I love Dexters! One of the breeds we're considering as well.

I've made friends with a lot of cows over the years, and the first thing that comes to mind is to remember that she's a herding prey animal - she's viewing you as a predator.

Try reading up on natural horsemanship, specifically on how to approach and interact with the horse, and my guess is that she'll respond more positively than by walking directly up to her, which is more likely to make her bolt and run.

Like horses, cows like treats, and carrots are an old standby. Tractor Supply also has an array of horse treats that would be well suited to a cow . . . they may even have cow treats, though I haven't seen them locally. Of course, I haven't had reason to look.

Most animals are food motivated, so by training her to associate you as the bringer of treats, particularly those that she can't find otherwise, that should win her over pretty quickly.

And, as has already been said, once she'll let you, they love to be scratched behind the ears. I used to have a friend who regularly dry-scrubbed his two milk cows with a push broom (that was only used otherwise for sweeping out the tack room). They LOVED it, and came running when they saw him with the broom. ;-)

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