One day I was building a fence for some clients. The people owned a blue heeler and it was allowed to run loose. I was there early one morning and when the people left for work the dog started chasing and biting at the horses that were in the corral. I was there the whole day and this dog would chase the horses, then it would quit for awhile and then it’d start again. The people got home that afternoon and the dog ran out and laid in the drive way to greet them. When they got out of the truck the dog ran over and got its pat on the head.

The man came over to me and started talking and I asked him if he knew his dog had been chasing and biting at his horses most of the day. He said “no way”, his dog would never do that. So I told him he should sneak home some day and see what his dog was doing while he was gone!

I build a lot of fence on farms and I constantly see dogs that chase horses and cattle when they’re not suppose to. A lot of times the owners just laugh about it. If the truth was known I bet a lot of horses and livestock are hurt due to unruly, untrained dogs. Some people don’t understand the trouble a stock dog can cause. Of course once they get one of these dogs they fall in love with it and can never part with him or her. So they’re forced to try and figure out how to keep him out of trouble. My solution to this is keeping my dogs in nice kennels with runs and then turning them out to run and play at least every morning and every evening under SUPERVISION, even though they have a big acre-sized turnout. Of course I also work my dogs on cattle regularly and start basic obedience with them when they’re just pups. Between the cattle training, the constant obedience work, nice kennel setups and good supervision I know my dogs won’t be causing a big wreak with the other livestock.

I have heard all the excuses for letting a dog ride loose – “My dog has never been tied in the back of my truck.” or “I have hauled my dog loose all his life.” Some people even tell me my dog would probably fall out because of the way I drive! This is of course another good reason to tie your dog! I’m sure these excuses have worked for a lot of people. I remember when I was a kid and you never saw kids wear seatbelts. Obviously the rules changed when we realized just how dangerous that kind of thing was! The same kinds of dangers apply to dogs in the back of trucks and even more so because they’re less protected when riding in the back of a truck bed.

I have had so many people tell me about their dog falling out of their truck and getting run over. Just a few months ago a man called me and said he needed a good dog quick because his best dog fell out of the back of his truck, got run over and killed.

I know its a little extra effort to tie your dog in the back of the truck or put him in a dog crate. But, when you get to where you’re going it will still be there and alive. Make sure to also use a chain and not a rope as the dog can chew through a rope and get loose.

I suspect I’ll hear from some people about how they tied their dog in the truck and he hung himself. Well I believe if you tie him so he doesn’t have enough slack in the rope to get over the side, then he can’t fall over the side!

My dog never rides in my truck are anyone else’s truck without being tied or in a crate.

Good luck hauling your dogs!

Well we had a couple of extra horses so we loaded up 5 good Quarter horses, Badger, Commet, Bug, Pitch and Himmie and headed out to Pacific City.

It was a nice day to ride and those Montana boys were sure enjoying the beach! We’d been riding about an hour or so when I looked down the beach and saw this vehicle stuck in the sand and this poor guy trying to get it out while his wife’s gunning the engine and not budging. This guy is putting tree limbs and driftwood and whatever else he could find under the tires to try to get a little traction, but nothing was working.

Well if you know me you also know I never go riding without a rope on my saddle. So I mention to everyone riding that we should go pull those poor stuck people out of the sand. My daughter, who also happens to be riding with us, just laughs and says “You’re not serious??!!”

I tell her that yes, I am darn serious! We all rode up to those stuck people and everyone in my group was just laughing at me. I asked those folks if they would like to be pulled out and the man laughs at me and says “Sure.”

I tell the man that we’ll pull him out with our horses if he lets Scott drive and he seemed pretty agreeable with this arrangement. Then he started laughing again and as you may have noticed, I got laughed at quite a bit on this adventure.

Scott, who was riding a colt of mine, gets off his horse and gets behind the wheel of the stuck vehicle to do the driving. Luckily my son Jason was riding his horse Commit. This is a horse that doesn’t have any quit in him and will pull whatever you hook him up to. I was riding my horse Badger and he is basically about the same – hook him to something and he won’t stop pulling until you make him quit.

So the couple who were stuck stepped out of the way and Scott hooked my rope and Jason’s rope to the vehicle. We got the ropes tight and Scott got in the vehicle and said he was ready. Commit and Badger started pulling and Scott started helping by doing a little pushing himself from the driver’s side. We ended up pulling that vehicle out of the sand and right over the top of the hill. Needless to say, that couple, who happened to be visiting from Florida, were darn happy and although everyone was laughing, no one was laughing at me anymore!

