We got to visit a sheep farm today. The farm has over 3000 sheep and has quite a bit of land. We only saw the hillside and the area where they did the demonstration.
It was chilly and raining a little bit so we were all in our jackets with umbrellas. Just as our tour guide, April, predicted – the sheep didn’t care, the dogs didn’t care and the shepherd ignored it.
The dogs are so anxious to round up the sheep! They are low to the ground and look like they are going to attack but they don’t. They run so fast!
Although several dogs are out, only one dog is doing the work. The farmer has a specific whistle tone for each dog and a specific whistle for each command. The dogs run around the sheep who are moving away from the dogs. They pack together automatically. (They did that the other night too when Kristopher and I were walking through the pasture and they didn’t want to be near us).
The farmers want the dogs to have some white markings on the side so they can see them up on the hills. The dogs have to be black or the sheep will treat them like another sheep and won’t run away. If a black sheep in a crowd of white sheep jumps up and runs, the other sheep run away because they think it is a dog.
The farmer brought out a bucket of puppies – 23 days old – so cute!
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