Farm Fresh Blog

Sunday, January 24 2010

Today we decided to give Briar a little more freedom for a while. She has been spending about 22 hours a day, or more, with the sheep. For her protection, she has been separated by a pen from the ewes with lambs. The lambs like her; the ewes are more suspicious. I'm satisfied they won't kill her now, but I still don't want her to have a bad experience with them. (They obviously have overlooked the idea that it doesn't hurt to have big friends.)

She was delighted to be free with them. As soon as everyone fiinished breakfast, she settled down beside them while they grazed.

All went well until they decided to wander off and she got up to follow them.

As soon as she sat up, they decided she was no longer a sheep, but a FOOSA, a little predator.

"No, seriously, I'm a sheep. Listen. Baaaa!"

Mama Sheep is not fooled.

Briar slinks off.

"Nobody likes me . . . ."

She sees me standing on the fence.

"Ma, nobody likes me."

We discuss it.

And she is convinced to give it another shot.

Then we walked back out there together,

and she lay down with her sheep.

Posted by: forensicfarmgirl AT 01:30 pm | Permalink | 3 Comments | Email

Comments:

Man that's sweet. I have known several farms with sheep dogs (the protection kind) and it seems like she is going to work out fine. You are giving her the right kind of support and cheerleading. Go team.

Posted by Sue on 01/24/2010 - 04:36 PM

Thanks! We train herding breed dogs, but she is our first Livestock Guardian Dog and there is a world of conflicting information regarding their upbringing. We're just having to digest it all, filter, and use what seems to work for us.

Posted by forensicfarmgirl on 01/25/2010 - 06:58 PM

I was a little scared when I saw the first pictures of her...thinking that's a face only a mother could love. You know what they say "ugly in the cradle pretty at the table", I swear she gets prettier everytime I see her pics.

Posted by Peggy on 01/26/2010 - 03:01 PM