Training a farm dog - outside the box!

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My dogs like sweet potatoes. A lot. After they dug up and ate a plater of them that had been set out onto the front porch (with our blessings - they were extras), they really got excited to see hubby digging up one from the bed and proceeded to resupply themselves with a real dumdinger of a sweet spud! On another day, they joined us digging regular spuds, digging ferociously behind our efforts, tossing up all sorts of soil faster than we could - to no real end, but very effectively at theat.

So I'm wondering how hard it would be to teach them to dig potatoes and sweets, maybe even onions, without eating them. They are much better at it than we are and really get a kick out of the process. Also trying to think of other "instinctive" jobs they could be given around the farm. ANy ideas (funny or otherwise - you never know what could be useful!).

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 27, 2001

Answers

Soni, This sounds like it should work. Give the dogs a reward for every potato they bring to you. I use my chickens to spread manure and straw around in my garden. When I clean the barns and dump tractor scoops of dirty straw in the garden, I put a small handful of grain on top of each pile. The chickens have fun scratching and kicking the stuff all over the garden. I already use the pigs to turn the dirt up for me, now I need to start working with the dogs! Good luck and let us know if it works!

-- cowgirlone (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), September 27, 2001.

I have a smallish Shephard-collie mix and she's the funniest dog I've ever had. I'm trying to train her now, so I keep her on a lead, or on a dog trolley-if she gets loose, she jumps into the algae end of the pond and then runs through the hay field and get stick-me-tights all in her fur-It took me three hours the other day the get those out of her fur, and to wash her (pond scum mixed with doggy sweat is not a good smell) Anyway-she loves being outside and she likes being with me so one day when I was in my garden, I attached her leash to my garden cart Its a big lightweight plastic wagon. She actually pulled the wagon across the garden! She's pulled the garden wagon full of grass clippings across the yard! She loves it! I'm afraid the leash isn't good, for that so I found some left over webbing straps and I'm working on making her a little harness-my husband swears he's seen goats with little harnesss pulling stuff (I think he's pulling my leg) I hink this qualifies for out of the box-I havn't tried her on sweet potatos though!

-- Kelly (makrelly@scrtc.com), September 28, 2001.

Goats can pull small wagons. Growing up, we had mixed goats, no idea what all kinds were in those goats, but they LOVED pulling the wagon of hay!! They were a real big help! They would pull it across the ground and look so happy!! They got a treat of sweet feed after that.

-- Cindy in Ok (cynthiacluck@yahoo.com), September 29, 2001.

Dogs as well as pigs are used to find truffles, so why not other underground stuff? DOgs have an advantage over pigs, in that the owner is more likely than the finder to get the truffle with dogs, whereas otherwise it can make some mighty expensive pigfeed.

As above, goats can pull small carts (do you have the term "billy cart" over there?). Of course, dogs can be draught (or draft in your case) animals - think of sled dogs. In fact, if you want plans of harness, www.google.com and a search term of "sled dog harness" or "sled dog harness design" would probably be a good place to start. However, I've also seen pictures of small carts for delivering milk in Holland with a dog between the shafts - in fact I just tried google and "draft harness cart poles" as a search term and the first response was "Driving your dog in harness".

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), September 29, 2001.


Soni, like allowing your very young kids to tear up magazines or color on them, then scolding them for not understanding when they do the same to your first edition copy of Little Women (happened to me). I would not want to teach my dogs it is o.k. to dig. They would not be able to be taught the difference between digging up the part of the garden you want, or the whole yard including your flowers.

Because of an article in countryside many years back, I was thrilled with the scratching around the plants my hens did! It was not until they pecked and ate the first red ripe tomatoe of the year, let alone the first one at our new property, that they were penned until the plants had time to mature! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 29, 2001.



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