WORKING dogs aren't just for sheep with benefits for using them with cattle too.
Coota Park Blue-E assistant manager, Nick Hovey, Woodstock, speaking at the stud's field day (see p62) on Wednesday last week uses working dogs on the property and gave a demonstration of their capability.
Mr Hovey said he's found cattle can be educated for working with dogs and the biggest benefit of using them is the ability to free up other staff members to go and do other jobs.
"Generally we find it easier, safer and more efficient if you use effective working dogs," he said.Mr Hovey said strength and calmness is needed in the dog but it should be able to put force on when needed.
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Lauren Vest, Canberra Working Dogs, said the dogs can and should be trained for low stress handling of stock with only five main commands (stop and recall, directional anticlockwise and clockwise and walk up or push) needed to be effective.
They both stressed the importance of buying dogs from someone who is using the dogs in a similar way to how you want to use them.