How to be a cowdog lesson One

Many of us would assume to be a cowdog would be a simple task of running the cow in the direction that you want to go and in the end result they would be where you'd wanted them. If only it was that easy!
By the time I was working cows with Sadie she had already been there and done it all. She could pin, sort, gather, and hold as well as load cows on to a trailer with out help. I, on the hand had not had as much experience with cows, I did however have the riding cowhorses down pat , just needed to add cow.
    I soon got the hang of it, Sadie and I would go out to the field of cows that needed to be moved into the adjoining field. I would work from the back end of the field and work my way up Sadie would catch the ones that decided to head in a different direction. She was a great help, however; I soon learned that I still had a lot to learn about cowdogs. Sadie had been taught by my boyfriend a cowboy( the real thing) and a Comanche Indian all in one person. So alot of his commands were his commands for her, not all but lot of them being in Comanche and no of them in the common "away to me" or "Come by" some in whistles, others I would not have even associate with a cow . I later was informed that this was done so that no one else could control this dog but him.... (great!) So learned how true this was when Sadie and I were asked to go out into some wooded area to move a group of cows out and a tried to direct Sadie into the woods, the language barrier became a BIG problem at that point my horse and I started doing alot of the work. Of course it was nothing but extraordinary to watch her work in the hands of my boyfriend even if it was in a different language it gave me the insight of how a dog and a human could work together to bring a large group of animals into the same  area. i soon learned simple commands like " go get them" to send her out after the cows, and " push them" to keep them going. but even then Sadie only listen 40 percent of the time to me. I never master her which was sad because in the beginning Sadie was supposed to be my dog. That when I decided that I real need a dog of my own that would listen to me, that's when I started shopping around for a puppy, and I found Merel.