When we were riding off I mentioned how it would have sure been nice to have gotten some pictures of that. John pipes-up and says he took a bunch of pictures and that just made my day – I couldn’t wait to get home and see how they came out.

When I finally saw those pictures, I got the last laugh. I sure do hope the people we pulled out that day get to see these pictures. And if you’re reading this right now, feel free to contact me and I’ll gladly send you some copies!

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Have fun riding,

Quite often when I see someone’s dog jump on their leg they tell the dog “down”. But really they just want the dog to not jump on them. To me this isn’t good for the dog who you have been trying to teach to lie down using the command “down” because you have been teaching your dog to lie down flat on his stomach when you say “down”.

When I teach the “down” command to my pup I put a collar and leash on them. I get my foot up by their neck, over the leash, and say “down” while pushing them down using my foot on the leash. When they go to the ground I say “good pup” and lean over and pet them. After a few times of this, if done right, they will start laying down when you say “down”. Then you have to make sure that when you tell them “down”, they lay down.

For the dog that jumps up on you, use the “NO” command. This is what I do to keep a dog from jumping on me or someone else. When they’re a puppy I teach them that when I say “NO” they cannot do whatever they’re doing. When they try to jump on me I say “NO” and stop them either by stepping on their back foot when they jump at me or else I knee them in the chest and say “NO” at the same time.

After a few times when my puppy tries to jump on me or someone else, I say “NO” and they don’t jump, or if they’re starting to jump, they stop.

I feel a lot of people have difficulty telling others that their dog is in training and they’re not allowed to jump up on people. You have to be up front with people and tell them the dog is in training and not to encourage him to jump up (which a lot of people like to do, especially with puppies). Otherwise your pup is going to become confused – like why can he jump on some people and not on others!

Doing some of the things mentioned above will help your pup understand they’re not allowed to jump on anyone, that the word “NO” means stop doing whatever it is they’re doing and that the word “down” only means to lie down.

For more on these training techniques such as how and when to use the word “NO”, keep checking my recent posts. You can also drop me a line or better yet, order my dog obedience training video.

Thanks a lot and good luck,

After about a week of working cattle, we try to take a day off.  Scott likes to take us up into the mountains to do some trout fishing. It’s such a beautiful ride up to the high lake. It’s about a 2 – 3 hour ride up there and you can catch all the trout you want.

Here are a few pictures of one of our past trips up to the lake. I figured between me and Scott we probably had maybe 10 to 12 dogs with us too!

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One hot day I was outside doing something, not sure what it was but my wife, Jodi, finds me and tells me our three hogs are gone. So my first stupid question was “What do you mean gone?”

So she explained it to me again in two words: “They’re gone!” My second stupid question was “Where are they?”

Jodi explained to me that she had no idea. So the hunt to find the hogs began and it only took about 10 minutes or so before we found them about 400 yards away. They were still on our property but only because they hadn’t got to the back fence, which was only three looses strands of barbed wire. The grass out there was about 2 feet tall and those hogs were happy! But I wasn’t because I had things to do and it had nothing to do with pinning hogs in the heat. Jodi tells me they’ll follow her so she grabs some grass and calls to them. Well, they followed her to the first gate but they sure wouldn’t go any further.

Well if you know me you know I train cattle dogs so what do I do? I go to the kennels and get my two best cow dogs, Hanging Tree Sport and Hidden Canyon Cross.

Let me tell you, working hogs out in the middle of a field is not easy. I’m not sure if you can dog break hogs but I can tell you those three hogs were not dog broke.

So the fight began.

I started by getting behind the hogs and trying to get them headed back to the barn-lot where their pen was. I had used Cross to catch and hold calves before but neither him nor Sport had ever got to work hogs. This means I had nothing going in my favor.

My wife liked these hogs so the first words out of her mouth were “Don’t let the dogs hurt those hogs!” After about 30 minutes of fighting with those hogs I was so hot, sweaty and mad I didn’t care much – I just wanted them in the pen. Since they wouldn’t leave the field they were in, I thought I’d just have the dogs bite them a little. Needless to say, my dogs were hot and tired also.

My first mistake was I just said “bite him” when the hogs turned the wrong way. Sport bit the first one and let go. But not Cross, he bit hard and wouldn’t let go and my wife started hollering at me but I was so mad I didn’t care about her hogs. I finely told Cross “that would do” and he let go of the hog. The hog was headed in the right direction so all was well. I was thinking to myself I should have gotten my dogs out a lot sooner!

