Hey? Hey? Where Did You Go?

Ah…alas…Tammy and the cowdogs are still here. We never left. We never quit. We are still raising retained ownership feeder cattle and feeding cattle in SW Nebraska. We are still AI’ing SimAngus cows…reds and blacks. We are still calving in Autumn. Puppies are still being raised. Young cowdogs are still being shown around the place to let them grow up into working cowdogs. We still gather cattle from pastures, bring them home to the working facilities on the various locations/pastures, and we still sort and process cattle.

What has changed? Well, in September of 2015, the matriarch of Tammy’s cowdogs passed away. Cowdog Hawk joined Cowdog Bert and they met up again in the loving and peaceful arms of God in heaven. Even though the sun still came and went each day, the sense of a normal life was completely shattered. A month later, I had to put down my oldest horse friend…Eight  2015 was just a bad year. Yet, despite the terrible hands dealt I carried on with raising planned litters of cowdog pups for my customers. Nineteen young cowdogs were started and moved along to their new working ranch homes. All the life of 2015 went on without broadcasting fanfare. There was too much work to do to spend time in the broadcasting booth.

I made a decision to lessen my work of keeping four written updates going on at the same time. With all the technology in our lives I was being buried for hours with keeping up to the minute with everything “techie”. Cell phone ringing, cell phone messages chirping notifications to me, text messages coming in, email notes flying through the cyber air, landline phone stacking up with voicemail messages, Facebook (FB) hack attacks messing with my oldest Facebook timeline, Facebook hackers to my Tammy’s Cowdogs FB page, FB automatically transitioning my FB timeline to a second FB page (without notice),and FB denying my access to my own FB pages. My website blog (here) being facilitated by WordPress and WordPress not being totally compatible with FB and posts and pictures being lost in thin air. My nine year old smart phone took a death fall and cracked up on a sharp rock in October 2015 and after four months of limping along with a cracked phone screen I bit the bullet in January 2016 and took a day off to go get a new smart phone. Low and behold, the AT&T techs could not get my email to work on my “smart phone” and I am into August 2016 and still do not have email on my smart phone. But hey! Life has gone on without email on my smart phone. I mention all this trivial stuff because I made the decision to lesson my work. Being a slave to gadgets beeping and collecting requests from folks was just a full-time job and there wasn’t time left for me.

I maintain a FB presence on a daily basis. FB is simple, easy, sometimes cranky, yet it is the ease of use that has trumped all the other technological accesses to my ranching and cowdog business life. During the fall of 2015, I transitioned all my contact information to an office address and set the wheels in motion to nix the landline. My posting to my blog (here) was suspended when Hawk died. Even with a narrowed up social media presence I still have to spend a few hours a day or night to visit with folks on a one-on-one basis. The Spring litter of pups came and have left.The Fall litters of pups will be here soon and they are all sold. The started cowdogs being worked with are sold and will leave once I get through with Fall calving and early Winter CIDR/AI work. So, as usual, I am sold out of pups and young started cowdogs for the remainder of 2016. Life does go on. It doesn’t end until God calls us home.

I am very lucky to have such a solid customer base for my cowdog program and for the cattle program that we work with each day. It has been a long, hot, humid summer in 2016 and it will be a welcomed relief to have some rain show up to grow grass and hopefully put the pastures in better condition before going into Winter.

If you want to follow along on what goes on here each day please consider trailing along on Facebook. Facebook is easy to use and you can limit your social exposure by being selective in creating a list of folks to follow on Facebook. Here is the link to my Facebook timeline… https://www.facebook.com/TammyJCowdogGoldammer . You should be able to copy this link, paste the link into your browser, and get routed directly to logging in to your Facebook account or if you are currently on Facebook the link will take you to the Facebook site of Tammy Goldammer. You can also find Facebook pages Tammy’s Cowdogs and Tammy’s Cowdogs Page. The pages are not updated each day simply because I just don’t keep them linked. When things go haywire with FB automatic linking then I just let it go and move on. So, the best bet until I mentally make up my mind to tackle all the technological snafus is to just search Facebook for Tammy Goldammer.

