| may be extremely powerful around stock. You just have to know the dog.
“The dog has to have the willingness to be bold and move right up on the herd, yet without being vicious. There should be a tendency to balance the herd and bring them to you.”
Thomas points to his pasture, “Those goats out there in the pasture will come to me if I go into the pen with a bucket that they think might have food in it. If I went in there without a bucket and tried to herd them up by myself, I will fail…guaranteed.
“God has a lot of sense. He’s tried to pass some of that on to us. He created all the animals and He knew which ones would flock. Goats and sheep will flock and usually cattle will. If a border collie can get the stock to come together (or flock), that’s the border collie’s instinct is to bring them to you.”
To be a successful, working team, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got the world’s smartest border collie, Australian Shepherd, Blue Heeler or Kelpie. Educating the people on the use of a stock dog is an absolute necessity. Thomas continued, “The good trainer has the ability to command the respect of the stock dog. The good trainer has good common sense, a calm attitude, has complete control and authority, but also gives praise and shows love to the dog. The will to succeed will be the most critical factor in determining whether you will become an able trainer. This involves the handler learning which commands to give the stock dog in order to get the dog to move the stock where they need to go.
“When dogs come here for training they need to be from ten months to twenty-four months old. After 30 days of training you have what’s called a ‘started dog.’ After thirty days you have a dog that can understand all the important commands. If you choose to train for thirty more days you can incorporate longer outruns. That’s really all the extra training will get you–having him run three or four hundred yards instead of a hundred and fifty.
“I use the universal stock dog commands that are based in Great Britain and Scotland with the International Sheep Dog Society. They are the basic commands that most of us here in the U.S. learn to train stock dogs.
“Some basic commands are ‘come by’ for left; ‘way to me’ is right; ‘that’ll do’ then a slap on my leg means come to me because if I said ‘come here’ he may only hear ‘come’ and go to the left; ‘walk with me’ is the command to walk on lead; ‘Walk up’ and ‘steady’ mean to come on but more slowly; ‘stay’ means to stay there at any time. Say that I have cattle in a holding pen. I open the gate and only part of them come out. The command would be ‘look back.’ The dog will look back and see the ones that aren’t moving and go in to get them. If they move too fast I say ‘wait a minute’ just like your momma used to tell you when you were little. Cattle like to be moved slow, they don’t like to be rushed. One of the best commands to a stock dog is ‘lie down.’ If you get them to lie down when they’re about to spook the herd, you’re pretty much on your way to being a herder.
“If you want me to teach them whistle commands, I’ll do that instead of verbal commands. Whistle signals are more difficult; it took me two months to learn how to blow the thing properly. Also I can teach them hand signals to be used alone or in conjunction with verbal or whistle commands. This also involves taking longer to train the owner.”
Some animals come out after 30 days as more than a started dog because of superior genetics. Selective breeding is very important and a key factor to getting the right style, balance, temperament and brains. “A friend of mine, Jimmy Miller, brought me a male border collie named Baxter that is probably one of the better dogs ever to come through here. His instincts told him how he was going to work the stock. I just had to bring out the best in him. It didn’t take him long to understand the program or how to take commands. He knew how to read stock; he knew where he needed to be or where he didn’t need to be. Baxter was in here for the normal thirty days but when he left he looked like he’d been here for much longer. 90% of the border collies that come here are capable of doing the job but I sure wish all of them could have Baxter’s genetics.”
Another unique quality of the border collie is called the ‘eye.’ It’s another God given instinct of the breed to use as an enforcer to move stock. If I was a prizefighter and got in the ring with somebody, I’d rather stay off of him, watch him intently and throw punches when I could; like Mohammed Ali. That’s the way a border collie moves cattle without having to bite them and risk getting kicked. Every slight movement the cow makes, the dog makes the same move. The power of the eye establishes authority and control.
If you buy a stock dog and your cattle have never seen a stock dog, you’ve got to introduce that dog to your stock. If you just let him loose on your cows he would be considered a predator, like a coyote. What’s gonna happen is that several members of that herd are coming out to stomp that $2,500 to $3,000 dog into the ground! You’ve got to ride him in your pickup, you’ve got to tie his leash to your belt and walk him around the herd when you are feeding or putting out Co-op range pellets. Those cows or goats will come up and start smelling of the dog. After a while the herd will start bonding to that dog and become what we call ‘dog broke.’ This won’t happen in a month. It might not happen for six months.
“You might say ‘why get a dog if it might take six months before he’ll bring my cattle? I’m just wasting my money.’ No you’re not wasting your money. If you’re patient, in the long run the cost of the dog and the cost of the time to incorporate the dog into the herd will be worth every penny spent, and some. Lots of people use four-wheelers to work their cattle. The best way to move livestock is as quietly as possible to cut down on stress. With the right management and enough border collies, you can eliminate that four-wheeler and possibly extra hired help.
People really like to see the dogs work and are amazed at how smart they are. James Thomas likes to show his dogs off when he can. As he stated, “For about ten years I’ve been going to Southern Pro Bull Riders Association
(SPBR) events (based in Opelika) to showcase the border collie breed before the rides start or during intermission. Every October I go down to Bonifay, Florida, to their county fair. Before I leave every year they book me for the next year. As a matter of fact, they even built us a special arena where we go in and work our collies for that whole week.
“I like to promote agriculture when I can and I think that’s what the folks at the Co-op do; they educate people. My wife and I teach Sunday school classes. Those kids don’t know who grows their food. They think their food comes from the grocery store. If we don’t educate people about agriculture, it’s all going to go away and we’ll be getting all our food from other countries.”
Thomas says herd dog training is based on the code of the West; ask no more and give no less than honesty, courage, loyalty, generosity and fairness. “I’ve trained some really good dogs and I’ve trained some that just didn’t have what it takes. But I’ve been proud of each and every one of them because they all gave me what they had to give.”
For more information, give James Thomas a call at 334-886-2524. |
