Dog Training

I remember years ago taking my black Labrador Rinso to dog school.  It was not so much about teaching the dog but more about teaching me how to LEAD the dog because in the ‘pack’ we had at our home I was the leader.  Well that is the way the dog saw it.   So that is the first rule of dog training – getting the dog to recognise you as the leader.  that is not really so hard as you are the one dealing out the goodies to eat.  We only went to a few classes but Rinso learned to walk beside me without tripping me, not jump up on the children and come when I called him and what more did I want?

Change of scene – I am now living on a farm and farm dogs more than any others need a job.  So  we needed to train them for that job.   We were new to farming and an old farmer down the road offered his old bitch to work with us.  We should have taken up the offer.  Dogs learn from others in the pack and having someone older to copy would have helped.  As it was the dogs had to follow us around and learn as we learned – the hard way.  We had one bitch in particular (yes we preferred bitches) called Lucky . We were trying to hold some cows and load them into a trailer.  One broke free and we had to let it go – well YOU try catching a cow in full flight.    The next thing it ran back into the herd and there was Lucky  right on its heels.  From that day on she was right on the job and helping. Unfortunately Lucky was not so Lucky.  There was talk of a rogue dog killing sheep.  We hadn’t lost any but one day we were in the bush collecting firewood and the dogs were running around enjoying themselves.  Then it was quiet.  We called and called and eventually Didi (Lucky’s daughter ) came but she was whimpering.  I thought that strange but I think that she already knew.  We  rang the neighbors and drove the roads calling Lucky but nothing.  A full day went past and then on the morning of the second day we were out feeding the chooks when we heard a gunshot and we knew then that Lucky had been found.    She had gone with the rogue dog and they had rounded up the neighbors sheep  and had them penned in a corner.  The neighbor had seen them and yelled Hey.  That would sound like ‘Stay’ to Lucky so while the rogue dog ran for cover, Lucky stayed for the inevitable bullet.    Even though we were very sad, the neighbor was within his rights – she was on his property, rounding up HIS sheep.

But we weren’t finished with the rogue dog.  He came the next morning to call Didi.  Luckily she was on her chain.  My husband spotted the dog who was high on the hill by the pigsty – that is roughly 300  metres from the house.  He picked up his gun and moved slowly off into the bush and away from the dog.   The dog thought he was safe.  He didn’t know Colin.  It was a slow journey to the top of the hill through the bush to see the dog from the side.  He was focused on Didi and once Colin was in bush he shifted his focus back to our other bitch.   Colin was about 10 feet from the rogue dog when he stepped on a twig.  Colin froze; the dog turned and looked in his general direction. All was quiet –  and then he returned his focus to Didi.  The rogue  was a beautiful dog with possible links to Dingo but with one shot it was over.   Colin did not walk all that extra metres to miss.   There was no way that ‘bastard’ was getting TWO of our dogs.

In a way I was the dog trainer but the dogs had to go to work with Colin.   We had a little black and tan called Jessie.  I got her at a clearing sale.  I went along to buy a Ram but they were only selling them in lots of five. I had talked to another farmer  and we agreed to join forces on a bid and I would take two and he would take three but the bid got too high.  I did buy 130 old ewes.  They had fine wool which is what I wanted and I felt that if they had gotten to this age then they were also bearers – I only had to get lambs from half of them and I would be well on the way to  having a good flock.    As we followed the auctioneer he came to a red Kelpie bitch and her litter who were around 6 weeks.  There were three dogs and one bitch.  The mother was passed in at $200 and I figured that if the mother was worth $200 the pups would be good too.  Then the gift ! The auctioneer said – the pups can just go for free.  The three dogs were snapped up quickly and the crowd moved off.  I was left there looking at the only one I would take – the bitch – I didn’t want a dog. This baby was mine.  I called her Jessie and braved my husbands anger when I got her home.  Jessie knew and became my guardian.   Colin would call all the dogs and they would jump on the trailer but before he was in the cab Jessie would be home standing on the Besser block we called a step , knocking at the door with her wagging tail.

Oh he made friends with the dogs.  They loved him.  We had an outside toilet and he would sit out there with the door open and call each dog with a special signal.  The dog would go to him and he would pat it and rub its back – generally show lots of love and then he’d say “OK’ , they would move away and  he would call the next.  When it was Jessies’ turn she wouldn’t initially go to him so he gave her a special signal – he rubbed his hands together and patted his knee.

I took Jessie out for a training session.  It took an hour.  She walked on the lead, stopped when I did, sat, stayed,  came to me, dropped.  She knew it all but both she and Didi would not work when my husband got angry at the sheep or whatever.  I trained them with almost a whisper and the minute the voices were raised they said to themselves – ‘I’m out of here’     Sometime I would go out and work the dogs for him but he didn’t like that especially as it was just after they had refused to work for him.    I remember walking across the paddock with a visitor and telling them that I had trained Didi with a soft voice and all I would say is ‘Sit Dee’ and she would.  When we got to the other side of the paddock I looked around and there she was sitting way back where we had come from waiting for her next order.

Our farm was in Coonabarabran which is a fairly hot area of Australia.  I like to go naked or with little clothing on such hot days and as our house was over a l km from our front gate.  I figured that it would be a good idea to get the dogs to warn me when people were approaching so I had time to get decent.   So each night when my husband was coming home I would hear his truck at the front gate and I would rev Didi up.  ‘Who’s that? Is this dad?’ and she would bark.  I thought I was very clever until one day that a stranger was right at the gate way to the house when I spotted them.  Didi had not given warning.  She only barked when my husband came just as I taught her.

My last encounter with a dog in the training situation was after I left the country and moved to Sydney.  I was about to go out on stress leave and one of my students could see what was happening.  He asked me if I wanted to join him and some Japanese students who were here to learn English.  They were going to his sister’s farm for three or four days.  I think the idea was to give the sister a break as that particular sister was not there.  There were  seven women and Bob.  He did the cooking.   There was an absolutely beautiful black and tan pup of perfect training  age who had not been taught anything.   There was no collar and the dog ran in and around the house as he pleased.   He sniffed at the hands of the Japanese girls and they immediately raised them in horror.  I had to teach them not to do that as they were telling the dog to jump up.   I was frustrated as although I walked with the dog he would race after the cows in the next paddock. – I had  no collar to restrain him and train him to walk at my heels.  In spite of that – time with him helped my healing.   About three months later  Bob had a birthday party and the sister tackled me about what I had done to her dog.  I asked her what the problem was.  ‘He won’t come in the house’.   I said ‘ Do you want him to?’  and she said ‘No but I couldn’t stop him’  .  While I was there I had taught him to get permission before he came in. I just lifted my hand and said NO and he would just settle down at the door.   At the end I just lifted my hand – open palm meant NO.  The boundaries had been set.  I  didn’t teach what I could have but I did make a difference.