Anyway. Tammy and the cowdogs are still here…working…taking life a day at a time…and planning on our future of tomorrows. The retained ownership cattle business has one certainty, “What I do today is how prepared I will be for 15-18 months from now.”

#hangintreecowdogs #TammysCowdogs #RockOnRanching

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~~ Dogfood Dilemma is Over ~~

FB Post…
Sunday, August 16, 2015, 2:12 PM
~~ Dogfood Dilemma is Over ~~
Since 2002, I have primarily been a PMI Exclusive dog food user. One winter, the Purina staff came out and wanted to reformulate their PMI dog food line and I had an ideal set-up plus had been asking about including probiotics or protein/carbohydrate digesting enhancers in their top of the line dog food. All was good until the contract for the manufacturing of the dry food was changed to a different company/set of companies. Some of the sourcing of the ingredient suppliers changed as well. ADM had approached me to help them with a redo of their top of line dog food. I helped them too. Used their product until I began to notice issues with the dog poo, the dog eating habits, the lack of desire to eat. Turns out the company had made a change in the manufacturing entity and that entity was sourcing ingredients which while labeled “the same” were definitely “not the same”. The animals used in the dog food commodity were eating different rations/diets than the previous sources of dog food commodity ingredient suppliers. The end result was the poultry industry diets were different therefore the dog food industry products were now performing differently. That old saying, “You are what you eat” was letting the cat out of the sack. After several months of pleading, a ton of better dog food and then back to terrible dog food…I made a change. I spoke with a friend who raises sled dogs and runs in the circles of some of the winning teams and breeders for the Iditarod racing and other sled dog races. I contacted a company called “Redpaw”. Roots of this company were in Iowa, then moved many years ago to Wisconsin, and a company that did not start as a corporation but as a person with dog sled breeding and racing roots. I placed an order for the three products in these photos and got 3 ton of product in. Nearly 50 days later, I am completely sold on how the cowdogs are turning it around. Improved appetite and excited to be fed. They eat less. Their poop is spot-on healthy. Hair coat shows more sheen. But the greatest benefit so far in the regular working crew is their condition, stamina, heat tolerance and overall attitude change of being out traveling and working in the heat and humidity. All that said, I know that I am excited to see how the winter performance is going to be. A big shout-out to the company owner for his visits with me. A thank you to the distributor for Redpaw for setting my account up and for the excellent delivery service. What a relief to have a product line-up to test and to be happy with!

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~~ The Cattle Journal Beef & Business ~~

Tammy’s Cowdogs…Facebook…shared an article on Issuu. January 29 at 8:13pm ·

The Cattle Journal Beef & Business Winter Edition…Tri-State Livestock News, January 03, 2015.

Tammy’s Cowdogs Page 130.
To get to the journal, click the arrow on the picture, the photo will change to “The Cattle Journal”, click that picture and the journal will load. After it loads, at the bottom of the screen or below the journal pages will be a series of bars. Each bar represents a section of pages…just hover your curser over the bars and you can select a page to jump to. When done and you want to exit, just click ESC and it will close where you are. Press ESC again and it should take you clear back to FB or if you are viewing the post via my blog then you will be returned to my blog site.

#hangintreecowdog #tammyscowdogs

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~~ Cowdog Training ~~

Tammy’s Cowdogs added 2 new photos. January 29 at 9:27am · ~~ Cowdog Training ~~

I really believe that “training” dogs/cowdogs is unique to each situation – the type of dog, the dog’s personal character, the dog’s genetic expression of how they are wired, the person who is working with the dog, the attitude and abilities of the owner of the dog, how the dog is going to be used, how the dog is not going to be used, the job or task or tasks that the dog will be required to do. In the end and years down the road, the dog/cowdog will be a reflection of who owns or uses the dog. For me, I prefer to begin with the end in mind.

