Training

 

 

 

Training

 

There was light drizzle though not enough to stop me going for my morning walk, but it did seem to stop others; except for a few of the usual dog walkers. I had a brief talk to the guy I refer in my mind to as ‘Brown-dog-man’, and as usual his dog was pulling him along. We often talk, and as usual I referred to his dog as a horse, because of his size. As I’ve noticed with many dog owners, this fellow had justifications for his dog’s behaviour. I sympathised with him, but didn’t tell him what I thought… and that was that the dog was in control of him.

The dog in question is a Labrador, a chocolate Labrador, and the man had told me the reason for his size is the new-fangled nutrition with vitamin-rich, processed food… as against the old way of feeding pets on household scraps. A sheep breeder once told me that ninety percent of the breeding goes down the throat; meaning, the better the tucker (food), the better the animal, so that tallies with what Brown-dog-man said. The other justification the man had was that the young dog had needed some surgery for an injury, so he had been locked in a cage for a few months, thus missing out in formal training. I pondered on that as I continued my walk.

I’m not sure I agreed with Brown-dig-man. Having worked with a whole range of animals, there’s one fundamental to understand for animals to behave well, and that’s for them to know who is the boss. It’s also important for owners to understand that all animals have a level of intelligence, but different levels, and you have to give them time to understand what you want them to do. It’s also worth noting that animals are not humans, have no understanding of human emotions, nor do they don’t understand your language… but they will quickly cotton on to repeated learning, sounds, and recognise your habits, even your mood.  We’ve seen how giving titbits as a reward can be very effective, but I’ve never needed that ploy, nor do farmers that I’ve known.

The term ‘breaking’ is applied to horses and to heifers that are going to be milked, and sure enough there are those who use harsh treatment to achieve their goals of breaking the animal’s spirit. And yes, animals do respond to harsh treat yet aren’t inclined to carry a grudge… unless the harsh treatment is prolonged; but there’s no need to use harsh treatment. Breaking in a horse may well mean breaking its spirit, but it might also mean getting a horse familiar with wearing harness or carrying a rider. Being patient, calm and gentle is effective. Usually.

 I was logging with horses and the boss wanted me to train another horse from another forest. He was a big docile fella, and placidly allowed me to put all the logging harness on him, but when I put a load behind him, he just kicked all the harness off and had no interest in actually pulling. Time and again we went through the process with the same result, so finally I roped the big fella to Jimmy the most reliable of horses and Jimmy taught the big fella what to do in no time at all. I couldn’t take any kudos except for the idea. I have no idea how horses communicate, but something went on there.

The same went for my pig hunting dogs, I’d had plenty of time to train Wally from a pup, and he learned more when, each morning and evening as we walked through the sluicings of old gold workings. I liked him to walk at ‘heel’, so I could touch his head, but as a reward, I would allow him to run something most dogs like to do. But I taught him that he could only run on my say so. How did I do that? Simply by repeating the commands and giving him the ‘good boy’ in a soft voice. On command he would even stop panting when we were listening for game. When I introduced him to another dog, Fred, an adult dog I acquired from the pound, I knew they needed to sort out dominance sooner or later, so I tossed down a piece of possum, and sure enough they fought. But I quickly broke them up… and rather roughly, which showed I was the boss and that Fred was at the bottom of the pecking order. I didn’t train Fred any more than that. Wally did the training; they would both stay at heel so I could touch their heads unless I said otherwise. But Fred had three other traits that he brought of his own accord. If there was a creek, he would drown pigs by holding their head underwater. He would look at me for which direction he should run and he’d go off wherever my raised arm indicated – a trait from the collie in him. And if I left an item of my clothing and told him to stay… he would, for as long as it took.

My mate Andy was a sheepdog competitive trialer and his room full of trophies was testament to his skill, yet he risked his dogs buy using them for pig hunting… because the loved it. They could bail pigs, but were gentle with sheep as required in competitions. Books have been written about working farm dogs, they are bred for their inherent characteristics such as eye, huntaway and heading. My dog, Bess came from Andy as a pup and apart from a tweak of two, she instinctively knew what was required of her. The eye-dog in her would help me catch a ewe that was lambing… similar to the way a stoat hypnotising a rabbit. She was a heading dog and would bring the whole mob of sheep towards me. She was a yard dog, helping me to move sheep in the yards… she would bark when I said, ‘Speak up,’ which helped me fill the pen when I was crutching or shearing sheep.

Breaking in a heifer for hand milking as a house cow will upset a new mother because her calf is usually taken away… not always. Before she calves, it is helpful to yard her regularly and acclimatise her to the bail and having her udder touched. Curiously it is an urban myth that if you hit, or treat a house cow roughly, sooner or later she will get you back… and that is in the back of mind always. They get you back by kicking the bucket, or crapping on the bucket or you. I’m not sure if the bucket of bran at the head of the bail is an enticement; it adds to her diet and reduces spring-growth watery flatulence. But cows are usually easy to work with, probably through breeding, I saw the same thing in Africa.  With age, they can often be milked in the open without a bail. But slow actions, being patient and gentle works best.

