Post by Tamara on Feb 16, 2013 5:55:15 GMT -5
Hello there,
So our new cow Rose has some problems when it comes to manners. She will push and shove to get to food. She is not wild or actually aggressive - she is fine to have us touch and brush her, as long as she has food to keep her interested and standing still. But once she gets to the food and it runs out, her interest disappears and she will not come near unless I have food.
She was raised on bottle feeding and her previous owner was very soft with her animals, so I suppose that is where the bad manners come from. I'm guessing she has always had free access to her food when given it so she has not learned to wait patiently.
Now I'm actually looking to train in the 'natural horsemanship' style. I know a lot of people here train by tying them to posts and giving whacks on the nose, but I'm not too keen on negative punishment for training and prefer positive reinforcement. I have seen it work very well on my own horses and after reading up online, I have found the same techniques work for cows.
I will be similar gentling methods to the ones explained here thecattlemanmagazine.com/archives/2011/08/art-of-gentling.html and here www.hermandetering.com/pdfs/CattlemanFeb10.pdf
We only have a very small round pen to train her, and so far I haven't found anywhere to get cheap extra panels.
I know someone on this forum once had a guide for 'natural cowmanship' but it seems she is no longer around, so I was wondering if anyone else has any experience with using gentling methods on a cow? Has anyone ever tried the Parelli or Monty Roberts methods? What kind of success have you had? I'd love to hear anyone's stories!
I will let you know how the training goes, although it may be a slow and patient process to get her actually trained rather than just tamed. I'm hoping the training will also help get her heifer used to me as well.
Thanks,
Tamara
So our new cow Rose has some problems when it comes to manners. She will push and shove to get to food. She is not wild or actually aggressive - she is fine to have us touch and brush her, as long as she has food to keep her interested and standing still. But once she gets to the food and it runs out, her interest disappears and she will not come near unless I have food.
She was raised on bottle feeding and her previous owner was very soft with her animals, so I suppose that is where the bad manners come from. I'm guessing she has always had free access to her food when given it so she has not learned to wait patiently.
Now I'm actually looking to train in the 'natural horsemanship' style. I know a lot of people here train by tying them to posts and giving whacks on the nose, but I'm not too keen on negative punishment for training and prefer positive reinforcement. I have seen it work very well on my own horses and after reading up online, I have found the same techniques work for cows.
I will be similar gentling methods to the ones explained here thecattlemanmagazine.com/archives/2011/08/art-of-gentling.html and here www.hermandetering.com/pdfs/CattlemanFeb10.pdf
We only have a very small round pen to train her, and so far I haven't found anywhere to get cheap extra panels.
I know someone on this forum once had a guide for 'natural cowmanship' but it seems she is no longer around, so I was wondering if anyone else has any experience with using gentling methods on a cow? Has anyone ever tried the Parelli or Monty Roberts methods? What kind of success have you had? I'd love to hear anyone's stories!
I will let you know how the training goes, although it may be a slow and patient process to get her actually trained rather than just tamed. I'm hoping the training will also help get her heifer used to me as well.
Thanks,
Tamara