Back in 1997, I met with a group of cattle feeders and breeders. I was the odd one in the meeting since I was a female, a genetics background, a cattle breeding/feeding background, had spent lots of time in coolers looking at carcasses and measuring carcass data from 3-6 AM up and down the Platte River Valley plants in Nebraska, and the cherry on the sundae was, “I was a retained ownership cattle producer and cattle feeder”. The meeting was about coming up with a concept to drive a cattle breeding program geared towards high performance feedlot cattle. I listened for hours while folks jockeyed around to drive the program in their own personal direction. Yet no one could cite real goal driven results from their own breeding programs. Everyone had their own thing, wanted to promote their own thing as the direction for all, and no one was listening in an effort to develop a compromise and an outlined plan of attack. I had said nothing during the day, just listened. Then one of the leaders of the meeting said, ‘Well, what do you think? You feed cattle. Your cattle perform well. Come on, what do you think?” Of course the remarks aimed at me were a bit sharp and snarky, but I replied, “I’d begin with the end in mind. None of you have offered to give up your data of how your cattle really perform. But you all have “the bull” or the “genetics” that will work. I don’t think anyone truly has the magic bullet.” I’ll never forget that meeting. A lot has changed in that group of folks. Only 4 of us from the original group stayed in the group during the 1st 13 years. During that time, the goals of creating good quality feeding cattle did produce some great results though. At the high, we had over 200,000 head per year in the system and some of us practiced the disciplines to hit the top of the performance summaries.

I had to drop out of the multiplying side of things when the extended drought years chopped the cow herd here into a small size. 2014 was the 1st year I did not send my residual calves to be fed. I had too many replacement heifers sales, too many repeat bull customers and a partial load of feeders to send to the feed yard. I chose to sell the residual calves locally. I did pencil out that I’d be better off to send the partial load on to the feedlot but I opted to just sell them and move along. I regret that I did not finish them on out.
No matter what you are doing – cattle, dogs, horses, row crops, raising kids – if you begin with the end in mind then you might wind up with a better final product. Why bring this up? Well, some folks like to be critical that I do not use ducks, goats, or sheep in my cowdog training processes. And, I show pictures or video clips of cowdogs or pups being around cattle when they are not “working” cattle. Yep, that’s right…I like cowdogs that respect the difference between “we are going to work” and “we are going to not work” cattle. I don’t want to have to put an e-collar on a dog or set of dogs to always be able to “control” them. I never have full trust or confidence in a cowdog that has to always be strapped with an e-collar. Been there, done that with some purchased dogs. You put dogs in a round pen with a few sheep for the day and come back in a few hours to give the sheep some relief then what you instill in that dog is the attitude to go like hell until someone pushes a button to stop you. That philosophy might work for some folks and some geographical areas but I can assure you it doesn’t work for everyone. Do you always want to worry that if your dog ever gets out that you will have a fencing job, injured cattle or injured cowdog to repair or put down? Mishaps will happen and the fewer mishaps the better…in my opinion.

Well, like I say, “Everyone’s got their own thing.” lol…that 1997 cattle meeting comes full-circle again. I guess there is room for everyone’s opinions and techniques. I like to begin with the end in mind. Because I know out of experience, life will force one to an exit ramp and force you to a path you really don’t want to travel. My best cowdog results come from those cowdogs that travel with me and get used to the concept of patience and work when I ask and if I don’t ask them to work then they best learn to wait ’til I am ready. I own these cattle and expect the cattle to pay their way…so little cowdog, “Pay attention because I don’t need you running the profit off simply because you want to run and bite and run and bite.” This little penning was prompted by the photo I posted the other day of the cowdogs and cowdog youngsters laying down while I did something else. I do not ascribe to the theory of a cowdog should never be around cattle unless they are working. Some folks state it takes the grit and aggressiveness out of the cowdog if they can always see cattle when they are not working. I think having genetics for common sense, brains and respect is a good thing. I want “the button” to be optional in my training…not a lifelong constant requirement for a dog/cowdog. Training collars are a good thing and I use them but I do not want to have to rely on an e-collar system to maintain control of a cowdog or a group of cowdogs. The concept of always needing an e-collar to control a dog/cowdog just does not work for me. When I rode horses every day I never rode with spurs on every horse. I felt whole without feeling like I had to have spurs on to ride a horse to work cattle.

Everyone has their own thing and for me, “I like to begin with the end in mind,” and that will mean that I want a tough, gritty, aggressive dog/cowdog that can work without being collared and at the control of a button. I want my cowdogs to be around cattle and to learn there are times to work and times to relax and be patient. At this stage of my life, I don’t have the ability to train a dog in 30 days or less…simply because I have other ranching duties to take care of on a daily basis. Maybe if or when I “retire”?

