Ox Power Handbook by Parmananda das

Lesson1: Teaching The Command "Get-Up!"

Click on picture to enlarge

Now the ox has entered the ring and the gate is closed behind him. The first thing is to simply let him explore. When you shut the gate behind the ox, he may walk up to the gate and sniff it and try to see if he can get back out again. Then he will walk around the ring to standing in different places and look around, maybe looking for some other cows. If he sees anybody, he may start mooing - "Help! Help!" Allow him to freely explore the ring and calm down because he will probably be a little nervous.

After a few minutes, when he starts to settle down, it's a good idea to approach him to comfort him a little bit. It is important to be very demonstrative, both when you are pleased with an ox and when you are displeased with him. There should be a very clear distinction between your pleasure and your displeasure. As I mentioned previously, everything should be overemphasized because you are dealing with a dumb brute who doesn't speak the English language.

Let him know that you are his friend and that he is not actually in a dangerous or threatening situation. Approach him slowly. Hold out your hand and pat him. Stroke him on the head and behind the ears, speaking some kind words like, "Good boy, good boy" - very demonstratively, very clearly. Make it very clear that you are being kind to him. You are complimenting him. Your pleasure or displeasure will motivate the ox and show him when he has done right or wrong. When you compliment and comfort him and indicate that you are pleased with him, you will see a change in him. His anxiety will be greatly reduced.

A lot depends on how you give rewards. If you reward the ox in such a way that he fully comprehends that he has done what you wanted, it will be a big help to you in fixing an impression on his brain. An ox's fear of you is what makes him resist training. That fear can be removed by systematically rewarding the ox when he does the right thing. If he has confidence in his master and understands what he wants of him, the ox will be ready and willing to obey every command that is given him.

When you see that he is calmed down and is actually waiting to see what is going to happen next, then you can begin to teach him the first command which is "Get-up!" "Get-up!" means to go forward.

The Lash
At this point, I want to explain the use of the lash. The lash is a vital tool for training and working the oxen. It could be made from a fairly rigid green stick that has some spring in it. It should not be too heavy, or you won't be able to move it quickly and easily. The lash should be an inch (2.5 cm) at most at the butt, tapering down to a half an inch (1 cm) at the tip. In the training ring it is good to use a long lash, a stick about 4 feet long (1.2 m). On the tip of the stick you can attach a piece of thin rope with a knot on the end. The rope should not be too heavy. It must be very flexible and snap easily. Alternatively, you could use a strip of leather, also not too thick. That piece should be about 2 feet long (about 60 cm).

You use the lash to hit the ox in different places to indicate what you want him to do. With each command there is a certain way to use the lash to indicate to the ox what he should do. He learns that if he doesn't respond, the more he resists, the harder the lash comes down. So he is actually working under this fear principle. That has to be understood. You must establish this very clearly and strongly from the beginning.

Once he has understood a command, if he doesn't obey it, the alternative is immediate pain. The ox must understand that this is not a partnership. You are going to have it your way all the time. But, as soon as he becomes submissive and obeys your commands promptly, you stroke his head and treat him kindly. If he is smart, he will very quickly adapt to this new situation, and it will almost never be necessary to hit him hard. With some oxen, training may take longer, but eventually they get the idea, and it is no longer necessary to hit them.

Ideally, the lash is just an emergency tool that you carry with you. After having been fully trained, the ox should respond to the commands without any indication of using the lash. Simply by hearing your command, the ox responds fully. At that point we say he is "broke to the word."

Once an ox attains that level of training, it is not even necessary to tap him with the lash, unless there is some emergency situation which requires a quick response. For instance, you may need him to stop all of a sudden, when he isn't expecting it. Just to be extra sure that he responds instantly, you use the lash to make sure that he understands. You use the lash to avoid an accident in an unexpected situation.

