THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

A recent comment motivated this post. It was from a veterinarian who tries her hardest to alert clients to current and potential behavioral problems, and is a tad frustrated on occasion by how few of them seem to take her cautions seriously. I am sure that other vets, dog trainers and behaviorists are all sighing in sympathy as they read this. I sure am. It is such a common problem that I thought it might be worthwhile for us all to have a brain storming session about how to handle it. All of the pro’s reading this blog know what I mean: a 3 month old puppy in puppy class who plays well with others, but growls at you as you approach. Growling at a person at 12 weeks of age? ALARM BELLS! RED FLAGS! DIVE DIVE (the submarine)!!!

So, here’s the question. If you are a pro, how do you handle it when you see signs of impending (or current) problems? If you are not in the business, how would you want someone to tell you that they saw something that concerned them?

Here are some things I have learned that seem to help, but just like everyone else, the more ideas I have the better, so I’d love to hear yours:

1. Make analogies to human behavior. This is where being anthropomorphic can actually help our dogs. I’ll say something like “Right now your adolescent dog is like a teenage son who has drugs hidden under his bed, and is hanging out with guys named Rat Sniffer and the Dude from Hell. He’s a good kid, your son, but he could go either way. He needs you to benevolently intervene so that he ends up living a wonderful life, instead of making license plates in a federal prison.” I’ll adapt the story, depending on the people… making guesses about what will best resonate with them.

2. Don’t exaggerate, and don’t bring it up until you have established a connection. They must believe that you are on their side and that you want nothing but the best for you and your dog. If something happens the instant they walk in the door, keep your mouth shut until you’ve worked with them for awhile, made gooey over their dog (as best you can) and made it clear that you want to be their helper, not someone who judges them or their dog. If you don’t feel as though you are getting through, it is always a good idea to ‘mirror’ their behavior, which means speaking slowly if they speak slowly, leaning forward if they lean forward, crossing your legs if they cross their legs.. etc. Whenever I do it I am sure that someone will notice and think I’m making fun of them, but so far no one ever has. (Until now….. when I meet one of you and you ask me at a break in a seminar what to do about your 7 fighting dogs and I can tell you don’t like my answer. Sigh. Oh well, if you notice, then you’ll know I’m desperately trying to tell you something!)

3. Talk about it from the dog’s point of view. This is hugely important in most cases. It’s how you let people know that you are on their side, but that part of your job is to try to be an advocate for their dog. Again, make analogies and use the good side of anthropomorphism: (”And how would you respond if a strange man walked up to you on the street, grabbed your head and pressed his lips onto yours?”)

4. At the same time, although this might sound contradictory, we also need to be adept at explaining how dogs are different from people. (”Well, your dog probably greets you at the door with head and tail down, licking her lips and groveling because she is using what’s called ‘appeasement’ behavior (give an example from humans), not because she “feels guilty. If you grab her collar and drag her over to the puddle on the carpet she won’t understand why and respond as if she has to defend herself.”

5. Use visuals: Have posters (like the ones from Dream Dog Productions) on your office walls that show visual signals of stress or social discomfort in dogs. Have “before and after” photos of fearful puppies hiding from visitors at 3 months, and and “after” version showing their teeth at two years.

This is a short list, and if I had more time I’d add more to it, but it’s a conversation starter… I’d love to hear your ideas.

Meanwhile, back at the farm: Finally, as of this morning, all sheep butts are red! Yeah, Redford did his job. Took 2 weeks for all of them to come in. That’s longer than I’d like (it’s nice when lambing comes to have the lambs come closer together when you have a flock as small as mine), but at least I know when everyone if due and when they are bred. (They are all due now in late March and early April. You’ll be the first to see lamb photos.)

Here was Will last week, helping me keep the flock safely away from the road.

I’ve loved reading your comments about favorite dog toys. You all inspired me to take a photo of Willie and his current favorites. . .

From Left to Right, back row, the toys are:

Brain Twister (long, green thing, Canine Genius), Chewber (red disc), Invincible Rings (blue & black rings, JW Pet), Skinneez Stuffingless Dog Toy (long, grey thing draped onto orange) and Plush Leo with Stuffies (big, round, orange hollow globe, by Canine Genius.

The three toys in the front are Planet Dog’s Orbee Ball, Planet Dog’s Strawberry and the eternally essential Large size Kong. Please keep telling us about your favorite toys and we’ll try to get them on the website. (And our dogs will be so grateful!)

Here’s what happened when I said “Take it!” to Willie:

Right now there is no question that the Twister is his favorite toy, but then,  Will LOVES to shake things. (I helped this along by reinforcing it as a way to help Will literally and metaphorically shake off tension, and as a way to learn to calm down when aroused.) It is also new, and I have no doubt that has an impact too.