However, when the hogs go to the barn-lot gate, two of them walked right through but one turned back. All I had to say was “bite him” and that hog had two dogs on his head and my wife was screaming at me and the hog was squealing like crazy. I won’t say here the words that were coming out of my mouth other then I didn’t care about that darn hog – I just wanted him in the pen! Well that hog turned right to the gate and I told my dogs “that would do” and they let go.

Two of those hogs finally had enough and all they wanted was their pen but one stupid hog still wanted to make my life miserable. And he was doing a good job of it too. When we got to the pen two hogs ran in but one turned and made one last try at escape but in a flash he had two dogs on him. The blood was flying, my wife was screaming and I was telling my dogs to “bite him” some more. When we finely got those hogs in the pen and after all was said and done everyone and every animal was fine other than a few chewed hog ears. My wife and I finally had a good laugh over the whole ordeal.

I was kind of new at gathering stock but I knew enough to know you didn’t go haul stock without a stock dog so I brought my cow dog Jake along. Ken told me he had about 2 loads apiece for each of us and the round trip to the sale barn was about 140 miles.

I met Ken at a restaurant and we had a bite of lunch before we got started. It was 101 degrees outside that day! During lunch I asked Ken about his great dog and he said he had left him at home.

When we were done eating, we drove on out to the farm to get his herd of goats. When we got out of our trucks I could see some pens but there were no goats in them! I started looking around and there were a lot of goats out in the fields and rolling hills.

I asked Ken what the deal was and he said he was told they would be in the pens. The owner walked out and told us he wasn’t sure when we were going to be there so he left the goats out because it was so hot. He said it wouldn’t be a problem getting them in.

So we walked out in the field and the goats would have nothing to do with going into the pen. We were all sweating bad by then and I told Ken I was not chasing anymore goats.

Ken and the other guy tried for a few more minutes while I watched from my truck with my good dog Jake sitting next to me. After a bit they walked to my truck and asked if I would gather the goats for them with my dog. I said I would but wouldn’t be responsible for any goat that didn’t cooperate with my dog because Jake was a cow dog not a goat dog and he might get a little rough with those goats.

Ken and the other guy were so hot and tired they didn’t care. So I sent Jake out and he was awesome! He got what I thought were all the goats heading in but the owner hollered at me and said there were a few more over the next little hill. I told Jake to “look back” and he went back over the other hill and got the last of the goats. We got both rigs loaded and hauled those goats to the sale.

When we got back and loaded the last of the goats, the man who had sold the goats told Ken to take the llamas also. Well those lamas did not want to go into the trailer! The owners put halters on them and tried to lead them into Ken’s trailer but they wouldn’t budge.  Those guys pulled and pushed and sweated a whole lot! Then they asked me to help. I laughed at them and said to get those llamas headed into the trailer and watch out because I was going to have Jake bite their heels. Ken said “no”, that the llamas would kill Jake. I told them to pull those llama’s heads into the trailer and stand back, then I gave Jake the command to “bite” and he did! Those llamas jumped into that trailer and we were done!

Its 10 years later and I still get into the same kind of situations but I enjoy it because I get to work my dogs in some challenging and unique situations and some darn funny ones too!

I have had a few dogs that slept by my bed, would sleep in my lap if I let them and they were still super working cow dogs.

When it comes to dogs, I’m not a person who will pet and love on my dogs all the time but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about them. I treat my dogs very well. If they need a vet they get one. They are wormed when they should be, have a dry bed to sleep on and nice, clean kennel runs.

My Hanging Tree Sport dog will lay by my feet and be as happy as a dog can be and he will let me pet on him anytime I want. But he doesn’t bug me to pet on him and that is what I like. But don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great thing if people want to pet on their dogs a lot.

I sold a nice cattle dog a few months ago because she really wanted to be loved and petted on when she wasn’t working and she wasn’t getting enough of that from me. I thought she’d be happier with someone who’d pet on her all the time like she wanted.

I believe one of the things people don’t understand about a cattle dog is that if they’re from the right bloodlines of great working dogs then they’re going to live to work. If they’re going to be a good companion and a good working dog, then besides coming from good bloodlines, you’re also going to have to spend a lot of time with them to get them where they will do whatever you tell them, when you tell them.

My dogs Sport and Chic with my granddaughter

Hanging Tree Sport is not only my buddy, traveling companion and family dog, he also lives to work cattle! Sport is 10 years old now and has been one of my greatest working cow dogs as well as a fantastic family dog.