You don't want to become dependent on the lash. That is an important thing to understand. The lash should be an implement to use with oxen that aren't fully trained. Once the oxen are properly trained, the lash should be simply an emergency tool that you keep with you at all times. The oxen should be carefully trained so they reach the point that they are "broke to word." If they are not trained to reach this level of response, their usefulness is seriously hampered. You cannot always be right next to every ox, using the lash to show him what you want him to do. If you want to ride on a wagon, or if you are working big teams of oxen, they must respond simply to your voice commands. It is not practical for you to have to use the lash on each ox every time you give a command. So there is good reason for this careful method of training.

The lash is an essential tool when the ox is first being trained. The goal, however, is to train the ox to the level that he is "broke to the word." From that point on, the lash is used only in an emergency.

"Get-Up!"
Let's return to the ring. At this point, you are standing in the center of the training ring with your lash. The ox is standing somewhere in the ring, probably near the edge along the fence facing away from you. Now we are going to teach him to go forward. We start with this because the easiest, most natural, and obvious thing for the ox to do is to just start walking forward.

The command is "Get-up!" The action is to swat the ox on the rump with the lash from behind. At the same time as you hit him, you say "Get-up!" The principle is that the voice command and the action to indicate that command must be given simultaneously. That way the ox understands the relationship. When you hit him and say "Get-up!" you can reinforce the message by walking toward him, thereby indicating with your whole body that you want him to move forward.

When you hit an animal on the rump, it is natural for him to be propelled forward because he wants to get away from the lash. He will probably start walking around the edge of the ring. He may only take a few steps at first and then stop, not really understanding what you want him to do or what is going on. So hit him again right away. Again, shout, "Get-up!" at the same time and follow after him. Walk after him, making him go forward. If you want, give him a little push to indicate to him that you want him that you want him to go forward. He will start again, maybe walk a few more feet and then stop.

At this point you might stop if you think he has understood that you wanted him to go forward, and he has actually done it. Now you can reward him. You should have a whole act that you do when you are pleased with him, that you repeat the same way every time so that he gets to know when you are pleased. Put the lash under your arm, and hold it there so it is sticking out behind you. The ox doesn't see much of it, so he is not afraid that you are going to hit him.

Walk up to him slowly, and pat him on the head, saying, "Good boy, good boy." When you see that he is calmed down again, step back. This time just hold the lash up in the air and don't even hit him with it. Just threaten him from behind and shout, "Get-up!" See if he has understood. If an ox is smart, it is possible that even that quickly, even after a couple of times, he will make the connection between the word and the action. He will understand what you want him to do. Try it.

Don't be overanxious to hit him. You don't ever want to hit the ox ever when it is not necessary. If you do, he will fear of you in a bad way. The less excitement and punishment used, the better. It's just like with people, if they are well-intentioned and just about to do the right thing, but then we out intolerance or impatience, get angry at them, then they become mistrusting. So test the ox and see if he understood the command. If you yell, "Get-up!" and he doesn't move, then hit him again on the rump. Hit him hard enough so that there is absolutely no hesitation on his part, "Should I do it or should I not do it?" No! The command and motion should be so strong that there is no mental doubt: "I must go forward. This is so severe and extreme that I can't even think of not doing what he said. No question about it." And then once again, he will step forward.

Click on picture to enlarge

Communicating with the Ox
I would like to interject here that during training, the individual nature and disposition of your ox must be considered carefully. It is not possible to give hard and fast rules for teaching a command. I can give the basic principles, guidelines and methods, but the technique will differ somewhat according to the animal that you are working with. Your animal may be very smart, stupid, lazy, or nervous.

You have to be sensitive to what is going through your ox's mind and respond accordingly. In other words, if you sense that the ox understands your command, but won't comply because he is just obstinate, then there is some call for discipline and severity. But if you sense that he doesn't understand you, that he hasn't learned anything - which is the case just as often as not - then you shouldn't discipline him. To discipline an ox when he doesn't understand what you are asking of him will just make things worse. He will just develop fear of you and will not be able to listen to anything you say. He will become filled with anxiety when he sees you approaching him.

Remember, when we are dealing with a dumb creature, it must be very difficult for him to understand our motions, signs, and language. It is something like for us to try to understand a foreign language. We should never get impatient with the ox because he doesn't understand us, and we shouldn't be surprised when he does things wrong.

