Carol and Alfred Dunten's cows ran to the far end of the pasture and away from the tubs on the first day of training. By day 4 they ran to the feeding site.

One of the videos I use in my presentations shows my 2007 Boulder County trainees running across a 500 acre pasture to their tubs beginning on the third day of training.  The video shows 8 days of the training process in action and I’ve always enjoyed showing the cows running because the audience smiles every time they see the cows galloping along.  But just because your cows don’t run, doesn’t necessarily mean that something is wrong.

In Oregon, the Roaring Springs cows were not at all accustomed to being around people.  We had to move to the far end of the pasture after putting food in the tubs.  Tim O’Crowley is an energetic man and instead of waiting for them to mosey over to the tubs, he encouraged them along with a little low-stress 4-wheeler herding. They never did run to the tubs, but they learned to eat white top and Canada thistle.

My partner from Vandenberg Air Force Base claimed that waiting for our trainees to come to the feed troughs was like watching a glacier move. True, they did take their own sweet time walking across the pasture, but they learned to eat black mustard in only 5 days total.

Seeing your animals run to the tub may be satisfying, but if they don’t, it doesn’t mean they’re not learning. Just pay attention to what you see them doing at the tubs when they finally arrive.