Halter training!!

[ayrt1010]

Just wondering if anyone has any tips for me on this subjest? Thanks!

[tinkerbell]

Heya,

I am fairly new to keeping Dexter cattle, and I have a few cows which are halter trained and were shown this year. Whilst haltering the cattle I found that this discussion board gave some good tips along with friends tips too!!
From my experiances and knowledge that has been given to me, I may be able to give you some tips depending on what you wanted to know; Walking, Standing, ect....?

[Mark Bowles]

I tend to find that if you have a quiet animal, ie one that comes to you in the field, then you are on a good footing towards halter training. The first time you put a halter on you will know how easy it is going to be. Some of my heifers , one in particular has probably had 6 hours on a halter and she is as good as gold, not show quality, but good to have her trained.Others need a whole lot more time, and i mean a whole lot more. When you have got to the stage of having a completely halter trained bomb proof cow and you show it, it is a real joy, not so good when you haven't.

[SteveM]

Havent managed to find a "bomb proof" one yet, but with the heifers we halter trained last year during training we moved them to another yard and fed them some hay there, rather than just leading them around and tying up in there own pen.

[tinkerbell]

I find that all my halter trained heifers have such character both on and off the halters, resulting in good and bad days or weeks! Yet however much some might play up I think they know when its show time as they behave really well in the ring (Well most the time!!) I find that catching my cattle in the field is the hardest thing..they must think its a game! Once they are haltered i usually tie them up or walk them one by one to get them used to walking and standing still - And in one heifer she still cant stand still!!

[ayrt1010]

I've had Eve on the halter a couple of times, she really doesn't like i!(Neither do I!!) But training has been stopped due to husband putting rope on dog as a lead and then she decided to chew through it!!! Thanks for all your advice so far.

[Mark Bowles]

How old is Eve? the younger they are the better for halter training

[ayrt1010]

Eve is nearly 3 months old. I'm far too soft to halter train, I can't bear to see her struggling!!

[Jac]

Eve is nearly 3 months old. I'm far too soft to halter train, I can't bear to see her struggling!!

We find that a week or so old is the best age to start. It helps if the mother is halter trained, the calves don't struggle, they just follow their mum about.