As some of you know we have a new male join us, Red hasn't been here long but his working ability for a starter dog is just exceptional so we thought we would introduce him early to our beef cattle on cows that aren't flighty & will hold their ground just to see how he handled it as he is a stronger male than the others & I thought it would be great confidence builder for him to have a crack at something tougher than the sheep.

We took Inda a long as support, Inda is still developing confidence on cattle but we hope to pair these 2 up as general farm dogs for moving the cattle.

Here's Inda heading, letting Red have a look at what is expected.


Here is Red being allowed to have his first crack at them.


& here is the end result.

Man what I wouldn't give to be sitting on your fence with a really good movie camera.
YOur pictures are worth a thousand words.
Now mind you never work more than two Koolies together, any more and it's just plain over kill, and every one knows that you never need more than two Koolies to get the job done.
And if you do then you need to look at how good your dogs really are.

Just an echo from our past drovers, graziers and cattlemen of Australia

Yes that is so true, but I break the rules & 'train' dogs in a group every now & then, but then as a kid thats the way we did things with the assortment of breeds we used on the station, it wasn't uncommon to use 10dogs.

I group train soley to see how responsive my dogs are in such a situation, I will ask certain dogs to stay on my heel while others work & vice versa....something the Koolie truely excells at, not getting caught up in the hype of the mob & responding to their handler in a group while the others still continue.

That is so on the ball, but Koolies have a nasty habit of getting into routine too easily, if I had a dollar for every time I heard "my Koolie doesn't do anything it just sits back and watches"

I'd actualy be very poor because it doesn't happen all that often but I have heard it said.
We all know it's because the koolies so smart that it lets everyone else do the job, why should it work, when there are others to work instead.

actually that is also something I have heard LOL!

I actually use group training to defeat that, why??? because when I see a dog getting lazy his 'right' to be out there is taken away, as soon as they stop thinking & start doing the wrong thing I pull them out & make them sit at the bike while I stir the remaining dogs up so the dog(s) with me are crawling out of their skins to be allowed back to work.

Personally I think any good working dog is only as good as it's will to please, it's ethic & also it's 'right' to work, & this is something that we focus on in training our dogs, if they don't pull their weight they aren't given the opportunity to develop habits like that they are taken away from it & left at home or not allowed to work while the other dogs get the praise & reward....the Koolie is 1 breed that recognises this esp in a group situation therefore when you take it solo or in a pair it tries it's hardest to please or out-do it's mate to earn it's place.

Thats just my take on it.

I watched a trio of kelpies the other day during a demo, the old seasoned dog knew it's job but the 2 youngsters (2yr olds) were so scatterbrained & hyped it would have driven me to the edge of my patience, getting in where they weren't meant to & focussing on their work over what was being asked of them.

Here we like a loyal dog that when asked to lay at the bike & stay there they do just that or if they are in the wrong place you can talk to them without distrupting the others or their will to go/do what they are meant to.

I think it is a real test of your abilities as a handler & a real test of your dogs using a group situation, not as normal for daily work, but as a measure of how good your dogs are trained when you have a group training session, it also does wonders for young underconfident dogs when you have a few good dogs leading the way & you can develop a 'monkey see monkey do' when required, but it all comes down to the requirements each person has of their dogs, mine is entirely different to the next person so it's purely what suits my needs.

I see where your coming from and I can easily picture you and your Siberian Huskies, them in their harnesses you on your sled all working as a team.

So if working as a group can create different attitudes towards their role in it why not do it, it you get the results you are looking for.

Hi

That red dog is not shabby at all! What a great pic. If you have a high definition pic of the last shot would you mind emailing it to me?

It is great to see a dog being streched. I bet they were having a ball.....

Regards

Lockie

Sure do Lockie, I'll email it through tonight for you :)

Tjukurpa-
I do things different to many as you know, simply because I have high expectations of my dogs in a broad variety of activities & a lot of it is using multiple dogs at a time. When it comes down to actual work, we use 1-2 dogs as we have not the work to support anymore, but I think you need to keep challenging yourself & your dogs when capable of it in whatever means available to always have something to strive for.

I think there is a huge difference between dogs required to go out daily & earn a living & be reliable in 1-2tasks with hard working & dogs that need to multitask for multi purposes....mine are of the later.

Go Get em Red!

Well done Mushoz i.e. he is big enough and mentally tough enough to move on. You picked that he was ready for something more challenging and he was.

I find that the more you throw at the Koolie, the more they respond. Provided they have a positive experience and for them one of the most positive experiences is pleasing the boss (So all you others make sure you REALLY tell em how well they've done), they just grow.

If you get their confidence up in a few areas, they wil have a go at anything to please you. I have a really vivid picture in my head of asking a young dog to do something and them looking at me saying " Do you really reckon I can do that? " and me saying "Go ahead". When they nail it and you reward them they surprise themselves but are 10 foot tall, real growth medium!

Obviously we all know not to push the boundaries too far i.e putting a young pup in with a big mob or anything that may hurt them or dent their confidence. But with a bit of nuturing in the early days, give em a chance and they'll do anything. Koolies have to be the best kept secret.

Lockie....Of course Red is "not too shabby" he's a SHERINGA KOOLIE!

I found an old photo of him when he was a little fella, he has a twin brother (Rocco) that was very hard to tell apart from him when they were pups so we nicknamed them them B1 and B2. And... Yes Jackie H, that is Pixie in the background.

Click to view attachment


Sheringa

I'm just so emotional!!! that's the girls' brother ... That must have been a sensational litter that they had...

Ps Sheringa, I almost had him talked into letting me have another Koolie for the team, but we backslided, Abbey's in season and Smithy is being such a boy!!! and howling and barking and howling. So Abbey has gone to stay at Ron's place for the week for the sake of peace and harmony... last night was bliss.

Yeah Sheringa be proud he's a ripper!

He's a funny guy, very independant & isn't yet fully responsive to commands esp. come LOL but if he's off in his little world in the paddock I just have to lower voice & he knows exactly that I'm talking to him. He still has a ways to go in training & still isn't quite bonded but he's just a pleasure to watch work now we have our flovk of fresh sheep, the sheep are headstrong & cranky suckers yet Red can lift them 4ft in the air scrambling just by his approach & it's just something to watch when he's dealing with a wether that wants to nail him to the dirt & in an instant that sheep is in the air scrambling to get away & Red hasn't touched it.

Every dog is different, & the Koolie definately feeds from it's handler when it comes to confidence. Inda for example is a sook & plays the sook card when he doesn't want to do something & when told he has no choice he puffs up & tackles it & grins ear to ears with a look of satisfaction in himself. Shay is highly intelligent & we just speak to her normal voice like she's a human in the yards & she just does her job with pride.

More, more I just love to hear more.