gentling a wary heifer

[waltzingmatilda]

Hi,

I need some suggestions for working with my wary younger heifer (9 months old). The older heifer lets me brush her and is tolerant. The younger heifer will not let me near her. She will come in for a bite of hay out of my hand, then she steps back. Or if I move my hand, runs back.

Should I wait her out for a while?

Or try setting a small pen and work on desensitizing her to touch?

I have a BLM mustang that I've trained as a saddle horse. One of the ways they desensitize them is to put them in a small area like a chute or stock and gently touch them all over. My mustang was OK with being touched, so I never had to go that route, but I am considering it for the heifer. I don't want to traumatize her or make her more afraid, but if I can't gentle her, I will cull her from my stock.

(Oh, the irony. 'Stop being afraid of me, or I will eat you'. )

Anyway, I need some suggestions.

Thanks,
Michelle

[lsg]

The way we gentled our cows was to keep them in a small lot on hay. We fed them grain and would touch them as they ate their grain. At first they moved away from me; but I just kept talking to them. I made progress a little at a time until finally they would stand and let me pet them and brush them. We still have one that is more shy than the other two; but I think she would come around if we got her up in the lot again.

[waltzingmatilda]

Thanks for the encouragement. The tough thing with this heifer is she doesn't eat sweetfeed, range cubes, or anything else I've tried. She will take a little hay, but that's all.

That said, I had a little breakthrough today. Yesterday I decided that when she backs away from me, I am going to take small non-threatening steps toward her until she stops moving and touches my hand with her nose. She caught onto that OK yesterday, not perfect, but she got the idea. We had worked on her touching my hand for a bite of hay for several days before.

Then this morning I took my long whip (for working with horses in hand) and when she was in eating, I laid the butt end of it on her back. It's long enough that when she tried to move away, I could keep the whip on her back while she backed/ran away a little bit. After a few tries of it, she eventually would turn and face me and stop moving. As soon as she would do that, I'd take it off of her and move back to release the pressure. It was a big breakthrough to be able to touch her, and we ended it with me scratching her withers from a distance with the butt of the whip. She liked it after she relaxed.

It was a small step, but felt like a big breakthrough. I'm also glad she's learning that running away isn't the right answer.

- Michelle

[copperhead]

It's an old cliche' but it just takes time and more time. I have some that I thought would never settle, and after they were bred, they seemed to calm down. The closer they get to calving, the friendlier and hungyer they got and let me rub them while they ate. Seemed odd, but being bred has helped several of mine.
P.J.

[waltzingmatilda]

That's interesting, PJ. Maybe that explains why my older heifer is so friendly.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time and followed the little one around pasture, resting the long whip over her back the whole time. It took almost an hour and a half (!!) of working at it before she finally gave up and let me touch her with my hand. She would walk away, run away, turn to face me (mad), gave a couple of cow kicks... Eventually she quit moving and stood with her head down and let me rub her shoulders and neck. This morning she gave up and let me touch her after about 10 minutes. I think it's just going to have to be a twice-a-day routine, and it's not going to be accomplished with food bribes...

I could darn near drive her around like an oxen yesterday, and could turn or stop her by putting the butt end of the whip by her nose. :-) It was kinda fun.

- Michelle

[marla]

Hi Michelle,
I'm in a similar position, and like you, I'm making progress with lots of gentleness and patience. I got my Dexter cow about a month ago, and she wouldn't let me anywhere near her. She has freedom to move between her stall and the pasture. Thankfully, she does like sweet feed, so twice a day I go out to her stall, shake a coffee can of feed and put a little bit in a pan for her. After a few days, I was able to brush her. I brush her and talk to her, and was able to get a collar on her. Now, we are working on leading. She lets me clip the lead line to her collar while she's eating, but she fights me wildly when I try to lead her out. I shake the coffee can, and try to get her to go forward, but she either tries to run me down and get right to the treat, or else she pulls away, plays tug of war and WINS.
She is due to calf any day now (due date was yesterday), and I really wanted her to be leadable and milkable by calving time. Any ideas?

[marion]

Use a halter and a long, soft rope. With a halter, they cannot pull away from you as easily as they can with just a collar. With a long rope, they think they are getting away, but you still have the rope. You may not want to this close to calving, but get her used to being haltered and tied to something solid. They soon learn that the halter is boss, and when they can no longer avoid being touched, the gentling process is much easier.
With your continuing to do the quiet gentle touching (and find her favourite place for a scratch!), she will quickly learn there is nothing to fear..marion

[woodprairie]

We purposely got our 2nd dexter at 4 days old, brought her in the house for 2 days until she was pretty well used to us & the kids mauling her all over. That summer I led her to tether every morning, and in at night (not back into the house). Since then for the last year I have pulled on her teats every day and make sure to handle her back legs as well. I'd had a kicker before her, and wanted to be sure not to this time. Now if I can get her bred...