I owned a Border collie about 11 years ago who was the coolest dog. To him, me and “live stock” were the only things that he cared about. He wouldn’t work for anyone but me, no exceptions, and he would work anything I asked him to. If I let him loose, he would gather stock and put them in my roping  arena or at the gate and hold them till I found him, it didn’t matter if it was 5 minutes or 5 hours, he would hold the stock and wait for me. But he was all “work dog”…and none of the other stuff mattered to him.

So a cattle dog is not for everyone. But they can make great pets. They need exercise and a lot of it, especially when they’re young.

I have seen my wife, Jodi, play ball with her dog Tren in our living room when we’re watching TV. Her dog is so amazing because she can throw her ball 10 feet and that dog will get it time and time again without breaking anything and be the happiest dog alive. Now that Tren has gotten older she doesn’t need the ball thrown for her as much. The thing is, when Tren was younger and needed the exercise all the time, she got it even though sometimes she wanted to play in the house. Jodi taught her to be careful and not break anything. If you go to the Montana story you’ll see Jodi and Tren working cattle on the ranch. So you can have both a working dog that’s also a great pet.

Cattle Master Female Chic

I also own a Cattle Master female who is about 5 years old now and she is the most extraordinary female dog I have ever owned as well as one of the toughest. She would definitely sleep in my lap if I let her though!

So my thoughts are, if you want both a good pet and good working cow dog, find one from the right parents, train it well, give it lots of exercise and I believe you can have both in the same dog.

If you would like more on this subject, drop me a comment and I will be glad to try and help you!  Thanks

I guy I know, Ken, called me to help catch 4 calves. I mean give me a break, 4 calves? NO PROBLEM! The day before I left for elk hunting, I loaded my horse badger and my two best dogs, Hanging Tree Sport and Chick, and drove out to meet Ken. When I got there we trapped the cows with grain but the 4 calves wouldn’t come into the pen. Well, we decided to go ahead and load the cows and the bull and then work on getting the calves caught up. I’m not sure why I did it but I attempted to bring the 4 calves into a half mooned pen with the little 4 foot walk gate in the middle.

Heck, we even left one cow in a little pen inside the bigger pen so the calves would come in easily. WRONG! I’m not sure why I tried it this way. We only had about one hour left before dark. As it turned out, I could stop the calves with my two dogs but couldn’t get them into the pen. I finally got one big double-bred scat- cat heifer in the pen but then she tore it down and got out. So I got to chasing these calves with my horse but then he went down in a spring and that ended that! After me, my horse and my dogs were all wore out I told Ken that we needed to quit as it was getting dark. So we had to unload the cows and bull and headed home.

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When I got back from elk hunting I called Ken to see if he got the cows and calves penned up.
He said he hadn’t. I hate to lose at anything so I asked him if he was ready to give it another shot and he said he was. We set it up differently this time! We started out at 10.00 am on a Sunday so we would have plenty of day light hours to work. I also asked my son, Jason, if he wanted to come along and help which of course he did (he knows we always have a good time gathering cattle). That Saturday night I didn’t get a lot of sleep because I was thinking about those 4 little calves.

We met Ken and his wife on Sunday morning and Ken asked me how I wanted to do it. This time I told him we’d open a big 12 foot panel, angel it out, then I’d send my two dogs out to hold the cattle up. I believe there were about 5 or 6 cows, 4 calves and one big bull.

Once I got the cattle settled down, Ken dumped grain into the feeders and I started having the dogs move the cattle back to the corral. Some of them went on in but there were a few that wanted nothing to do with that corral. So they kept trying to get around it and Sport and Chick would get them stopped. This lasted for about 2 minutes then they all went into the corral. The cows didn’t want to stay in the corral so they tried to leave but my two great dogs, Sport and Chick, got them stopped. The calves didn’t even try and run – they had enough the last time they meet those two dogs!

We shut the panel but a couple of those cows headed to the back side of the corral hoping to bust their way out. I sent Chick around the outside of the pen and one look at that dog biting through the bars at their head got them stopped.

The heard settled down really nice and the whole process took maybe 5 minutes.

What I learned from these little calves is that you should really think out what kind of dog power you have and set up the situation so you can win! I had plenty of dog power but I should have opened up a panel and brought the whole herd in at one time. I could have even gotten the 4 calves in if I would of opened up a panel at either end of the corral. Because of my mistakes, I thought about those darn 4 little calves the whole time I was gone hunting!

The thing about working dogs with cattle is that you’ll probably make mistakes – you just try to learn from them.