Transcript:
Hey, everyone, so today I wanted to talk to you a little bit about some things that I trained my farm dog that I’m really glad I did. And then a few things that I wish I would have focused on more when she was a puppy.
So just a little bit about my dog. I have a four year old English shepherd named Ruby. She is very energetic, very loyal, loves to run around outside and also super smart. So that definitely helped with the training process.
Okay, so here are a couple of things that I trained that I’m super, super happy that I did.
She Can Only Go Potty in the Tall Weeds
Number one is that she knows that she’s only allowed to potty in the tall weeds. If there’s tall grass and it’s not a mowed section, she can go there.
This takes a little bit more work at the beginning when they’re a puppy because I would take her on a leash every single time out to the weeds and wait for her to go and then praise her like crazy.
And I did that for months on the leash, out to the weeds. Lots of praise on leash, out to the weeds, praise.
And I would also switch up where I was taking her. I didn’t want her to just go one spot in the weeds.
I wanted her to make sure she knew if it was tall grass, she can go there, so I’d walk her to a few different places, wait for her to go, and then praise.
When she got a little bit older and I was trusting her off leash. I would still walk over there so that she could go and then praise when she went. There were a couple of times that I caught her trying to poop in the yard and I just yelled at her, Hey, no. She would run to the weeds and finish her job there. So she probably caught on pretty, pretty quickly because I was very strict about making sure that she had a solid foundation at the beginning, knowing that’s where she could go.
So that’s the first thing that I’m super glad I trade because I don’t have to pick up any dog poop. I have enough animal manure to deal with without having to deal with dog poop. So that is number one.
Good Boundaries Around Your Livestock
The second thing that I’m super glad I taught Ruby was boundaries. There are a few boundaries that I really nailed into her head from the time she was a puppy and that was mainly for her safety.
The first one is that she’s never allowed to go into the horse paddock. She is allowed to put her feet on the fence, but she is not allowed to go in and she knows as long as her two back feet are on the ground she is okay.
She will sometimes reach in if a ball goes in there or if the horses are dropping some grain, she likes to clean up the mess a little bit, but she never breaks the rule.
I have never, ever, ever invited her into the paddock, so she knows that it’s absolutely a no go zone and she is fully able to reach in there and go in there physically. She could jump right through the bars, but she knows that it’s not allowed and she follows that rule.
There are a couple other pens that she is not allowed to go into unless she’s invited, so that would be the goat pen or the chicken run. And those she is expected to wait outside and not cross the boundary of the gate unless I invite her in and then she can come in.
She still has to behave and not chase the animals, but she is then welcome into that space. She knows not to cross that threshold unless I say it’s okay.
Boundaries I Wish I Taught My Dog
Now, there are a few boundaries that I wish I would have taught a little bit better.
One of those being not to run in the garden. This is one thing I did not think about when she was a puppy at all. We have a bunch of raised bed gardens and she sometimes likes to jump over them, run through them, which isn’t very good when you have things planted in there.
So that is something that I’m really going to have to work on this year as I’m trying to have a nicer garden.
Proper Animal Interaction
The last thing I’m glad that I trained is her interaction with animals.
From a very young age, I had her exposed to goats, chickens and horses.
There are a few things that I really wanted to drill into her head, like, you can’t eat baby chicks. So I would hold the chicks, I would talk to the chicks. I would let her smell them. And she was pretty good.
Again, her breed is really bred for this kind of work, so she picked up really quickly that these are our animals to take care of.
Now, that being said, I wish I would have enforced more of having to stay calm around animals. Although I’m confident that she’s not going to kill anything, she still has a little bit too much chase drive in my opinion.
That was just me not being strict enough with the rules, so that’s something we’re still working on now. I’m sort of going back and trying to retrain, which is always harder than just training it from the beginning.
So she still likes to bark at the horses or if they’re getting all antsy, she sort of likes to run around with them, which is, number one, dangerous and number two, really annoying. So working on that, but the foundation is there to not hurt other animals. She can be with them and She can be gentle with them.
Final Thoughts
So as a puppy, I think it’s really important to expose them to other animals, but in a very controlled way and to make sure that they are not only exposed to them, but are acting in a calm, gentle way around them from the very beginning so that they have those expectations and rules in their head all the way through their life.
I hope this gives you a few ideas for when you’re training your farm dog and motivates you to start really, really young.
Give lots of praise and make sure to be very strict on the rules that you want them to follow throughout their life. Have a great week and we’ll see you again next Sunday.
