It was a cold , cold morning and 5 AM had come way too fast for me! Seeing how I had not found my pillow before 12 AM ! I turned the coffee on and got ready for the day.
At 7:00 AM I was headed down across the open field and cold grass with 21 head of sheep. Drover bringing them along with me. The sun was not yet up at all! And I noticed a very red dawn in the eastern sky. I remembered that saying red in the morning Sailor take warning! I wondered… Soon I was busy as Drover and I penned and separated the sheep into groups of 3. I realized if I was to work sheep pens I needed direction.
It seemed that I was all ways either in the way , on the wrong side, 2 steps behind or could not tell Drover what I needed him to do to help correctly and I KNEW there was a right way to do all this and I just needed to be shown how.!
Larry asked who was first and I said ME I need help and want to get this right. (I was starting to see just how dangerous my bad habits and wrong handling techniques were for me and my dog and the sheep. )
Larry proceeded to tell me how to open the gate properly and how to use my dog to keep the sheep off the gate and off me! So here is what we did:
I stand in the alley and the sheep are in the pens (3 sheep in a pen 4 X 5) . I unlatch the gate (it opens out into the alley) Before I open the gate I have Drover stand at the gate where it opens. I say “watch them” and he looks at the sheep in the face. (this encourages the sheep to back off the gate) Then I tell him to “walk in”… and “come bye” because the hinge of the gate is on my left facing the pen as I do this I step behind the gate (not on the side the sheep are on) and open the gate out… then Drover brings the sheep out. I tell him to “stand” if there is too much pressure from him and the sheep are too fast. As he waits the sheep come out nice slow and turn to their left and towards the take pen at the end of the alley. At this point I step into the pen and shut the gate (I hold it shut) and have Drover “come bye” to take the sheep off the gate at the take pen end of the alley. When the take pen alley gate is clear I open the pen gate (I am standing behind) and walk down and step thru the take pen gate and I am now on the opposite side of the sheep again. I hold that gate and ask Drover to “come bye” or “away” as needed and to “walk up” and he brings the sheep to me! At which point I open the gate and the dog brings the sheep thru and away from the gate and I step on the other side of the gate (away from the sheep again) and the sheep are in the take pen. MY KNEES are SAFE !
The whole idea is to be safe and let my dog do the work for me.
I had got so I was afraid to do penning work of this sort because of all the knee knocking and I never was in the right place. Now with practice this is much easier! This is not the only way to do gate work but this works for me in my situation!
After my lesson in the sheep pens I practiced the rest of the week! It did become easier but I have had a lot of practice being not safe! So it is like a habit a bit hard to change!
Everyone worked very hard the second day and learned so much!
The weather was feeling and looking like rain by evening. I suspected we would be in for a real rainy day on Tuesday!
