Training Australian Cattle Dogs

Australian Cattle Dogs are highly intelligent and independent thinkers who tend to react to aggression with aggression.  A Cattle Dog needs to be trained or they will find their own things to do which may not please you. A positive style of training rewarding with food, toys or life rewards is the most effective way of training a cattle dog.

Cattle Dogs independent thought means they respond very well to clicker training where their behaviour is shaped to what you want – cattle dogs just love to work out what behaviour is going to get them that reward.

So how do we train using Positive Training

The basic principles are:

• Reward (Positive reinforcement) to increase the behaviours you want
• Ignore (Negative punishment) to stop behaviours you do not want

Know what behaviours you want from your dog:

• Reinforce by rewarding what you like
• Ignore what you don’t like
• Completely and utterly ignore them – look or turn away and remain completely passive, or calmly walk away, or leave area
• Redirect the dog to a behaviour you can then positively reward after ~ 5 secs
• Manage the situation by getting the dog out of the situation before the bad behaviour starts, walk away to gain distance, crate or put dog in a no trouble area
• Break down each behaviour into tiny pieces (approximations) 
  You want the dog to go lie on its mat 
  – show interest in mat
  – move towards the mat
  – put one foot on the mate
  – put two feet on the mat
  – put 3 feet on the mate
  – put 4 feet on the mat
  – get on mat
  – lie down on mat
  – lie on mat for longer and longer time (increment of seconds)
  – send to mat from further and further away (increment of half a step) 
  – and then go lie on the mat while more and more distracting things are happening
• Raising the criterion once each step is learned
• Remember the 3D principle and raising only one of these criteria at a time:
  • distraction
  • distance
  • duration
• When raising one criterion you need to lower the other criteria
• Learned behaviour is one that occurs correctly in at least 8 out of 10 tries out of 10 trials in different locations with varying degree of distraction
• Keep sessions short and successful – ideal 3-5 sessions of 3-5minutes working on a behaviour/ set of behaviours at a time.
• Always stop when the dog wants more
• Proper timing is everything – mark &/ reward in half a second, late or early timing might mark the wrong behaviour
• Dogs need down time at the end of a session to think about what they learnt
• Remember attention good or bad is a reward

The Clicker

• A clicker is a device that makes a short sharp sound, there are a number of different models of clicker on the market.
• The click marks the end of the behaviour Whatever you want the dog to repeat now or again in the future, the click will mark that behaviour – the paying attention, the response to your call, the self control etc
• For every click there will be a reward – within 5 seconds of the click in the beginning.

Training Resources

Some of our favourites.

Web Sites:
For all you need to know about clicker training – www.clickertraining.com

Sylvia Trkman’s training – www.lolabuland.com

Books:
Bertilsson, Eva & Johnson Vegh, Emelie, 2010. Agility right from the start.
ISBN 978-1-890948-41-2

Dennison, Pamela, 2005. The complete idiots guide to: Positive Dog Training.
ISBN 1-59257-483-1

Donaldson, Jean. 2005 The Cluture Clash.
ISBN 1-888047-05-4

McDevitt,Leslie. 2007. Control Unleashed. Book & DVD’s

Miller, Pat. 2008. The Power of Positive Dog Training.
ISBN 978-0-470-24184-4

Parsons, Emma. 2005. Click to Calm, Healing the agressive Dog.
ISBN 1-89090948-20-9

Pryor, Karen. 1999. Don’t shoot the dog: The new art of Teaching and Training.

DVD’s
A good source for DVD’s is www.cleanrun.com or directly from the person presenting the DVD.

Sylvia Trkman

• Heeling is jut another Trick
• Cik & Cap
• Tricks for a great Bond

Susan Garrett

• Success with one jump
• Crate games

Susan Salo

• Foundation Jumping
• Advanced Jumping
• Puppy Jumping

Greg Derrett

• Great Dog shame about the handler
• Great dog great handler – a winning combination
• On course to Excel

Moe Strenfel

• Foundation training for Agility