Handle and commands for hog/cow dogs?

[levibarcus]

This is a question for those who truly have a handle on their dogs, be it hunting or cow dogs. I have not had a good handle on my dogs but am trying to learn all I can in order to get there. So here is the question.

What are the verbal commands you use, and what are the actions that go with them? What commands do all dogs need to know without any question?

Talk to me fellas, I'm all ears.

[halfbreed]

get out , heel , work em

[hillbilly]

come here, get ahead, and load up

[TChunter]

get out, find em, no sir/maam, load up, come here

[Dirtydog]

Handle is the most important thing to me ! I want my dog to listen no matter what is going on... I think time working with young dogs is key... I use a firm voice anytime I am correcting  so they KNOW I mean business.

[Noah]

Good post...  I am interested what others teach as well...

As for me:

- First and foremost would be the ability to get the animal's FULL attention... a good cow dog friend of mine got me to saying this to my dogs lol... "YOU BETTER HEAR ME"     ...when I say each individual dog's name, they better stop whatever they are doing and look at me for direction.  If not, I go get them and remind them... physically grabbing them, picking them up by the neck and forcing them to look at me in the eye as I say their name again... and again... may even give them a good shake until I get "full attention"... this is of course, a level ten response for complete disrespect of "call to attention"...  IF AT ANY POINT, the dog makes a move showing attention, the tone of my voice changes and I immediately positively re-enforce the "try" exhibited by the dog...  lot of timing/feel to this, but it really helps keep my animals focused on me so I may help them...  It should be noted that this type of control takes a LOT of time...  and, in my opinion, can be severely handicapped by "cheating" with shock collars.   Great training takes time, patience, consistency,

- As I said, the previous command is a never ending process... the dog just gets better at it with time and CONSISTENCY...

- Next command that the dog sure as HELL better be able to do is... "GET'M!!!"... without this.... everything else doesn't matter..     ... this "command", moreover the reaction of the dog to it, is something that I am VERY careful not to ever get in the way of...  I prefer to encourage this "drive", even at the cost of control for a good bit until the dog clearly has the concept... 

- "Load up"... means LOAD YOUR ASS UP NOW. (without me getting out of the truck to make you do it  )  All my dogs know how to do this so I might drive on to a more productive area

- "Go ahead"... means I say it is ok to get off the truck and go back to hunting

- "Get out"/"get ahead"... means get off the caught hog and go bay up another you sumbitches 

... that is pertinent commands I can think of right now, may remember more later!

[levibarcus]

Thanks ya'll. Noah, that is exactly the kind of responses I am looking for. I have been around VERY few dogs with a handle on them, so I haven't had much example to go by. I have been working on some basic obedience with some of my dogs, and am suprised at how fast they start to pick it up. One thing I have found is that just like kids and horses, if you don't have respect, you can't get anywhere. If you do have their respect, as soon as they figure out what you are trying to convey, they do it. It does seem to take time. It seems that feeding, cleaning pens, and hunting are not near enough time to instill these things. I know that I haven't made this a priority in the past, and I think it is a much neglected part of being a responsible dog owner and hunter. I hope to rectify that on my yard, and am pretty excited about  it!

[Noah]

Honestly, I don't do as much as I could... and I know better lol... it is a fact that "cross-training" an animal's mind, even through trivial obedience manuevers, develops the understanding/communication/bond between man and dog and results in better performance...  capture the mind and heart and anything is possible...   makes the whole experience that much more rewarding as well.