#hangintreecowdogs #tammyscowdogs

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~~ Navigating around Tammy’s Cowdogs ~~

Here on my blog, I am sharing some of my working ranch Facebook (FB) posts from Tammy’s Cowdogs FB Timeline. To view all of the photos, you can click on the blog story title or click on the FB icon. You may need to login to FB. The “Like” counts and the comments will not automatically update from FB back to my blog posts. So, if you want to see and read the current comments from folks you will probably have to login to FB and look up Tammy’s Cowdogs Timeline. The second FB site for Tammy’s Cowdogs is “Tammy’s Cowdogs Page”. Tammy’s Cowdogs Page is held for posting of cowdog sale information and it was created because my FB Timeline of Tammy’s Cowdogs is max’d out at the 5,000 Friends level. You should be able to still “Follow” my FB Timeline though.

The goal in sharing the FB posts back to my blog is to give more folks the opportunity to follow along on the daily ranch posts that I share on FB. I do not have all the bugs ironed out of the sharing between FB and my blog software so things may seem a bit redundant. It is a work in progress. The “Share” process should go from FB Tammy’s Cowdogs Timeline -> blog -> FB Tammy’s Cowdogs Page …lol…but the last “Share” step is not always happening. Technical glitch.

I give credit to my cowdog Mr. Bert for giving me a cattle & ranch life that was filled with joy and lots of good times processing cattle. And, I thank the Lord for his gift of a great cowdog that I found with my little puppy Mr. Bert. I wish each and every day that I still had Bert’s larger than life presence with me…walking around with me. But he is gone and I have learned to cope the last 4 and a 1/2 years to get things done with Bert & Hawk’s sons & daughters.

The 3-tier DNA testing of a bunch of purchased cowdogs, the research studies with advancing better dry dog food products, the pharmaceutical research studies involving internal and external parasite control…have all led to setting in place a cowdog breeding program that is based on “known” factors and genetics. Genetic profiles, nutritional standards and health management practices have been tested and allowed for no more guessing about what I might get from litter to litter. I am the same way with my retained ownership cattle program…19 years into a genetic program that creates high performance cattle raised on the pastures of central Missouri. Toss in years of below moisture and drought and you really get a feel for how your genetic strategies will or won’t work. No matter what you do with cattle…you still need air, water and grass to raise beef.

Thank you to all the folks that have visited and purchased cowdogs and pups from me during the last several years. I’ve met a lot of neat folks and been able to build a good base of repeat customers. The common goal for all the folks that I do business with is to have a good, dependable, reliable working cowdog. We are not about papering litters or cowdogs that can be used for trading or for creating litter after litter of pups to sell on the internet. We want a closed cowdog breeding program so that we can continue on with a known gene pool with solid results.

The training information which can be purchased via my website is still the book and DVD that was a part of my purchase of Charlie Trayer’s Trayers’ Cowdogs business (January 08, 2008). You can read more about that purchase here on my blog category of “Trayers’ Cowdogs”. If Mother Nature cooperates and there is good rainfall and pasture conditions in 2015, there may be time to update the book and the video. In the big picture, I own and operate a cow/calf operation and the daily work of the ranch uses the majority of my time.

Thank you for visiting my website, the blog and my FB sites. ~Tammy & the Cowdogs

#hangintreecowdogs #tammyscowdogs

Bert…Tribute to Bert…on my website Home/Welcome Page describes what my cowdog standards are for my working cowdogs.