If you think about it, the same techniques work with children and people, mind you I’ve known farmers who aren’t good with people… but they don’t seem to have much luck with their livestock either. I suppose it can be summed up by saying that every action generates a reaction in kind.

 

 

 

Storm in a Teacup

 

The mainstream media, are inclined to peddle their narrative rather than the facts, but in this case, to understand the facts takes a little insight. The stakes are high and most of us hope for a positive outcome.

 

Storm in a Teacup

 

I’m calling the tête-à-tête between presidents Trump and Zelensky a storm in a teacup because, it seems that negotiations are back on the table by now. I saw a couple of things that happened that nobody else seems to have done, and because it looks to me that there will be progress, it could be assumed the explanation doesn’t matter and then again, maybe not, but here goes.

First a little personal story.

When our forest was ready for harvesting to begin, I was in charge of getting the operation started. The son of my neighbour and friend, who happened to be the local sawmiller, decided to throw his hat in the ring, so I helped him with the costing and what was required to make a go of it and he won the tender on a fair and open tender basis. The young fellow was learning was we went along and bought the necessary equipment, and employed a couple of bushmen. His output and quality easily met the demand.

When his contract came up for renewal, the big noises at the regional office had a mate who had been logging overseas and had arrived back looking for work. It was as plain as day to me they intended to award the contract to him. I objected and because I was known for having the ear of the local member of parliament, they called me down to their office about 300 kilometres away, to soft-soap me. I told my neighbour what was afoot, but promised I would fight in his son’s corner.

I had guessed correctly and at the meeting I had four big noises singing the praises of their fellow so I sang the praises of my fellow just as loudly. They wanted me to agree with them before I left the office, and I held out until 6:30 on a Friday evening while they usually finished up at 4:30 and had a few drinks. I had known all along that I would have to give in, which I finally did.

At least I could honestly face my neighbour and his son with honesty that I had put up the best fight that I could.

 

Now the issue at hand.

The first thing I would point out, is that I know how difficult it is to concentrate when using a second language for an hour. President Zelensky was there with a roomful of English speakers, and yes, I’m aware he had an interpreter there, and that for the most part, the conversation was cordial, but he didn’t want to quickly capitulate to the Russians, because he knew the Ukrainian people wouldn’t want him to. In an issue like this everyone wants to save face as much as possible.

 

The eruption (if I can call it that) was caused when President Zelensky said to Vice President Vance, ‘You raise your voice.’ Now, we all could see that VP Vance didn’t raise his voice, but this is where nuances in language come into play. Again, I’ve been there myself. He more than likely meant, ‘You often raise the issue of diplomacy…’ or ‘You always highlight diplomacy…’ or perhaps, ‘You make a song and dance about diplomacy…’ Or there could be other variations.

On President Trump’s side, I don’t think he’s ever used another language, so he couldn’t be expected to pick up mistaken use of terminology, so he was quick to defend his deputy, which is what a good boss should have done, because he, as all of us saw that the vice president had not raised his voice. Also, Trump’s awareness that his country was watching and sooner or later so would President Putin, put pressure on him to become forthright. The art of diplomacy is about making points and being able to reading the room.

In the preamble, President Zelensky’s use of language seemed to needle the others… and maybe that is what he was trying to do, but manners and the use of speech differs with societies and while a professional interpreter might understand the nuances, the people who interpreted for me, usually didn’t quite get the gist of what my meaning was, which is why I did my best to lean the language, manners and all.

Advice

Advice

An old saying close to my heart is, ‘In this world there are sayers and there are doers.’ The further back I go in my life, practical people are the who doing the doing, while others yak on and come up with all sorts of flowery, even wild ideas. During my old forestry days, every now and then we would have young fellas, straight out of university, come on site full of bright ideas they wanted us to try… usually at expense, but always those things had already been tried and rejected. We used to joke about having to break-in these new foresters, and after they see the light, they’d turn out ok. Another quirk was when I was told before starting my assignment in Africa, that the women of the country did all the work and men sat around all day planning and actually did little. To the casual observer that may be so, but it wasn’t the case, the elderly men certainly sat around planning, but those criticising, and  is generally the trend in today’s world, is if people can get away with sitting on their arse yapping, they will.

I’m not into the air-fairy ideas that have come to the fore from on high over the last few decades, which is why I’m not at all keen on what’s emerging from the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, they too are all arse-sitters. Among many things, coming down from them are rules about water, our drinking water; meanwhile it’s noticeable they aren’t doing much to help rural Africans with water! Here’s what I’ve seen about the rural water where I’ve lived for sixty-odd years. Despite what you might hear about climate change over the past sixty years I’ve monitored the rainfall in our area. We have averaged twenty-one inches of rain per annum, except during the 1960-66 severe drought. For household water we had tank water collected from house roofs… yes, in those day, our roofs were painted with lead-based paint and rats and birds drowned in the tank, dust from the roof washed into the tank when it rained. We had to clean the tank from time to time and always had to be economical with the water because of the low rainfall; buying in water was possible, but it was expensive. Livestock water was from dewponds or creeks, which is why we carefully managed livestock number.

