Teaching lateral commands

Back haw/gee involves one (the one on the inside of the turn) stepping back while the other moves in the spoken direction.

I don’t get too complicated with vocal commands. Come up, back, gee/haw, whoa, put in/out. The degree of passing, or crossing over, or the tightness of a turn has more to do with my body language, or how I use the whip.

I believe that the animal is capable of reading a physical signal that augments a vocal command better than they can decipher the distinction between complimentary vocal commands. Which do you say first, back, or gee? Which do they respond to? And how do you guide them if this time you mean something slightly tighter, or different in some way?

I use back gee/haw to mean anything from sweeping to pivoting, anytime one needs to step back while the other needs to step over. I just give the subtle guidance with the whip and by where I stand or move to. I say back to one, and gee/haw to the other.

When I say gee/haw i mean they both move in that direction. If I raise my whip it means while moving forward. If I crowd the nigh ox, it means to move more gee-ward, and if I step away then it means more haw-ward.

This is not to say that I couldn’t get the desired result while standing still out of the way. Especially in the woods, there are times when I just stand still and have them back haw/gee around in the brush, or I may want them to step over gee when I am behind them. In these cases I am not asking for a complicated maneuver.

I also work with a whip with a four foot lash and if I need a more specific placement I will use the whip on a shoulder or flank or knee to get the fine focus.

Carl

Never done it with oxen, but coming up on an angle to a fence works great, when you are ready for the natural turn before hitting the fence, give your stimulus/command and in no time they will be following the instructions in the open…

Kevin

I taught an 8-year old team to put in/put out years ago after I saw the utility of those commands. I found a good opportunity to be when they were tied in their stall for eating. I just did one repetition or 2 every meal with each ox and in about 2 weeks they were doing it pretty well. A thumb applied to the tail head helps move them, but I also made an 8-inch long piece of wood with 4 points on it(like the butt of a Ray Ludwig-style whip) that helped them decide to step away when it was twisted on the side of their butt. Cut a V notch each direction on the end of a piece of wood.

When it is time to practice “out in the world”, something with a tongue is best so they can’t step over it. Using a fence in front of them is handy. The 4-H kids often put one wheel of their cart in a tire to practice.

Chris, who joined my “widower” ox Jake 2 years ago gave me quite a challenge on this issue as he would not respond the way I wanted to physical pressure. He would lean into pressure rather than move away from it, but not reliably enough to use “reverse pressure”. After 2 years of getting pushed around by Jake and learning my body language, he is getting it and yesterday they did the most beautiful backing job of their career with the manure spreader.

Have Fun

Rob

Andy
Forget the put in and puy out, they sound to much alike. It is stand in and stand over.
Under the edge of the base of the tail your finger nail will move him.

Hi everyone,

I have a question that I think is a little different than what has been addressed already, though this discussion has been really helpful for me so far.

I’m a beginning teamster with a pair of 10 month old mostly Ayrshires (there is a little Normandy in there). They are a bit more of a challenge than I would like to have started with but my husband milks Ayrshires. So far I think I have handled most of their challenges ok and they are coming along well but I have been struggling with with the neigh steer crowding me. When they are yoked (pulling a load or not) he sort of leans his left shoulder into the yoke and pushes into my space, pulling along his partner who is less dominant and will tend to hang back if allowed to. It isn’t a sudden pushing me over kind of thing, he just sort of drifts left. And I also often have to call up the off steer which then exacerbates the problem. At first I think it was just unclear what I was asking, but I am beginning to feel like the near steer is sort of trying to push the limits. And I need to figure out a clear way to convey what I want from them. I would love some advice if anyone has any.

I have tried a few things, which don’t seem to be working well. I try to give him a visual cue by holding the goad parallel to the ground next to his face and waving it a bit while saying gee over, which has worked sometimes singly but not as a team.

I also tell them to step over when they are tied as I push on their shoulder to get them to “step over” as I call it (as opposed to putting in or out which they do ok with) This is a relatively new command for them and they don’t totally get it yet. As an extension of this I have also tried pushing the butt of the goad into his shoulder to get him to step sideways while walking, while saying step over, this has worked somewhat singly but only because I am physically moving him and he just falls back quickly to drifting into my space. Though now I think I shouldn’t be mixing these commands and instead I should tell him to gee over while walking.

As you can probably see, I’m pretty confused about what my next step should be. I would love some advice, I think I will try some sessions of standing them individually facing the barn and stepping sideways to start off with, as was suggested above, though I am not sure what command to use (should I stop saying step over at all and use gee/haw over when tied as well?) or what physical cues I should give.

Thanks for the discussion and any thoughts anyone has, Prin

A sharper point was all I needed. I made sure to test the point on myself to make sure it hurt, but wasn’t going to pierce the skin or cause any sort of damage. Easy fix.