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Cattle Chasing !


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On our walk yesterday, Jamie suddenly shot up the embankment into a field and I just glimpsed a huge cows (bulls ?) head, and then lots of barking and bellowing and hooves. From the noise, I think Jamie chased it down the field and at some point it turned and chased him back. Some of the worst minutes of my life, shouting and calling and waiting for the bang :(

 

I obviously have a livestock chaser, and now I know, want to try and train him away from chasing. I've looked up Angela Stockdale, and she is doing no classes this year, and I don't know any other trainers that work with livestock. Any advice of how to deal with this would be very very appreciated. Thank you xx

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Thanks Fee :flowers: I've spoken to Jim Greenwood and just talking to him has calmed me down a lot, as he does feel that he can help. So when we have found a farmer who will let Jamie (on lead and muzzled obviously)near one of his/her cows/bulls we can test Jamie and see what work needs to be done for both him and me.

 

Now, does anyone know any accomodating cattle farmers somewhere around Cheshire/Manchester please ? :flowers:

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Good luck, I am sure you can get him sorted out. Cattle chasing is so dangerous, I am not surprised you got stressed about it flowers.gif Hope the training goes well.

 

It's so difficult if you can't even see the animals are there until a dog ducks under a fence or something. ohmy.gif

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Jim greenwood sorted Lottie out with sheep. He is the most calm gentle man. He will never do anything to harm your dog. Lottie has aggression issues so, he turned up with 3 of his dogs and we went for a walk in the forest so he could see how she reacted. She was fine with all of them. I cannot recommend him enough.

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Thanks Fee :flowers: I've spoken to Jim Greenwood and just talking to him has calmed me down a lot, as he does feel that he can help. So when we have found a farmer who will let Jamie (on lead and muzzled obviously)near one of his/her cows/bulls we can test Jamie and see what work needs to be done for both him and me.

 

Now, does anyone know any accomodating cattle farmers somewhere around Cheshire/Manchester please ? :flowers:

There are cows in the fields where I walk my lot (Worsley). I used to have two chasers (Taffy and Beau) but have managed to train Beau to stop so he just ignores the cows now. Taffy took a little longer, but he is getting the hang of it as well and for the first time on Saturday we walked alongside the fence where the cows were right up to the fence and he completely ignored them. It's not a difficult thing to do, just depends on the level of 'interest' your dog has but it does take patience and consistency.

 

I found that teaching them a good 'leave it' (spoken in the voice of doom) first worked wonders and it has also helped with stopping Taffy barking at motorbikes (which he hated with a vengeance).

 

If you want to go for a walk let me know so I can show you around the place :flowers:

 

ETA : The cows in the field are very placid - no bulls but there are some inquisitive calves.

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Both Tommy and Dixie would chase sheep if they had the chance, we researched how we could stop this but wasn't happy with the methods used so we decided to make sure that they never chased again. It wasn't difficult, we just put them on a lead if there was sheep about and planned our walks to avoid them if we could. They were able to walk past sheep without any problems but I would never trust them off the lead.

 

You may be able to stop your dog chasing cows but if a rabbit ran through them with the dog after the farmer is going to think the dog is chasing and take action.

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With a dog that wants to chase cows, I would have thought the farmer was the least of your problems. Cows can easily kill a dog themselves, they don't need help from a man with a gun. When I have discussed this with owners of cattle, their main concern is usually that I realise how dangerous the cows can be if they get peed off! I'm sure there are nasty farmers as there are nasty people in most walks of life, but I always think it's a bit odd that so many dog owners are afraid of the owner rather than the cows (which do regularly kill people, after all). Farmers are usually dog owners themselves, they don't want to kill people's pets if they aren't forced into a position where they really have no other choice if they are going to protect their animals and livelihood.

 

And there is the thing with cattle that if you do find yourself in a field with some unexpectedly and they DO turn out to be aggressive, then keeping a dog on lead at that point can lead to both you and the dog getting trampled...

 

 

Sheep are different, and I think farmers are understandably defensive of them as dogs can do horrible damage terrifyingly quickly and they really can't defend themselves much. I have worked quite hard on sheep training my two, but I agree that if you can keep on lead around sheep then it's the safest thing to do.

 

Problem where I live is that sheep (and cows, horses and on occasion, goats and pigs) have a terrifying tendency to pop up where you aren't expecting them! ohmy.gif I was coming home a year or so ago and the lane suddenly filled with tiny piglets, to my surprise - I thought they were little dogs to start with. Couldn't find anyone about to tell about them at all, so I shooed them into a field and hoped someone would come and find them! The dogs were most taken aback.

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Jim greenwood sorted Lottie out with sheep. He is the most calm gentle man. He will never do anything to harm your dog. Lottie has aggression issues so, he turned up with 3 of his dogs and we went for a walk in the forest so he could see how she reacted. She was fine with all of them. I cannot recommend him enough.