[Noah]

I would like to hear Chance's/PaulT's thoughts on this again, I have enjoyed/learned from them in the past

[dblackwell]

Trailer-get in the trailer
Go to the front-go to the front of the trailer and don't move till I load my horse
Hee hee hee(hard to spell kinda have to hear it)-go hunt/get ahead/sick em
Get out-stop what your doing
Hea-come here/come with me
Saying the dogs name in a stern voice-attention getter
Crack my whip-tuck your tail and get redy for a whooping

[halfbreed]

forgot the most important   EASY YOU KNUCKLEHEADS    lol

[Silverton Boar Dogs]

Noah, you baited me right in  

You can't have to much communication with a working dog, both verbal and through body language. Your body language is just as important as the verbal, many hunters don't pay as much attention to this as they could. Being an old horse trainer I am allways thinking " non-verbal" first, backed by verbal. My good finished dogs I can freeze in their tracks with a look, call out with a single whistle and a turn of my back, send to stock with a big nod and a focused look, change direction at a distance with a whistle facing the direction they need to work. All of this non verbal work helps when hunting wild cattle that will leave the country at the sound of a mans voice from a mile away. I guarantee that your dog is allways paying attention to your body language whether you are or not. This directly carries over to hog hunting as stealth is of up most importance. I rarely use any loud verbal cues when hunting.

The most important thing to me, in a cow dog, is that the dog learns to "read" me so that I don't have to be yelling all the time. The other big thing is working on handle without fear in the dog, and I want the dog to respond to a command with his name. This helps with individual control and balance when working cattle.

A response with-out fear builds a bold, aggressive, independent dog that is not afraid to think, try, and possibly fail. Sometimes I will ask a dog for something and he will not yield to me and he will give me the look "your a moron boss, watch this". I defer to his judgement and see how it works out, more times than not the dog was right. I don't want a dog to be afraid of me, but I want zero doubt that I am the pack leader and that we are all on the same team.

Things I need the dog to do for me when I as?

Number one is a call out command (OUT, name) backed by a crack of my whip. Get back to me right now and stop working.

If the dog is of off the truck, or out from behind my horse he should be hunting. I control how deep a dog hunts by the speed I am traveling. No verbal commands ever.

When a dog is bayed I like to be able to loosen him up (easy now, name) or have him get a little tougher (get a hold, name)

Lead out, to lead when the stock are ready.

Hear-to -me,name, is a command I use when I need the dog to check back in for some reason.

i use a growl as a warning that they should get back or get down, or leave something alone (trash) or cattle while hog hunting.

I don't care if a dog loads up on command. If I turn them lose at the house they better be hunting the truck or trailer. I don't really want a dog loading on the truck in the field with-out me asking for them to load. If I put them down, I expect them to hunt on the ground and when I want them back on the truck I will put them there myself.

Gotta go air up a trailer tire and check some bulls before dark, interesting topic, will check back in a bit.

Thanks,
Paul T

[Silverton Boar Dogs]

A disclaimer....The above post is refering to working my straight Catahoula dogs.

My Catahoula, Plott crosses have nearly zero handle, I can bairly catch them on their chain, let alone direct them in anyway in the field.  LOL and that is the sad truth and legacy of my old dog Jessy.

[Noah]

Thanks Paul... there are very few people that I look up to when it comes to the training aspect of things, you are definitely one.  I appreciate the fact that relying on dogs for day work builds a bond, produces a level of training I have not yet had the priviledge to experience... some day, when I win the lottery lol, I hope to afford the opportunity...  truly the "high end" of what is possible in training this sort of dog.

I look forward to any more thoughts you have on the subject

[Reuben]

my style is somewhat like Paul's...not much verbal communications but also don't want fear from my dog...a quick correction might just be a "GET BACK"  and a quick hand signal in the direction I want the dog to back up...no names ans a "pst" to get there attention. When the dogs are working a track I will holler encouragement with 3 hi, hi,hi's (pronounced like the first syllable of hiccup) and about three claps and this usually fires the dogs up...to get ahead I rev up the 4 wheeler about 3 times and they dash ahead...the main command is to call them in...loading up I load them myself...the pups need help to load up in my 4x4 f-350 so I just deal with it even when they are grown...

my dogs are trained or rather conditioned to my way as pups...I holler my pups in to feed and dinner time and when they are running flat out towards me I clap my hands a few times...I call them in just as I would calling them out of the woods...then I give the "KENNEL" command along with a hand signal as they are running towards the kennel to feed...When they run towards me for a treat when I call I fire a cap pistol and they are trained...Body language is key...got to read the dogs to get the most out of them with the least amount of effort...