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Learning Giving

My folks started their family in a part of the Sandhills of Nebraska in Grant County. The closest town of any size was Ogallala and it was basically 68 miles away. We traveled a sand trail or road from the cook house to the “main road”. The main road was a one-lane oil strip that ran N & S. On the N end of the oil strip was Hwy 2 and Whitman. On the S end was a highway that ran from Tryon to Arthur then on S to Ogallala. The drive on that one-lane oil road was the most beautiful drive. And it still is the most beautiful drive in my memories. Tall, lofty, choppy hills. Winding flatter areas that snaked along the edges of some sub-irrigated wet meadows which led to more ascents and descents of those huge sandy hills that laid from the NW to the SE. Hills built and formed by the blowing prevailing winds chasing the sand into mounds. With time some grasses took a hold then the winds blew again to cover the grasses with more blowing, drifting and piling sands. Sands as light as dust. My mom referred to the sand and the hills as “hell” on many occasions. My dad referred to the hills as “a gift from God”. On a few occasions, my mom would take my brother and I to Ogallala on Sundays so that we could go to church. There was a Lutheran church in Ogallala. We always sat in the back at the end of a row. Sometimes we would get there on time. But a lot of the time we were late. Sometimes we would leave early. Sometimes we would leave after greeting the pastor after the service. Before we would leave town my mom would take us to a store. She would give my brother and I a nickel, a dime or once in awhile a quarter. I cannot tell you the joy that those nickels, dimes and quarters brought to me. She gave us that money with love and we knew that what she gave us was all she had. It truly was all she had. I bought the same thing every time. The little chocolate balls colored green, yellow, orange and brown that came in a little clear plastic wrapped tube. The money I had left was given to mom and when we’d get home she would put the money in my black Angus bull piggy bank. My mom always got herself a Cherry Mash. My brother would get the little packages of licorice nibs. We’d get back in the car for our nearly 2 hour journey N to home. The key to the joys of that candy gift was to make it last all the way home and maybe even have some left to share with dad. My dad loved chocolate too. Those days of “giving” from my mom have stuck with me my entire life. The pure, simple joy of a nickel, a dime or the occasional quarter. Love in a piece of metal that gave more than 68 miles of sheer joy. The joy of sucking on each individual chocolate ball. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the entire world could see how much greater life could be if everyone took up the gift of giving…giving without expecting or demanding something in return? Now today, the cowdog processing crew and I are going to be giving some cows some range cubes, taking out their CIDRs, giving them some Lutalyse, and returning on Tuesday to give those range sisters some Protege Profit swimmers. We hope those swimmers give some range sister eggs some company and hook up to make babies to be seen in the fall of 2015. Remember, what I do today is what I will receive in a year. Take up the notion of giving…giving without taking. It really is a good thing.
Happy Saturday!

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Move on Bud

Updates from FB (12/10/2014, 5 AM) are below the original post.

Hangin’ Tree Cowdogs…
At an event held recently at/near Las Vegas was some sort of dog competition. Some fella with a Hangin’ Tree Cowdog was there. Another fella was there with a dog of another breed and a conversation ensued. The Hangin’ Tree guy began to run me into the dirt and told the fella with the other breed of dog that, “her dogs are crap and they cannot be registered…so they are crap.” lol… I have been very clear that “I personally do not want” my Hangin’ Tree cowdogs in the Trayer club. I’ve written openly about “my decision” to not be a part of that “dog club”. Buying a “retiring from the cowdog business” set of cowdogs was nothing short of a joke and a conglomeration of lies from the seller(s). Via DNA testing, I was able to salvage good things and sort off bad things and unravel lots of issues in the breeding of the dogs I purchased. They certainly were not from a 3 or 4-way crossbreeding program. My website home or Welcome Page is clear about my decisions, my blog has a category for other postings relating to the purchase of Trayers’ Cowdogs. And, if one needs more information, you can google the public court records of Cole County Missouri and find the results of litigation that clearly put a stop to the fella’s madness. I know, I know, he also says to folks that he drove it in my ask on the lawsuit and that he “won”…well, he lost. And lastly, do not think for a minute that I am the only person in 20 years that got a dose of untruthfulness. The antics of the last two meetings of the cowdog club pretty much spoke/and continue to speak for themselves…in as much as the minutes posted are not in any way, shape or form true to what really occurred. Talking smack about me is fine Chuck. I own a cattle operation with certain needs and am determined to live a clean life. You best just let it go. You are hurting no one but yourself. ~Just Sayin’

