Wow! Today has been tough!
The weather wonderful! The grass growing and green! The air sweet and breezy. Sun for the most part till late this evening and even then for 30 minutes it rained hard with the sun shinning! NO ! I did not see …the what had to have been an awesome rainbow! It was lightening so I dared not venture out!!!!!
SO…. This morning I decided it was time to put my new sheep in with the young ram and they could all go out to the pasture! Just not in with My Girls! Trust me saying this was the only part that was easy!
I turned out My Girls. Mistake Number 1…and put them in the field to graze. Then turned the ram lamb in with the 4 new girls and let them do a meet and get to know each other. Clearly they did not think much of the new ram George. He is small (young) and Moon, Mary Lou, Emmy Lou, and Barbie told him right off that he was not part of their herd!
Mistake Number 2…I thought I could herd these new sheep down to the Herding Arena with Drover! It was too much too far and Drover did not understand what I wanted!
Did I mention the spaghetti in the carport at Momma’s that kept singing it siren song to Drover?
I rarely ever give up, and we spent most of the day in the process of figuring out how to make this happen. After some fence jumping, some driving in the wrong direction, some yelling! (Drover and My Dogs said there was a lot of yelling!) Much frustration on my part for being so inept at this! Lots of downs and dogs sent to the house! Then sheep all of them being brought back up to the barn Twice! (Now why is that easy?) SEVEN attempts and finally we accomplished the task.
You have to understand we were doing something new. There were no lanes to drive in only a open field. The distance was long! Like 1400 feet or more. Distractions everywhere. Sheep that were not dog broke!
The Good parts! (Actually subtract my yelling and it was all good!)
1. Amarillo worked wonderful in the large field and was not too much for the sheep! She listened well and was soft and easy.
2. Drover finally caught on and understood what I so poorly tried to accomplish and show him to do!
3. No sheep were harmed in any way!
4. I learned so much about handling stock.
5. Drover is tough and can take my pressure, he stayed with it all very well.
6. I realized my dogs are not perfect but can and will and are willing to do the job at hand! They just do not have the experience YET!
After the storms passed through…I went down and checked on my new sheep in the arena. I decided that I had worked with them all day getting them penned, why not take them up and put them back in the stall tonight!?!
Sheep went up like they had been doing it for months! Dogs did perfect! Even stayed when and where they were told to!
I sure hope it is easier tomorrow!
And there really is more than ONE Way to skin a cat! (or in this case to herd sheep!)
