction you immediately tell him “no”, followed by “lay down”, after which you can reposition yourself to once again apply more pressure to make him go in the direction you want. This part of the training requires good communication between you and your dog. Be sure to always reward him when he is doing what you want, and when he is not, say “no” and lay him down. By laying him down, you reset the exercise while keeping a calm environment where your dog can learn effectively.

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Whistle Commands Once your verbal commands are solid and your dog responds quickly and consistent to them, you can start introducing the whistle commands. Introduce at least two whistle commands in each training session. By doing so, your dog hears that there are different whistle tones for different commands, and he can, thus, learn in an easier way. Do not introduce all whistle commands at once either, that will become overwhelming for your dog. It is important that you have practiced plenty before so that when you introduce the whistle commands, they are consistent and have a clear sound. If your whistle sounds are not consistent, then you cannot expect your dog to understand them either. Do not practice your whistle commands near your dog, it will confuse your dog and eventually lead him to stop paying attention to them.

There are many advantages when using whistle commands. Some of these are as follows: 1. You can easily communicate with your dog over a long distance.

2. You can communicate quicker with your dog as it is faster to give a whistle command than a verbal command.

3. A whistle does not expose your feelings, therefore, at competitions or other situations where you might get nervous, a whistle will not let your dog sense your nervousness in the way that verbal commands would.

4. Most dogs responds better and quicker to whistle commands than verbal commands.

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There are no specific sounds for each command.

You can make them up as you like. However, make sure they are as different as possible from one another, and it is preferable that the “lay down” command is one long, strong sound without different tones. To help you out, I have made a video with my whistle command that you are more than welcome to use. The video can be found on my YouTube channel, “Moura Stock Dogs”.

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Preparation for Level 2 To prepare yourself for Level 2, you must consistently practice the exercises listed in Level 1. Your dog must become comfortable, relaxed, and responsive to all the commands before moving to the next level as it will require more from both you and your dog. Your dog must be comfortable working in a larger space, such as an arena or small pasture, and he must be able to do a small outrun.

The outrun does not need to be bigger than 100ft to 150ft as we will work more on the outrun in Level 2. Your dog’s response to verbal commands should be solid, and it is preferable that your whistle commands are decent as well so that when you start teaching a bigger outrun, you have a good way of communicating with your dog over a longer distance. While it is possible to communicate with your dog through verbal commands on a distance as well, it creates a much more pleasant environment for you and your dog when a whistle is used instead.

Level 2 will focus on the following topics and more: 1. Advancing the outrun – This includes making the outrun bigger.

2. Drive – The drive is when your dog is no longer bringing the livestock to you. He is now driving them away from you to points that you are telling him through side commands.

3. Cross drive – Cross drive is when your dog “drives” the livestock from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock or vice versa while you are positioned at 6 o’clock. It is called cross drive because the drive is crossing in 63

front of you rather than going away from you like the regular “drive”.

4. Inside flanks – Inside flanks are side commands given when both the livestock and your dog is in front of you. Your dog has a much easier time doing flanks when he is bringing the livestock to you.

When we change this, and he must do flanks in front of you while driving the livestock away from you, it is going to come with some challenges.

5. Bite control – This will be the first time we introduce our dog to cattle. Bite control exercises teach a dog when, where and how to properly bite cattle to protect himself and avoid getting injured.

For more information on training, you can visit our online course located at www.mourastockdogs.com/onlinecourse. The online course offers training videos on the topics discussed herein and more.

Stock dog whistles are available for purchase at our online store, available at www.mourastockdogs.com/shop.

Thank you for taking part in our training program.

We look forward to having you back for Level 2!

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I encourage you to take notes of your training sessions so that you can look back and see your progress. It is also a good way to memorize all the exercises you have done and what went well and maybe not as well and what steps you have taken to address any issues.

“Joker”

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