~~From FB…
Ken Fox I agree. Stand your ground. It’s a poor man that runs down the competition.
19 hrs • Like • 3
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Glenda Snyder Ericsson I used to joke with Choc, it’s a dog eat dog world in the Cowdog world. I know when I hear a breeder running another breeder down, I’m turned off by that.
And I do not register my dogs in that association either.
19 hrs • Like • 4
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Tia K Farley Your friends support you!!!
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Paul Brady Tammy, I sure appreciate your straight talk. Always enjoy reading your post.
19 hrs • Like • 2
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Paul Brady Glenda Ericsson I have good memories of Choc. I hope you are doing well.
19 hrs • Like • 1
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Erin Gonzalez What an ass, him. Tammy, people are insanely jealous of what they cannot have, do, make, or produce. I would bet the farm if he were to get a free breed or Hangin’ Tree puppy on the down low; he’d be on it like white on rice.
18 hrs • Like • 4
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Lisa Bedell Do I need to punch somebody in the nose?
18 hrs • Like • 4
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Geri Smith-Cyphers Unbelievable
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Kristina Farnsworth I only hope that someday I can say I have a Tammy’s Cowdogs dog!
17 hrs • Like • 3
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Erin Gonzalez Ha! LOL, me too!
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Heath Curry My Grandfather used to say that a man would lie to you quicker about a dog or a horse than anything else ! stand up for what you believe in !
16 hrs • Like • 5
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Steve Krutzfeldt You probably don’t recall but I called you some years back about a dog in Montana (solid red cowdog) I saw on a ranch on a flatbed with your name on his collar. I said then and say now that was an impressive dog in presence and build and one any true dog man or woman would be proud to have. The fellow bought him at auction and I could see it would not be a fit……(dog would have gotten frustrated eventually and not done well) I believe you found another buyer or bought him back which was a testament to your character. You might recall the dogs name? I had a new catahoula x at the time who is now 4 and very good at what he does. Kind regards. Steve
15 hrs • Like • 3
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Tammy’s Cowdogs Cowdog Luke was in MT. Luke had more on the ball than the new owner. He worked with Luke here at the sale and I told him to take him, use him and if he could not get up to speed with Luke that I wanted him back. I bought Luke back. And I do recall visiting with you Steve Krutzfeldt. Thanks for the note. Luke and Levi were in the same litter.
14 hrs • Edited • Like • 4
Ashlee Janda Dickey We have some of Tammy’s Cowdogs “crap” and they are awesome!!
14 hrs • Like • 4
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Nicole Beaufils Results talk
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Gwen Shepperson Some people would rather focus on the dogs and improving the breed, and others I would swear live only for the drama, drama, drama. You just gotta hope Karma drives a big ol diesel teuck!
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Suzanne Fairchild I’m with Gwen!!!
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Matt Carter You go girl and I know your cow dogs are the best because they eat the best damn maple syrup around
13 hrs • Like
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Heath Curry Hey do you know anyone that gathers sheep and goats with heelers
12 hrs • Like
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Sd Cattle Friend Page Congratz, you must have some pretty good dogs to have gotten in this guys head that bad.
10 hrs • Like • 1
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Debby Goodwin I am with Lisa Bedell…just give me a name. And I thinkSuzanne Fairchild might be in the mood too
10 hrs • Like • 2
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Linda Prentiss Way to go Tammy’s Cowdogs girl!!!! Stand up for yourself in a man’s world and you’re my sis!!!!
8 hrs • Like
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Tammy’s Cowdogs lol…Yes, before Luke made it back to me he got caught up in a “prostitution ring” and sired at least 2 litters of pups. The folks involved in “stealing Luke’s virginity”? The transporter, the guy that had bought Luke, and 2 HT “breeders” …you cannot pinpoint the masterminds who used Luke to breed some bitches “before” he was delivered back to me “after more than 30 days with the hauler”. I was assured Luke was fine, happy, being well-cared for…over 30 days to deliver my Luke back to me. But, 2 ranchers who bought pups from 2 HT people contacted me when their pups were about a year old and inquired about Luke and if I had Luke because they wanted more pups out of Luke. That is when I started putting 2 & 2 together and could then confirm my suspicions. Both the ranchers were willing to take their cowdogs to get DNA samples and we sent the samples off and sure enough…both pups were sired by Luke. 100% matches. So. There is the “honesty” factor in the HT world/club. Thieves, throat cutters…jealous people. They are not worth spit to me. But they damn sure like using my cowdogs for stud service. Oh..and by the way…they “registered those litters” and “registered their cowdogs”…from my Luke – a not registered cowdog. Honesty does not exist with that bunch. Well, maybe it takes on a “whole new flavor”. Period.