"get em" "hi" "hi" "hi" "GET EM" and a few claps for the dogs to catch and a sharp "GET BACK" to make them back away from a boar...

I used to do the sit, stay, and heal, and now I just do it the easy way...no real training just teaching the dogs the bare minimum...I just take advantage of the moment and I add a verbal and a hand signal to there momentum...

I just keep it simple because a higher level of training is not important to me...

[mod93dirt]

Man, this is an interesting topic and one that really hits home with me. I have only been around hog dogs for around two years. My dog background is with Schutzhund trained dogs. The first time i ever went hunting behind some dogs, I thought to myself that my buddies had no control whatsoever over their dogs. But I was used to my SCH dogs that had better obey my every command the first time, or else.

In talking with my buddies and asking questions on here, I found that most people just wanted basic control over their dogs. Things like load up, come here, and get out. The opinions that I got were that too much handle on a dog will curb its breeding or instinct to get out and hunt. I have 3 dogs now that I am raising to hunt, and I still struggle with this opinion. The German Shepherds I have been around previously, could be trained to do whatever you wanted obedience wise, but come time to work, would still do the job that they were bred for. I still have a hard time seeing why that cant be done with hunting dogs. Do I think strict OB is necessary with hunting dogs? No, but it would be nice. I kind of feel that if the dog has the desire to hunt, it can do that while still listening to my every command.

With all of that said, with the dogs that i have now, the main things I am focusing on is recall(come here), and get out. For recall, when I call a dogs name and tell them to come, I want them to come back to me without hesitation. The get out, I use a "aaa aaa" sound(kinda hard to describe in text), and I want them to stop what they are doing. I have a year and a half old gyp who gets out and hunts good and has found her own pigs, but still hasnt figured out the come here, and if she dont figure it out pretty soon, she aint gonna be around much longer. I've bout had it with her and this issue.  Nothing more embarrassing then chasing a dog around the woods while hunting with your buddies when its time to leave.

[justincorbell]

Man, this is an interesting topic and one that really hits home with me. I have only been around hog dogs for around two years. My dog background is with Schutzhund trained dogs. The first time i ever went hunting behind some dogs, I thought to myself that my buddies had no control whatsoever over their dogs. But I was used to my SCH dogs that had better obey my every command the first time, or else.

In talking with my buddies and asking questions on here, I found that most people just wanted basic control over their dogs. Things like load up, come here, and get out. The opinions that I got were that too much handle on a dog will curb its breeding or instinct to get out and hunt. I have 3 dogs now that I am raising to hunt, and I still struggle with this opinion. The German Shepherds I have been around previously, could be trained to do whatever you wanted obedience wise, but come time to work, would still do the job that they were bred for. I still have a hard time seeing why that cant be done with hunting dogs. Do I think strict OB is necessary with hunting dogs? No, but it would be nice. I kind of feel that if the dog has the desire to hunt, it can do that while still listening to my every command.

With all of that said, with the dogs that i have now, the main things I am focusing on is recall(come here), and get out. For recall, when I call a dogs name and tell them to come, I want them to come back to me without hesitation. The get out, I use a "aaa aaa" sound(kinda hard to describe in text), and I want them to stop what they are doing. I have a year and a half old gyp who gets out and hunts good and has found her own pigs, but still hasnt figured out the come here, and if she dont figure it out pretty soon, she aint gonna be around much longer. I've bout had it with her and this issue.  Nothing more embarrassing then chasing a dog around the woods while hunting with your buddies when its time to leave.

Have you tried feeding her in the bed of your truck or on your buggy??? I do this daily with one of my hard to catch/handle pups and its makin a difference with him already in under 2 weeks time. Some does just don't like/want much human interaction. Hope it helps.


"the sun is shining somewhere in texas" -Jason Boland