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Cattle Ranchers: Herding/Droving Dogs

L

LJS30

Member
This question is for the cattle ranchers on this board. Do any of you guys use herding or droving dogs to assist you with your work? I know a lot of the old school ranchers use Border Collies, Aussies, McNabbs, and other herding breeds in their operations. Do any of you guys do the same?
 
I don"t use a dog but I have a friend who has a blue heelr that is the real deal. My friend is a livestock dealer/hauler and that dog is his right hand.
 
It all depends on what you expect of a dog and your ability to hand a dog. We use dogs on our dairy cattle. They are five generation of our own breeding. We want them to be gentle. Move slowly until they need to exert pressure. Stop when we want them too and be natural herders. Do not expect someone else to train a dog for you. Do not expect a good dog to act like the dogs in field trials. If you really use them you must be a team and they must be able to make decisions on ther own. Had a herd of hefers get out and take off. "Find them Rowdy". In thirty minutes here he came walking the whole herd. Do not know where they were. Rowdy knew,
gitrib
 
(quoted from post at 18:05:18 07/26/10) It all depends on what you expect of a dog and your ability to hand a dog. We use dogs on our dairy cattle. They are five generation of our own breeding. We want them to be gentle. Move slowly until they need to exert pressure. Stop when we want them too and be natural herders. Do not expect someone else to train a dog for you. Do not expect a good dog to act like the dogs in field trials. If you really use them you must be a team and they must be able to make decisions on ther own. Had a herd of hefers get out and take off. "Find them Rowdy". In thirty minutes here he came walking the whole herd. Do not know where they were. Rowdy knew,
gitrib
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What breed of dog are you using? Australian Cattle Dog? Border Collie? or Aussie? Rottie?
 
(quoted from post at 18:10:45 07/26/10) we use dogs and horses they keep em bunched up. black mouth curs and leopards these are good cow dogs
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Ah yes Catahoula's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I have tried and found out that my heeler was smarter that I am! As one of the other posters said, you have to work as a team and since I was the unsure one due to lack of experience, it doesn"t work as well as it could. My fault, not the dogs. Next dog will be a pup and we"ll both learn together.
 
Was in the commercial beef cattle business for 47 years; my dad had 'em years before that. Started with horses in the '50s; later got Australian Shepherds to use with the horses. Bought a grinder/mixer sometime in the '70s. One man with a couple buckets of feed is better than a pasture full of men/horses/dogs.
 
(quoted from post at 19:16:55 07/26/10) Was in the commercial beef cattle business for 47 years; my dad had 'em years before that. Started with horses in the '50s; later got Australian Shepherds to use with the horses. Bought a grinder/mixer sometime in the '70s. One man with a couple buckets of feed is better than a pasture full of men/horses/dogs.
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Ah so using dogs and horses/atv's is pretty much an antiquated form of working cattle?
 
Our two present dog go back to Rowdy a Red Heeler Australian Shepherd cros. His mother was true heeler that was good with cows but too rough for Dairy cattle. His father was a Australain Shepherd he was a good cow dog but was a old grump around people. Rowdy was born in a burrow out in the pasture. We added some Border collie heeler mix and kept one female and bred her to a great Australian Sheperd that I had. She got killed by a Cotton Mouth snake at 12 years old, but made it back to the farm house to die. We were out of dog but a frend had been given a male out of the last mating so went to another friend who had a litter out of the same lines. Mated the two together to keep all of the blood lines. So I say, "We have Heinze". The big thing is they do what we want and are loyal.
gitrib
 
Just reporting what worked for me; ran about 275 head of mama cows......in 8 different locations.......scattered over the southern half of 'my' county. Except for a time of two when we bought a whole herd, we never purchased females; they all came out of the existing herd(s). When we started backgrounding calves in the '70s (after buying the grinder), all the replacement heifers had spent 3 or 4 months on feed. They knew what a bucket of feed was; they would have followed me down Main Street......for the rest of their lives.
 
> One man with a couple buckets of feed is better than a pasture full of men/horses/dogs.

It's funny because it's true. If you keep those girls trained, you don't even need the feed. I can make a cloud of dust and cattle appear out of nowhere just by clanking a couple of 5gal buckets together. Well, maybe not any dust this summer.
 
(quoted from post at 13:16:56 07/26/10)
(quoted from post at 18:10:45 07/26/10) we use dogs and horses they keep em bunched up. black mouth curs and leopards these are good cow dogs
Click to expand...

Ah yes Catahoula's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Did not think many people knew what a Catahoula was.
They are good herding dogs but you have to get use to them because they are head herding; not heal herding.

While I do not use it for herding I do have a catahoula. Most energetic dog I have ever owned.
After living with you for a while it can read your mind just by your body language.
Make great hunting dogs also.
 
I agree 100%. my dad used a truck and horses and all of us 4 or 5 boys to chase cows. when all of us left home he went to the only good way. Now he tells us to get out of site and shut up.his pail and 100+ cows and calves come into the coral then the work can start.
 
my Austrailian Shepherd has alot of natural herding instincts and would be an outstanding cattle dog if he was trained properly.
 
My neighbor has and swears the best "cow" dog he has ever had was a Blue Heeler---

Australian-Cattle-Dog-blue-Heeler.jpg


Tim
 

Anyone ever see the video of Skidboot the Blueheeler on Youtube? He was also on an animal show on tv but the name of show escapes me. Now that was a smart dog!!!!!!!
 
We saw Skidboot at the Tx State Fair many years ago.

We saw a program about him maybe 5, 6 yrs ago and he was going blind. I'm sure he's crossed that rainbow bridge by now.

He was one in a million.
 
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