Fat Cat Goes to the Dogs!

Yesterday and today we spent some time in the morning filming for a very different type of project. J. Mannebach of Oz Cow Dogs in Colwich, Kansas has asked Fat Cat to produce a working dog training video for them. The video will cover how to choose the right working dog and specific training methods to work a dog on stock (cattle). This is not the type of herding you see at AKC competitions with cute little geese, fluffy white sheep, and bouncing baby goats running circles and pretty patterns through gates in record setting times. This is training for real working ranch dogs. High drive dogs. The kind that will run the cattle all day if you would let them, think on their own, get rolled by and kicked at by 800 plus pound cows and they keep on going, live and breathe for the opportunity to chase after and nip at a cow- and love every minute of it. They are the take charge type dog that will bite at the heels and nose of the cows to get them to move and not blink an eye. They aren't your pretty competition show dogs either, after a good work out with the cattle they enjoy rolling in the mudholes for a job well done!

So off we went with our nice clean shiny tripods and expensive cameras we spent our hard earned money on, into a pasture full of cow pies and mudholes and about 6 or 7 head of cattle to film the dogs at work, hoping the dogs were in control enough to not cause a stampede right over top of us. Needless to say it was the most fun we've had in a while! Being the avid dog lover and trainer that I am, I even picked up a few pointers!

Filming will continue for the next couple of weeks off and on, as weather permits and this summer we will be editing the complete DVD Training Video Set, target completion date is sometime this fall. When it is completed, we will post a short clip to show you how exciting it was. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures as I was busy filming!

Until then, it's time to keep Moo-ving on in the edit que. Things never seem to slow down around here!