The generally in the larger towns didn’t care about the problems of rural people… but notably, the townies who temporarily worked on the forest during the winter months, took our water home with them. Our community decided to build our own water scheme by taking out a loan for materials and each property supplied eighty hours labour. We were able to use the forest D6 bulldozer… a bit of a rort because it was actual government property, but none of the big noises knew and what they didn’t know didn’t hurt them. It was used mainly to pull in the pipe and to excavate the site of the reservoirs. Each property was entitled to four hundred gallons a day for household use and livestock water, we paid an annual rate to keep the scheme going… and we chlorinated the water.

And then the ‘bigger is better’ crowd came in where the county council amalgamated with the town council to become a district council and the district council elbowed its way in to run our water scheme. So, from practical people running the county, the airy-fairies had taken over and costs began to rise… and they wanted to put more chemicals in the water. Consultants then told the council that our water supply was substandard and recommended piping water from the mighty river thirty miles to the north, so that was done at more cost. Five years later consultants say that the district council’s water scheme no longer meets United Nations standards but the cost would be too expensive for a mere council, so the government should take over the management of water and the government wanted to bring in another layer of management, the indigenous people who believe that spirits guide water.  It turns out though that the spirits can be bought off with enough money. They also believe waters of catchments can’t be mixed, so water from one river can’t go into another, which is what the district council had us do. Right now, the future of our water looks… complicated, expensive and unknown.

During my tree nursery days, we used to sell tree seedlings to a forest outfit which was run as a aboard, a subsidiary of the local county council also tuned into a district council. The forest was established 120 years ago on a wide, flat alluvial plain that had been difficult bring under the agricultural practices of the day. The forest basically provided shelter from the sometimes-powerful northwesterly winds, fuelwood for the community, fenceposts, and timber from a sawmill that they later built. Our nursery had been selling seedings to the board for at least fifty years, and suddenly they stopped ordering. Of course, we thought that our seedlings might have been below specifications, so we called on them, but there was nothing wrong with our product.

There had been a transition from sheep farming to dairying throughout the country, (which could be made into another uninteresting essay).  Anyway, the board/council’s accountant advised that as far as land value was concerned, it was economically sensible to remove the forest and convert the land into farmland, which I’ll come back to. So, to remain their investment in forestry, they bought some gorse-covered hill country near the bigger city. As far as economics go, forestry on flat land is always advantageous because flat country is far easier to harvest and gorse control is about the most expensive of weeds to convert into forestry. Anyway, the board had to apply for resource consent before they could turn a sod… this is mainly environmental and largely depends on the attitudes of the authorities, so consent was denied… city bureaucrats aren’t keen on radiata pine forests, so it wasn’t a surprise. Because consent wasn’t approved, it cost ten million dollars to fight the authority’s decision; but they lost again. So, no trees have been planted, and to date there have been two fires through the area because of a fuel buildup. On fires…back to my forestry, before the drought of 1960 to 1966, there had been huge buildup of fuel, yet during and after the drought, we had no wildfires. I know enough about fire to with confidence say that fires seldom start naturally. I’ve seen one start by a bulldozer grouser plate creating a spark on a rock and another by a spark from the exhaust of a Champion two stroke grader, so they can easily start accidentally but too many fires these days have malicious undertones… maybe by people with an agenda.

The alluvial plain the board’s forest had sat upon was built up by mountain erosion and river action, so was very stoney and couldn’t support dairying-style grass growth the way it was. Heavy machines were brought in capable of grinding the stumps, burying the stones and lifting the silt-fines… the machine could process two hectares a day, but it was hugely expensive! And then the farmland had to be fenced and wells had to be established for irrigation. We became involved to plan and supply shelter trees, and the dairying infrastructure had to be established, so the whole process wouldn’t have been cheap. The farms were then sold off and the cows were brought in.

The dust has settled on all of this and with hindsight, while I didn’t agree with the change from sheep to dairying in the first place for reasons of ‘my-style’ of environment matters, the changes arrived, and as a result, effluent has seeped into the groundwater which justifies my stance. In the fullness of time cows are now frowned upon for their emissions by the climate change stirrers… which is a dubious theory at best. However, if the forest had continued as it had been for a hundred years, today they would be making a fortune out of the carbon credits… which again is a dubious theory but is happening and likely to continue, and that’s as well as their forestry business.

 So, when someone comes up with new theories, maybe backed up by ‘the science’, or economics, it’s any wonder I’m just a tad dubious. And for someone used to practicality and logic, the way our leaders have been performing of late makes me shake my head in wonder. Just today, some of my peers are also wondering. The Covid pandemic has left our already fragile economy in an even poorer state, which rightly has a new government cutting back on frivolous expenditure. Those among us with just a tad of common sense are asking who and why some government official thought it appropriate to approve four million dollars to a person with ‘indigenous’ links, who is playing recorded whale song to kauri trees. Kauri trees are an iconic species and they are suffering from kauri dieback, a fungal disease, and the whale song is hoped to cure them. I’ve no problem with people pursuing their own spiritual belief systems, but not at the taxpayer’s expense, especially when there’s no way such a project can be called, ‘traditional or scientific’.

 We need to be wary of from whom we take our advice.