Canine Cowboys Prove Helpful

by David Bowser

The cattle feeding industry is going to the dogs, at least at Caprock Feeders 100,000 head yard here.

"If all the humans had the enthusiasm and want-to that the dogs do to go to work," said Deb Meuth, "it'd be unbelievable what you could accomplish."

Meuth is the head of the feedyard's veterinary crew. She has a Border Collie, Bill, that has been helping her for about three years now.

Caprock first bought a couple of dogs for their sprawling feedyard here in Western Kansas several years ago. The plan was to have them help the loading crews.

"We ship at night," Meuth said.

But using dogs with the shipping crews didn't work out as well as they had hoped. A dog must be directed by only one person. Initially, the dogs were being directed by a number of different people.

"It can be confusing for humans, too, when there are too many bosses," Meuth said.

When the yard decided to pull the dogs off the shipping crew, they were offered to the hospital crew. It didn't take long for Meuth to see the potential there. They have worked out so well that Caprock just bought a third dog.

It takes someone who enjoys working with dogs to get the most out of them, Meuth said.

The dogs were trained by Jim Ray of Champion Feedyards in Hereford, Tex. Ray has been using dogs for five or six years now at Champion Feedyard.

"I used to use them here more than I do now," Ray said. "I'm in the office quite a bit now. A dog can't do much in here. But I do a lot of things by myself. I'll take the dog with me, and it's just like having another man with you."

But, like with any other employee, it takes a while to break in the dog, Meuth said.

"Jim has them trained," Meuth said. "You might say we customize them to our work facilities."

Meuth said neither she nor any of her crew had worked with dogs before.

"It has been a learning experience," Meuth said. "The dogs have had to be patient with us. The more we work with them, the more we're able to use their talents. We figure out a little more each day just how smart they are."

As they become more accustomed to working with dogs at Caprock, the canines' chores have expanded. When the hospital pens are empty, the dogs are used to sort cattle.

"They save us a lot of footsteps," Meuth said. "They'll put them on the trailer for us."

Bill likes processing, she said.

"He just loves to work," she said.

There have been a few changes at the feedyard to accommodate the dogs. They have a kennel with heated dog houses, but no air conditioning. The heated dog houses keep them dry in cold weather.

The backs of the circle gates have been trimmed across the bottom so the dogs can get in and out.

But mostly, the program revolves around the dog and the handler, and that is a continuing educational process.

"If we had more dog knowledge, I'm sure there's more that we could ask the dogs to do," Meuth said. "It's been a learning process for us and the dogs. We haven't gotten completely through it yet."

Although there are a number of breeds and trainers around, Ray said he's had his best success with Border Collies. Even then, it's more a matter of individual dog, he said.

"It takes a special kind of border collie to work in a feedlot," he said. "They have to be pretty tough. Just not every one will work."

The key is maintaining control of the dog, Ray said.

"You can't have one running wild or running cattle," he said. "You've got to have a lot of control on one."

Ray said of the Border Collies that he's worked with, nine out of 10 never bark when they're working.

"They work cattle slow and easy and that's what we're after," he said. "I use them a lot of times to push cattle up to a bunk and hold them to get them started eating. I can take a pair of those dogs and push them up and lay the dogs down, go off and leave them and come back in 30 minutes and pick the dogs up. They'll hold them up to the bunk."

Ray said he'll take a dog and move 200 head of cattle across the lot.

"I'll go ahead and set gates and they'll bring them behind me," he said. "If you're riding pens, you can open a gate and lay your dog down at the gate and he'll watch the gate. You get one that you want to pull, you just tell him 'that'll do' and he'll come to you and help push him out."

Meuth said she's still discovering things the dogs can do and can't do.

"We haven't taught them to run the computer yet or give shots," Meuth said. "I'm going to visit with Jim about that.