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Hangin’ Tree Cowdog Puppies

I know many of you have noticed that I stopped posting my new litters of puppies on my website “Blog” and my two Facebook sites…Tammy’s Cowdogs and my Tammy’s Cowdogs Page. I’ve posted before in all these locations about some of the reasons why I have stopped or limited my puppy postings. I have had a long waiting list for puppies over the last several years. I have let folks get on a waiting list with a deposit. My deposit policy is that I do not use a deposit “until” the person selects a puppy. The deposit simply stays on file after a receipt has been sent to the person who sent in the deposit. I have never seen a need to use a person’s deposit until they have selected a puppy. And that policy has not changed since 2007.

I really tightened up my cowdog breeding program after I purchased over a dozen outside cowdogs in Jan. 2008. The majority of those outside cowdogs did not pass my standards for breeding purposes. If they had genetic flaws, disposition flaws, temperament flaws, conformation flaws, attitude flaws, mental flaws, recessive gene flaws, basically any flaw, then those cowdogs just were of no value or use to me. The verification of those cowdogs’ relationships, sires, dams, brothers, sisters, etc. was put through a series of DNA tests to create and verify relationships and profiles. A few years ago, I stopped sending my litter information to sources outside of my own cowdog breeding program. And, through a lot of processes of elimination I have really narrowed up my gene pool and focused on matings that create a cowdog product that I like and want to use here on my cow/calf operation.

Having a closed cowdog breeding program has been very successful. And not sharing my pedigree information has nearly eliminated the use of my pedigree information for so-called registration purposes. As of September and October 2014, the internal squabbles and unrest of the registration services continues to be an issue and to be a part of the problems of those groups is not for me or my breeding program.

In 2013, I made a decision to not take anymore puppy deposits until I got my current waiting list folks taken care of. I am nearly caught up with my waiting list folks. And I really do appreciate all the folks that have wanted and waited for cowdogs and puppies from my program. I have to turn away a lot of folks simply because the list has been too long. It takes 4-6 litters per year to keep up with requests for puppies. And, I do not breed any female more than once per year. It simply is too hard on the females to put them through back-to-back pregnancies. I don’t treat them as puppy milling sisters. They are working cowdogs too and they cannot maintain peak body condition if they are always pregnant, nursing or raising puppies. Raising puppies requires a lot of time to manage things properly. And, I do not believe in having other folks raise the litters and ship the litters to me so that I always have puppies on hand to sell. Brokering, trading, swapping, milling is just not for me. I do not operate my retained ownership cowherd in that manner and I’m sure not going to pick up those practices for my cowdogs.

When I get my current waiting list folks taken care of, I am going to raise a few litters of pups out of my 3rd and 4th generation cowdogs and take in some new customers. In other words, I am not going to use my deposit process. The pups will be 1st come, 1st serve when I have litters available. I’ll see how that works for the beginning of 2015. I’ve got some pups that I have kept so that I could watch them grow and mature here. I’ll be starting these young cowdogs later on this winter after I get my AI work done in November and December. And, fingers crossed that we don’t have another winter of weeks and weeks of “Polar Vortex” weather. That darn weather sure puts a kink into time, the short winter days and the ability to train cowdogs when it is below zero. It is kind of like the amount of training that occurs when the temperatures are over 90F in the summer months. I don’t keep sheep or goats around for round pen training so when the weather is too cold, too hot, too dusty, too whatever…well, we don’t train during those extreme weather conditions.

First and foremost, this place is a cow/calf operation. The cowdog training takes place when we work cattle on cattle working days. I work alone and my help is my cowdog crews. I still give private training sessions to folks when time allows. Giving private lesson sessions seems to work really well because folks are more relaxed and at ease if other folks are not watching. The personal one-on-one time seems to work really well and allows for more questions and practice.

