There are lots of ways to make a cow dog.  The thing that should determine the way you go about it is what you really need from your dog or dogs to put the kind of pressure on livestock you need to achieve your livestock handling goals.

What I am looking for is dogs that read livestock and read me either through my commands or from our working relationship and time spent together.

I am of the opinion that it doesn’t matter what method you use, that’s up to you and what your style is, but for me if your are trying to work stock with the least amount of stress and the training of cattle to work and take pressure the dog needs to have “feel”.

The best way to get dogs to have feel is to train and work them with feel.  Feel to me is having the ability to create the correct amount of pressure at the proper time, and release or change the pressure at the right time.  The more skills you have the more kinds of pressure you can use.

I’m not afraid to work with lots of dogs.  I know if the dogs are hooked on to stock I can circle the bunch and drive the dogs around to take some of the pressure off and keep the livestock in a pretty small area.

I feel for young dogs they will gain a lot more confidence when you have the pack mentality and gain lots of confidence. It’s much harder to get them off of cattle, which proves my point.  Just when you get them coming off one will go back and then they all do.  I don’t worry about it.  When I worry is when the come off to easy.

Now my bunch are ready to start working by themselves or with a dog that is more advanced.  I also want to get them to understanding a few commands, and having them on a line helps keep their minds where I need it.  

This is how I like to get them understanding the loss of freedom when you put a collar and line on them.