questions!

[Mooshoo4]

So when I walk my steer he is always either trying  to push me  around or refusing  to walk. most of the time when he is pushing me around i just have to hit him in the nose with the end of his lead rope but... what should I do when he wont walk??? i know of the tail pulling thing but its hard cause  i am always walking him by myself and he tries to walk in circles when i pull on his tail... anything else  i can try to make him walk so it doesnt take me 20 minutes to get to the end of the barn drive??
                                                                                                                                                                  Thanks Mattie.

 

[KCK]

Hey Mattie.

Do you have anyone that can follow you and help get the steer going? That is the safest method b/c that way you can stay in front of him and get used to having to move with you  up there. The person behind can nicely twist on his tail or give him a little pat. Nothing too harsh, b/c that is never the way to treat animals. Not that I am the final word on it, but I have found that if you let a calf think it will be led with you trying to push it, walking in circles, etc., it will never understand the "real" way to walk.

Patience is valuable here. Don't get too harsh when you tap him with the halter, keep your cool and just take your time. You don't want to spook him for good.

Good luck and keep me posted

 

[Mooshoo4]

well..... my whole family is always either working or at school when I walk him... unless its the weekend. But most of the time my steer does fine once we are to  a certain spot but doesnt want to  move nicely until we get there and some days I never even get to that place cause it takes to long to get there or I just dont have the patience. He has learned that if he pulls on his halter that I get pulled back a few feet cause he is stronger  then me and he knows it...

 

[CAB]

Can you schedule his leading lessons to correspond with feeding or watering or both? Try using feed & water for a reward, he'll soon learn to follow you. If you are walking your calf to exercise him, take the halter off and walk him by sort of chasing him. He'll get twice the amount of exercise in half of the time. When you lead your calf and are taking his halter off, B4 you let him go, make him @ least get his front feet into a show stance. If you'll do this everytime B4 you let him loose, he'll automatically do it in the show ring & by making him step into @ least front feet ready you are more than likely just going to have to move 1 rear foot most of the time. When you do this have your showstick with you and turn and switch hands like you are going to set him up. He'll learn that when you change hands on the lead that he is going to have to set up. Reward him with a few scratches on his tummy. He'll get so he looks forward to this.

 

[Mooshoo4]

Im walking him to exercise him and to train him better. he pretty much already knows that if he sets up his feet right that I will scratch his belly.... the only problem I have with that is that  he starts falling asleep when I scratch his belly. He loves and and after a few seconds he thinks that im just there to hold up his head while he takes a nap. But I know im lucky that he was pretty well trained before I got him.

 

[Freddy]

Very good advise from CAB,leading to water or feed is the tried an proven way, had a BLUE HEELER DOG that we used called Misty  when we showed more cattle an she was priceless, knew just what to do  an how aggressive to be ...CAN TAKE 3-4 HEAD TO TIE OUT BY YOUR SELF WITH A GOOD DOG ...  Some of the newer methods are using pull an release very effectively , some of the methods on some of the horse shows on RFD CAN BE INCORPORATED INTO very useful in cattle with a little imagination.   The Down Under Clinton Anderson is very useful , an Ray Hunt  was the one that started it all .....Jamie

 

[Mooshoo4]

I have  a Blue heeler.... and she herds everything.... except my steer... she doesnt like  him and pretty much just stays away from him.
                                                                                                        Thanks!

 

[BrechtCattleCo]

Walk him somewhere you dont usualyy lead him, he will be interested in everything and he will want to walk  for you!

 

[Mooshoo4]

Thanks I will try that sometime. Have you ever had  a steer sit?? kinda like a dog I mean. cause I  went to go feed my steer tonight and he was sitting when i got down to the barn and he just sat there until I got him his food then once I gave him his food he got up and ate. but I have never seen him  sitting before and I was pretty sure that cows dont normally sit...

 

[knabe]

So when I walk my steer he is always either trying  to push me  around or refusing  to walk.

this is really easy.  wait for him to start walking.  stop him before he starts pushing.   the sooner you see the body movements necessary to do this the better the both of you will be.  there isn't a steer alive who wants to excel after being hit in the nose.  here, let me do it to you.  another thing.  people at first think it's a good thing to get the steer to relax scratching their belly.  you don't want them to do that.  you want them to pose.  what i do is scratch them less, a lot less, but with some repetition interval that they can anticipate, and scratch them in different spots like between the front legs on their chest floor where they can never reach.  mix it up, keep them guessing.

walk him on both sides so he gets used to seeing things with both eyes, which you will eventually have to do without knowing it when someone is showing next to you and he reacts the opposite way to your commands than at home.  you will be able to calmly re place your animal without having to pull him out of line, unless the judge instructs you to do that.

 

[knabe]

another thing to do is get the new video about tom dorrance on how to deal with animals, he worked with horses and is essentially the basis of everything i do.  he taught ray hunt and basically all the rest of the horse whisperers.  there's an ad for it in this months western horseman.

by the way, in the book, he dies (the horse whisperer)  i have my own theory on why.