Back to School

We’re on vacation. Well, not really. The weather is so mild it just feels like a vacation. Last year during January we were chaining up to feed in the morning and pushing snow most afternoons. The bales on the outside of the stack were frozen and had to be chopped apart by hand. This year the sun is out and the days are beautiful. Too beautiful if your summer depends on snowpack in the mountains, but we’ll worry about that in due time.   

A rancher deserves to hibernate for a few weeks in the dead of winter. It’s nice to get a break when the grass isn’t growing; the weeds aren’t rushing to set seed. No sprinkling the lawn. The garden is asleep. The canals are empty and the calves are nestled snugly inside the cows.

It’s the time of year when a rancher goes to school. We’ve been attending a few gatherings to sharpen our skills in range management and cattle handling, and we’ll meet with our beef marketing cooperative, Country Natural Beef, next week in the big city of Portland.

Today we attended a dog clinic taught by Jack Knox, originally from Scotland, and now living in Butler, Missouri. He taught his first clinic on the ranch when Seth was only 3 years old so his methods have influenced the way we handle dogs for over 20 years. Jack still speaks with a heavy Scot brogue and admonishes us, “let your dog work!” He says we're too busy trying to control our dogs. “Don’t look for what she does right, look for what she needs help with and help her. This is how you build trust in a dog.”

Jack is a master stockman. His voice, brogue or not, connects with the dogs immediately and they respond to him one by one throughout the two day clinic as we owner-handlers struggle to understand and emulate. I try, but sometimes the connection he has with the dogs is so deep, so enigmatic, I just sit back in wonder.

Jack emphasizes the livestock, which is great to hear if your livelihood comes from cows. Yes, the training is all about the dogs, but livestock are the reason. Keeping stock calm, using position rather than “bite” to guide them where we want them to go is the goal. Lots of people train to win dog trial competitions instead of training dogs to work livestock calmly. Jack says we can all be winners if we apply his principles.

According to Jack, the typical rancher gets about 30% out of his or her dog’s potential. What could we do with the other 70%? It’s fun to think about and with six ranch dogs in the clinic, we’ll have a fresh start at it in the spring. 

Leah with Dot doling out hay

Seth and Jack with Elsa and Dot

Learning to ride hay bales and building confidence