 

Thanks Ellie :flowers: Just talking to him, did help to calm me down, as he does feel that he can help. He mentioned stalking techniques, did he do this with Lottie ?

 

 

There are cows in the fields where I walk my lot (Worsley). I used to have two chasers (Taffy and Beau) but have managed to train Beau to stop so he just ignores the cows now. Taffy took a little longer, but he is getting the hang of it as well and for the first time on Saturday we walked alongside the fence where the cows were right up to the fence and he completely ignored them. It's not a difficult thing to do, just depends on the level of 'interest' your dog has but it does take patience and consistency.

 

I found that teaching them a good 'leave it' (spoken in the voice of doom) first worked wonders and it has also helped with stopping Taffy barking at motorbikes (which he hated with a vengeance).

 

If you want to go for a walk let me know so I can show you around the place :flowers:

 

ETA : The cows in the field are very placid - no bulls but there are some inquisitive calves.

 

Thanks Alex, I may take you up on that offer, even if it is just to see if Jamie is still interested, or if the bull did scare him. I'm going to speak to Jim Greenwood again towards the end of the week, and will ask if he thinks this is a good idea :flowers: Thank you xx

 

With a dog that wants to chase cows, I would have thought the farmer was the least of your problems. Cows can easily kill a dog themselves, they don't need help from a man with a gun. When I have discussed this with owners of cattle, their main concern is usually that I realise how dangerous the cows can be if they get peed off! I'm sure there are nasty farmers as there are nasty people in most walks of life, but I always think it's a bit odd that so many dog owners are afraid of the owner rather than the cows (which do regularly kill people, after all). Farmers are usually dog owners themselves, they don't want to kill people's pets if they aren't forced into a position where they really have no other choice if they are going to protect their animals and livelihood.

 

And there is the thing with cattle that if you do find yourself in a field with some unexpectedly and they DO turn out to be aggressive, then keeping a dog on lead at that point can lead to both you and the dog getting trampled...

 

 

Sheep are different, and I think farmers are understandably defensive of them as dogs can do horrible damage terrifyingly quickly and they really can't defend themselves much. I have worked quite hard on sheep training my two, but I agree that if you can keep on lead around sheep then it's the safest thing to do.

 

Problem where I live is that sheep (and cows, horses and on occasion, goats and pigs) have a terrifying tendency to pop up where you aren't expecting them! ohmy.gif I was coming home a year or so ago and the lane suddenly filled with tiny piglets, to my surprise - I thought they were little dogs to start with. Couldn't find anyone about to tell about them at all, so I shooed them into a field and hoped someone would come and find them! The dogs were most taken aback.

 

Cycas, I agree with your whole post. We didn't follow Jamie into the field much as I wanted to. I was well aware that he was safest on his own at that point. This bull was in a field 12 ft up an embankment, behind a hedge and invisible to me. He did just pop up when Jamie ducked under the wire fence :( Whenever we have even a glance glimpse or sniff of anything he does go straight onto his lead :flowers:

 

Mrs Mop, I want to deal with this problem so that Jamie can be as safe as he can ever be, allowing for all the dangers in life. I am going with the professional help as I do not have the confidence to deal with this alone. For the last 20 yrs I have had oldies. Give me an elderly with multiple health and mobility problems and I have confidence in my abilites to deal with them and do my best for the dog. Jamie is the youngest dog I have had in a long long time, and I need help with this issue. Please do not judge me to harshly.

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I can't imagine anyone is going to judge you for getting professional advice about a potentially serious problem flowers.gif

 

Jim will not use harsh or unkind methods, I'd be quite happy for him to work with my dogs (in fact he has as I've been to a couple of his workshops).

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Thanks Alex, I may take you up on that offer, even if it is just to see if Jamie is still interested, or if the bull did scare him. I'm going to speak to Jim Greenwood again towards the end of the week, and will ask if he thinks this is a good idea :flowers: Thank you xx

 

If you want to know where it is so you can go with Jim Greenwood just let me know. The cows are in one huge field, which has footpaths criss crossing it. That field (which is fenced off) is surrounded by other fields with footpaths, so you don't actually have to go anywhere near the cows, you can be quite far away and see how he reacts, then get closer if you want to, so ideal for what you want to do :flowers:

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  • 5 weeks later...

Purpuss - I hope you got this sorted. Jim Greenwood is a fantastic man and helped me sort out my Chloe's HUGE problem with chasing anything that was small and furry or had feathers. Since his lovely, kind gentle advice we have only had one incident where she nearly got a cockerel (and I blame myself as I think I inadvertently said she could chase it) but she stopped when we yelled. This is quite an achievement seeing as Chloe was a killing machine when we first got her.

 

Anne

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