halter training

[Deleted]

Here is a good video I found on halter breaking.

I do not do it just like this but I do a lot of similar things. First thing I would say is I hate trying to train a young calf. They just don’t have the mental capacity to understand. I avoid it until they have some age. I have found a year old is a good time to train. You would not send a newborn baby off to kinder garden and expect them to learn anything. There really is an art to training. A lot of people try to force a young calf to lead instead of teaching them to lead and yes you can do it but the result is not nearly as good. The last one I trained I spent just a few days with him. Maybe a total of 5 hours. He went to the fair and was just perfectly behaved could not have asked him to be better.

I use 4 coral panels. Get him use to wanting to be in there by feeding hay and locking him in while he eats. I did that a couple of days. Everything I do going forward is in the small coral. I use a roping rope and just put it on him not pulling it down or forcing him to do anything. When he gets use to that I start pulling it down a little and then releasing again not really doing anything just getting him use to what it feels like when it pulls some. As he gets use to it I pull it down enough to pull him just a little. Once he is use to it I tie him to the coral he will fight it some but since he is already use to the feel they don’t fight much. That is the point where I put the halter on and a lead rope. I untie him from the coral and keep working him with both the rope and the halter on. Tie him to the coral a few times with the halter lead on while he eats hay. Within an hour or 2 he is trained to tie and stand without fighting the rope. I let him go and leave the halter with its lead rope to drag.

The next time I work with him feed him in the coral and tie him to it and leave him for a half hour or so. I slowly start introducing the idea of leading by pulling some and then letting off. Only after he leads in the coral do we leave the coral to lead.

Ok and now reading that it seems way over simplified but so much of it depends on how each animal is responding to the training. Maybe the next time I train one I will video it.

[Blessings Farms]

Mike , Do you do this for handling purposes and tamness ? We would like
to start training to lead but I know it will be a while before we can now.
Do you leave halters on all the time ? It seems I need to start using lead
rope when standing in them to just brush against them so they start to
understand it is good not.

[Deleted]

I have to many to train them all. Ones I am taking to the fair get trained and any that maybe milkers. It is best if they are tame before you start this. I like them to be at the point that I can pet them in the field before I start training. That does not mean that I can pet them every single time I go out but dont want them to run from me.

[genebo]

I have only a few Dexters at a time, so I can afford to spend a lot of time with them. I don't leave halters on any of mine and don't even put one on unless abuyer requests it.

I can get them to do whatever I want with food. Once my vet wanted to examine a young bull for a health certificate. The bull was all the way across the fields with the herd. I walked over with some treats in my hand, showed them to the bull, and led him back to the corral, where the vet was waiting. We were going to put him in the head gate, but he stood so still that he was able to be examined without restraint. I put my arm around his shoulders to steady him while the vet used the needle to give him a TB test and "tailed" him while he drew a blood sample. Later, the vet said he had never seen anybody do that before. I told him he needed to find more clients with Dexters.

A new vet asked me if he could come see my Dexters. He's interested. He said he would examine them all while he is here. He also wants to see my fainting goats and offered to trim all their hooves. He's a young man, 3 years out of vet school, but his Daddy was a vet before him and he grew up with it.

When I do put a halter on one, I use the inside of the barn, a 10' by 22' space with a gate across the doorway. Sometimes I let a calf's mama in with us. Most times I let her stand outside, looking in. I start by calming the animal down. Lots of touching and following if it circles. Sooner or later the animal will stop and stand still. That's when I slip the halter over its nose and buckle it behind the horns. It may take a couple of tries to get it on right. Then I attach a lead rope and let it drop to the ground.

Now, anytime the animal moves, it steps on the lead rope and has to halt. I judge how long to let it continue and when it is ready for the next step in training. It may not come the first day. Once I let the halter stay on overnight, but normally I take it off before I turn it out.

It's easy to put the halter on the second time. I let it step on the lead rope a few more times, then I lift the rope and walk beside or behind the animal. If it tries to run, I drop the lead rope. Soon I can pick up the lead rope and walk the animal around inside the barn. It helps to have some sweetfeed handy to help the animal tolerate what is going on. I let them eat out of a bucket with the halter on. Then I try leading. Most of them will lead right away.

I had one that would walk beside me, but would not be led! It took 3 days of training before he would lead, and he still wasn't very happy about it. His delivery date prevented me from seeing how well he did after that, until the new owner sent me pictures of him being led around a show ring, then standing to have his picture taken with his ribbon. I guess he turned out all right.

The rest of my herd, those who are permanent residents, never wear halters, yet we mingle together every night after dark, when I lock the chickens, ducks and guineas up. I walk between them, around them and push them out of the way. They know that as soon as I finish my work, they will be fed treats. Bread, range cubes, alfalfa cubes, fruit slices and sometimes some special hay. They eat very well, and I think they appreciate it. That's why they are so well behaved.

The buyer of a 4 year old cow that had been being milked without a halter wanted her "halter broke". I don't like the sound of that, being "broke". I decided I would "halter train" her for him. The photos of the process are in an album on Photobucket. The entire process from start to finish took 7 minutes. I started with a red rope sheep halter and finished with a blue calf halter.

s270.photobucket.com/user/genebo16/library/Misty%20wearing%20a%20halter?sort=2&page=1

Click on the first picture and you will get a large version of it. There will be arrows on left and right. Click repeatedly on the rightt arrow to cycle through the pictures in large format.

You can see how gentle she is and how well she tolerated what I was doing. The feed in the bucket helped.