Ox Power Handbook by Paramananda das

Lesson 4: Teaching The Commands "Gee!" And "Haw!"

I have two training rings. One is 24 feet (7.5 m) in diameter and the other is 48 feet (15 m) in diameter. For teaching "Gee!" and "Haw!" the larger ring is better because there is more room to walk across the ring when you make a turn.

"Haw!" - Come Here, to the Left
First I teach "Haw!" because it is easier to teach than "Gee!" "Haw" means turn to the left. You are working the ox from the left side with a halter and lead-rope on him. Walk counterclockwise around the edge of the ring so that you are on his left side. The fence is on his right side. Command him to "Get-up!"

When he is walking along nicely, then you tap him with the lash on his right side somewhere between his ears and his mid-back and tug on the halter rope and say "Haw!" When you do this your ox should turn towards you. If he just continues to walk straight and doesn't understand that you want him to turn, then you have to turn his head with the rope. If you pull his head around, he has to follow his head. He won't keep walking straight with his head turned. So be sure that you make him turn, at least a little bit at first, so that he doesn't misunderstand the command.

When you tap him with the lash on his right side to propel him to the left, don't hit him in the face. You can hit him anywhere from behind the ears back to the middle of his back. We want to reserve his rear end for propelling him forward with the command "Get-up!" and his front part up to his ears is reserved for "Gee!" and "Haw!" left and right.

It is good if he understands that anywhere you tap him within that area, on the right side, means that you want him to turn left, because you will be in different positions when you are walking next to the oxen. You might be behind them or up in front of them and not always be able to tap them in the same spot. But if you have a few feet of leeway, that makes it more practical.

If you want to turn him 90 degrees you may have to repeat the command several times until he completes the turn. Then tell him "Get-up!" and walk across the ring. When you tell your ox to "Haw!" he should continue to turn to the left until you tell him to "Get-up!" again, which will signal to him that he has turned far enough and now he can resume walking straight ahead. Otherwise how is he to know how far you want him to turn and how sharp? In the future, when he learns the command better, he can understand by the tone of your voice or the repetition of the command more than once that you want him to turn just a little bit or very sharp.

When he reaches the opposite side of the ring, say "Whoa!" Pat him on the head and congratulate him for turning so nicely. Give him a minute to gather his equanimity. Then tell him to "Get-up!" and again walk counterclockwise around the ring and repeat the same procedure. Tap him on his right side, tug him to the left towards you, and say "Haw!" at the same time.

When you see that he is showing some signs of understanding the command, which may not be in the first day, then try telling him "Haw" and tapping him with the lash but without holding the rope. Put the lead-rope up over his neck and walk alongside of him. Just use the lash and tell him "Haw!" and see if that works. The sooner you come to this point, the better, so he doesn't get used to you tugging on the rope. When you are working him under normal circumstances, you won't want to be holding a lead-rope.

Next, when he has learned to turn without you pulling on the rope, you can stop using the lash and just use the command "Haw!" expecting him to continue turning until you say "Get-up!" at which time he should walk straight ahead from whatever position he is in at the time you give the command. I think you will find that for every 45 degrees that the ox turns, you'll have to say "Haw!" again to make him turn another 45 degrees.

The number of lessons required to teach this command may vary dramatically from one ox to another. The smartest ox I ever worked with learned each command in one day. On the second day he was performing without the lash. But it may take considerably longer with some oxen. I have found that these two commands, "Gee!" and "Haw!" may take longer to teach than any of the others because there is a little more subtlety involved. But by repetition in a proper atmosphere, an ox can learn these commands very well.

Also you will find, especially with "Gee!" and "Haw!" that a great deal of their learning will take place after they start working. As long as you are very careful to be consistent in how you give the command both in your words and your actions, sooner or later the ox will understand. Don't give up on an ox because he doesn't learn quickly. It may take a lot of repetition.

"Gee!" - Go to the Right
Once you are confident that your ox has learned "Haw!" then you can teach him "Gee!" which is to turn to the right. I have found this a little more difficult because you can't use that simple method of pulling the ox toward you with the lead-rope. [The teamster normally walks by the ox's left shoulder. Some old timers say that "Haw!" means come "Here" and "Gee!" means "Get away."] With the command "Gee!" the ox has to go away from you. Always remember that you are working the oxen from the left side most of the time, so you should maintain that position during the lessons. If you switch sides, they will become confused. Ultimately, you should be able to work them from either side, but the standard procedure is to walk on the left side.

To teach "Gee!" you have to push the ox off to the right to show him that you want him to turn in that direction. Your oxen might be quite large and to push them around in one direction or another may not be so easy. This is a good reason to train the oxen when they are very young. The smaller they are, the easier it is to push them around and show them what you want them to do. They also tend to be more submissive when they are young.

When teaching "Gee!" you want to walk clockwise along the edge of the ring with the ox walking alongside of you. If you walk counterclockwise, your ox won't be able to turn right. Stand to the left of your ox and tell him to "Get-up!" Then tell him "Gee!" push his head over to the right, and tap with the whip on his left side. From the last lesson, he has already picked up on the idea of turning and then straightening out when you say "Get-up!"

So this isn't quite like starting from scratch. Your ox will already be used to the idea of turning. He might understand very quickly when you tap him on the left side that you want him to turn to the right. When you have turned about 90 degrees, tell him to "Get-up!" and walk straight across the ring. Stop when you get to the other edge of the ring and congratulate him. Then you can proceed again and repeat everything.

When teaching these commands, don't forget to use your ox's name. "Gee, Buck, Gee!" It is important that he learns his name so that he can distinguish commands that you make specifically to him when he is working in a team. Especially the "Gee!" and "Haw!" commands are used this way. When you are making a very sharp turn, the ox on the outside of the turn is commanded to go "Gee!" or "Haw!" depending on the direction you are going, and the ox on the inside of the turn is actually commanded to "Back!" at the same time. It is something like pivoting on a point and he actually has to back-up.

Once your ox has learned "Gee!" and "Haw!" it is much easier to take him out of the ring and walk around to practice. Now he has learned all the commands. If you want to stop him you can stop him with "Whoa!" If you want to turn him left or right, you can do that. At least he has the idea. When you take him out of the ring to practice, at first you should keep the lead rope on him to make sure that he doesn't get away. You can alternate the commands of "Gee!" and "Haw!" Give him lots of practice turning in both directions and stopping, starting, and backing up. It is just like going out for a drive to practice maneuvering.

I found that I can also teach the ox to turn while backing up. This makes the ox very maneuverable in tight situations. If you are in the woods and you want to back the oxen in between two trees to hitch to a log or if you are hitching the oxen to a wagon and you want to back them into a tongue, it comes in very handy if they know how to turn w hen backing up.