Be sensitive to his mental state and don't be overly quick to discipline. We should work on his understanding rather than working on the different parts of his body. That is why I say that an ox trainer should have worked with cows and bulls for two years before he begins to train the oxen. There are very sensitive and subtle perceptions the trainer will need to use, in order to not spoil the ox.

The surrender you are demanding from the ox is difficult. That means you have to be very familiar with these animals so you can interpret their motions. You have to know how to use your body and voice so that they understand you. If a person hasn't had this experience, there is a risk that he is going to spoil the ox right from the very beginning because he won't be able to tell whether the ox is being obstinate or if he is just confused about what he is supposed to do.

Training Style: Patience and Firmness
The ultimate import of the command, "Get-up!" is to go forward without stopping. There should be no question of stopping until he is told to stop. Right now, however, we are not concerned with teaching the ox to stop. We just want him to start walking upon hearing "Get-up!" and to continue walking around the edge of the ring without stopping. The more he understands the command, the longer he will continue to walk.

In the beginning you should follow him, standing a little bit towards the center of the ring but behind him, so it is clear to him that you want him to continue walking. It will be almost like he is running away from you. If he starts to slow down, he might be preparing to stop. Be ready with the lash. Have the lash poised up in the air so if he looks back at you and sees it, that may be sufficient to keep him going. But if you see that he is about to stop anyway, then come down with the lash and hit him again and say, "Get-up!" and he will start going again.

Then when you see that he has got the idea, let him stop. Or if he starts to get in too much anxiety about the whole thing, becoming bewildered by so much pressure being put on him to do something new confined in a little ring, then let him stop. Let him calm down. Go up to him again with the lash under you arm, stroke him and tell him, "Good boy, good boy." He has been a good boy. He did what you wanted. After he has calmed down step back and tell him again, "Get-up!" Don't hit him hard unless it is necessary. If you think that he has got the idea a little bit, then just tap him on the rump with the lash and say, "Get-up!" and he will probably go with just that. But once again, if he just takes one step and then stops, hit him harder.

You will find that a half-hour is the maximum time that you can spend in one lesson, teaching one command. The pressure and anxiety on the ox increases more and more, due to his being confined for so long in such a new situation. After about half-hour in the ring, the ox doesn't really learn anything. After that, it is just a matter of repeated practice.

It is good to have a lesson every day for up to a half an hour. Never attempt to teach an ox more than one command in a lesson. That will confuse him. Repeat each lesson daily until the ox has learned it perfectly. Then go on to the next command. Every day you can go over the commands that you have already done. Don't go into a the lesson with big expectations. You should be prepared for the ox to make small increments of advancement every day. You may come across an ox that will learn quickly, but in general, you also don't want to be too pushy. Don't be frustrated if all that happens on the first day in the ring is that the ox just gets used to being in the ring.

Potential Problems
When you first bring an ox into the ring, there is a lot that you might not know about him. It is even possible that he is untrainable. You have to take this into consideration. I have had some oxen that were so nervous and spooked that they were untrainable. Even after repeated lessons, they were like an insane person. I was unable to reach them no matter what I did. Some of these oxen changed as they got older. We went back to them when they were three or four years old and they were completely different and able to be trained. So the fact that an ox can't be worked with at a younger age doesn't necessarily mean that he will always be useless.

But in general, when an ox doesn't understand in this first lesson that he is expected to walk around in a circle in the ring, this is a symptom that he is not going to be trainable, because it is so obvious and natural in this situation to walk around in a circle. Actually the training can hardly progress beyond this point unless the ox will go forward when he is hit on the rump. In several cases, I have found that such an ox, at least for the time being, was useless. If, when you hit him and tell him to get up, he just backs up and walks around in circles or walks across the ring, and has no idea what is going on, this is a strong indications that he is useless.

Another thing that indicates that an ox is not qualified to be trained, at least for the time being, is if he actually tries to jump over the fence. This is a very bad sign. It has happened to me, so I thought I would mention something about how to deal with that situation.