I post some sort of working cowdog or ranch work story every day on Facebook…just look for Tammy’s Cowdogs. My Tammy’s Cowdogs Page on Facebook is where my website Blog stories or posting will automatically post to. Well, sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. It is really easy to follow the daily postings, pictures or videos on Facebook and I have the site set up so that the postings are public to anyone and you do not have to have a “Friend” status. I am max’d out at the 5,000 Friends level but you can select to “Follow” the postings. Give it a try. Some folks don’t like Facebook but be like me and just use Facebook for things you are interested in and skip all the other stuff that is of no interest. That makes Facebook tolerable!

Thank you very much for following my website blog and give some thought to setting up a Facebook account. The cowdogs & I would love to have you along for our daily working ranch activities.

#hangintreecowdogs #tammyscowdogs

Mr. Bandit on calving crew duty.

Ms. Ducchess taking a break after trailing a 4-yr. old for about a mile through the brush and timber, then bringing in 30 pairs.

2014 Fall Calving – 17 hd. to go in the clean-up bred cows. Almost time to throw our arms in the air and holler, “Touch down!”

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Tribute to Bert

In August 2002, I purchased my first Hangin’ Tree Cowdog. He was just a pup, but ready to work. I named him Bert and for the next four years, he and I completed all the ranch work ourselves. When we started our journey together, neither knew that a mere 14 months later, he would save my life. How do you ever repay a cowdog for such an enormous gesture? In the time after that, I came to realize the only thanks he wanted was the chance to work with me, beside me, day-in and day-out. Bert was larger than life. He was smart. He was athletic. He was loyal.

In every cattle working situation, he knew what to do without instruction. I could simply point out a sick calf in the wean lot and he’d quietly and respectfully take the calf to the corral and ease it up the alley to the chute. When we’d finish working a set of cows, he knew to gather them up and what gate to head them to to go out to pasture. I could leave him at a gate, go feed, come back and he’d still be at the gate, waiting for my return. If a cow’s calf was hidden in the timber, I could tell Bert to “find the baby” and he’d put his nose to the ground, search until he found it, return to me and take me back to the calf. He simply had the ability to size up any situation and apply the right pressure and make everything work. We’d get done working cattle and you could tell him, “Bert, thanks for your help” and he would look at me with a big smile – as if to say, “You are welcome, now come on let’s go”. We’d be driving down the road and he’d take his right paw and pull my arm so that I’d rub his neck. Or take his head and bump under my elbow and say, “Hey, rub my back.” And, he loved taking his pups out and mentoring them. His mate for life was Hawk and he truly loved her. They were an amazing pair and produced some tremendous offspring. Bert was majestic—more than any other animal I have ever known.

On September 6, 2010, after an accident on the ranch and the gallant efforts of the University of Missouri Vet School, I lost Bert. Tammy’s Cowdogs exists today because of Bert. He is the foundation of my cowdog program and the model all my cowdogs must live up to. He took more than eight of my years with him. I will forever be grateful for the joy and loyalty he brought to my life. Words will never be able to describe how much Hawk and I will miss him

-from the Welcome Page of the website of Tammy’s Cowdogs “Tribute to Bert”

Today, Sep. 05, 2014, the rural route mail lady stops. She’s got a box from Idaho. I can hardly sign the card. Scott Jason Hall, his wife Betty, and Bret Bret N Melanie Haskett? I cannot put words to the remarkable pendant. Scott, your are gifted my friend…the itsy bitsy engraving on the gold, the silver engraving of Bert…I am speechless. Betty, the rein chains are, “Some kind of wonderful.” Bret, your rawhide braiding of the romal reins is, “Perfectly completes this gifted piece.” Bert, 4 years ago today we sat out in the grass at the Univ. of MO vet hospital and took in our last conversation of how much we loved each other. And 15 hrs. later a blood clot to your lungs ended your life. I got the call around 9:30 AM to hurry to your side there were problems. I tried to get there Bert, I did. But, I drove home on the 6th of September with a dog in a box…heartbroken. My life has not been the same since. I will take you with me when I leave here to meet up with you again.

~I love you Bert.

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Purchase of Trayers’ Cowdogs Business

The purchase of Trayers’ Cowdogs – the business – was on January 08, 2008.
The post relating to this adventure can be found by scrolling down through the posts here and look for ~~Death of Friendships~~.

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