Suppose you have a big ox and even though the fence is six feet high, he tries to jump over it. He gets his front legs over it, but of course, he can't jump high enough. So his whole body comes down on the fence and breaks the boards and he ends up stuck on the fence, front legs on one side and back legs on the other side. He is hanging on some boards and he can't move. He can't go backwards and he can't go forwards. In a situation like that, you have to be very careful because already something very bad has happened. The ox has become so scared that he did this crazy thing, and now he has gotten hurt, which can have a permanent effect on his relationship with you.

The psychology is that being in a training ring can be a new and frightening experience for an animal like this. He is simple-minded. He doesn't have any intellectual capacity. His reasoning powers are limited to his past experience, so he is looking at your actions to try to understand what is going on. If somehow or other in this situation he actually gets injured, he will connect that experience with you. This creates a psychological disadvantage for you in trying to get him to surrender to you and trust you.

The ox is fearing some bodily harm, so if harm actually does come to him, then his fear has been justified, and it can make a lasting impression on him. First impressions are the most lasting. On the other hand, if, in spite of his fear, no harm comes to him, then he should gradually lose the fear.

At all times when training or working oxen, you should be extremely careful not to let them get injured while trying to sincerely and submissively follow your commands. For example, if you tell an ox to "Get-up!" an he takes a step and falls down in a hole and hurts his leg, then next time you tell him to "Get-up!" he will hesitate. As soon as he hears the sound, "Get-up!" he may become filled with anxiety because last time he got up for you, he hurt his leg. So you have to be careful.

Now this ox is stuck on the fence, so don't try to make him jump backwards or forwards. First of all, just try to calm him down. Approach him slowly and pet him. If he is very big and heavy and you can't lift him up over the fence, have someone stand with him to see that he doesn't get excited and start struggling and injure himself. Get some tools and take the boards off the fence so he can become free of this position without further excitement.

I have seen a situation in which an animal fell down and got stuck. The teamster, out of impatience and brutishness, just hit him to make him get up, instead of taking off the ox's yoke, or with a horse, taking off the harness, and making it easy for him to get up. Just to assume that an animal is being obstinate and starting to hit him only aggravates a situation which is already difficult. The animal may hopelessly struggle to get up and only hurt himself further in the process. This kind of ignorance and impatience should be avoided.

Once the ox is freed from being stuck on the fence, I would hook a good strong rope onto his halter and tie him up inside the ring so he can get used to it there. If you immediately turn the ox loose after he tried to jump out, he might conclude that his attempted escape was successful and that would encourage him to do it again. That would reinforce this very foolish thing that he did. The message would be: He tried to escape and he succeeded.

A negative idea like that is the wrong message to send to an ox you want to train to be obedient. So, without further ado, just tie him up inside the ring and leave him there until you think that when you let him out, he won't feel like he succeeded in escaping from the ring. You might want to leave him in there a whole day. Maybe even bring him some hay and water. Let him get used to being in there.

Whenever you tie up an animal, the rope should not be too long. It should be short enough so that he can't get his leg over the rope. That means that the distance from his nose to the post to which he is tied would be, at most, 2 feet (60 cm). That way he will have enough rope to lie down, but it is not so long that he can try to jump over a fence, nor can he get tangled up in the rope by stepping over it.

If you have an animal on a long rope, there is always a chance that the rope will get tangled around his feet. If he then falls down and starts struggling to free himself, he may get seriously injured. This is especially dangerous on a hillside, but of course a training ring would be on flat ground. Just for your information, it is important to know that you should never leave an animal tied on a hill or a slope, because if he falls down, he can get tangled up in the rope or stuck in some awkward position, and break his neck. I have seen that happen both with horses and with oxen. Having been left tied somewhere, the animal got tangled in a long rope, fell down, and, while struggling to free himself, broke his neck and died. So certainly this is a risk to be taken seriously and avoided at all cost.

A Peaceful Return to the Barn
When you have finished the lesson, the return from the ring should be done in the same way as the trip that I described to the ring in the last lesson. It should be uneventful. You should not try to teach the ox anything on the return trip. I never like the practice of just turning the ox loose from the ring, because it makes him feel more inclined to get out of the ring during the lesson.