Every morning Will and Lassie start the day by eating frozen food out of their Kong… I let them outside to pee and they run in, run to the frig and wait for me to hand them their frozen Kong. It takes them a good 25-30 minutes (lucky me!) to get through the food I have carefully smashed into the Kong the night before.. so I can read, write and be lazy on the couch.

After that I’d say he loves all the other toys equally. There are at least 30 of them (I should count) in their 2 toy baskets but these are the ones that he keeps going back for. I don’t take my own advice about keeping only a few toys out to avoid the dog getting bored with them. . . probably because I never see any sign of Will getting bored!

Meanwhile, back at the farm: Here’s a shot of the lambs grazing up in the high pasture. They are doing incredibly well and are a joy to watch. Also with them are Martha 2.0 (in front on right, black legs and face) and Barbie, both of who are thin and are getting a bit of corn and oats along with the lambs. By the way, you can see Will in the background. The flock had been loosely dispersed, grazing away until I asked Will to walk up. You can see he just got to the edge of the ‘flight distance’. . .  the sheep on his side have turned their heads and started to flock up.

I hope you enjoy the weekend, and that you get some time off. I have just been reminded of how precious life is, having attended a service for a friend and colleague who died suddenly and tragically in a bicycle accident. What a reminder that this is it… this day, this hour, this moment. I’m going to turn off the computer (except to play with photos from Africa), go outside and harvest thyme and oregano and mint, make another 2 loaves of carrot bread, make another batch of Zucchini Yum and garden garden garden. I’ll intersperse that with walking with the dogs, working Will on sheep, rubbing Lassie’s belly and watching the WWSDA Herding Dog Trial outside of Portage, WI. I hope you can do something that feeds you in all ways too.

Life. What a gift.

I re-read Seligman’s Authentic Happiness this weekend.  Ever read it? Seligman is one of the American Psychologists who decided to focus on mental health rather than mental illness, and yeah for him I say. I’m writing about it here because it got me thinking about our happiness and our dogs.

In the book, Seligman asks us to determine our “signature strengths,” and suggests that the road to happiness is to do what you are good at and what you love. (He has a questionnaire in the book to help you decide your strengths. Mine include Curiousity and Love of Learning. I’m not saying what my weaknesses are!)

So here’s my question related to dogs: Is that true of our dogs as well? Is their happiness, at least in part, related to having an opportunity to do what they love and what they are good at?  It seems intuitively that it must be true, and that like us, so many of our dogs are asked to do things that they aren’t good at. I know I spent a couple of years working with one of my Border Collies (Pippy Tay) on working sheep, until a sheep chased her across the field at a herding dog trial, and everyone in the stands laughed so hard they fell out of their seats. I may be indulging in inappropriate anthropomorphism, but I called Pip back to me and she walked back with her head and tail down, as if she was (dare I say it?).. ashamed.

I still feel guilty for not realizing sooner that, although she was brilliant at certain aspects of herding, she simply didn’t have the motivation and the courage to work sheep competively. I stopped training her on sheep, let her herd at home when it was fun and easy, and switched her to working with dog-dog aggressive dogs. She was brilliant at it, absolutely brilliant, and I truly believe she loved it.

As the years went on I saw so many people in my office who had dogs who, to me, didn’t enjoy agility or obedience or whatever, and yet their owners felt they “shouldn’t give up.” I’ll grant it can be a hard call to know if you should try to work through a problem, or decide that your dog just doesn’t enjoy a particular activity, but it seems to be an important one, yes?

Meanwhile, back at the farm: It snowed 3 or 4 inches, but compared to the blizzards and floods of other parts of the country, we can’t complain. The vegetation that has emerged is frozen solid, but tulip and other bulbs are amazing hardy, bless them, and I suspect they’ll be fine. But, with the snow, came new lambs… Lordy, lordy, I do love newborn lambs.

Here’s a bird’s eye view of Lady Godiva (daughter of Snickers and niece of Truffles, what else could I name her?) and her new born lambs. They are absolutely tiny (maybe 3-4 pounds?).. not so good when you are raising market lambs, but I love that they are all white and seem to be doing well.

Lady Godiva is a ewe lamb, meaning she’s just about one year old right now, and this is her first lambing season. What a good momma she though.. see how, in the photo below, she is flexing her back legs to make her udder more accessible to her lambs? Good girl!  The nursing lamb is wagging his tail–always a good sign, since they usually only do that when they are getting milk. The lamb on the ground has nursed less. I’m anxious to check him later this afternoon… he has some milk in his belly, but not as much as his brother. I’m hoping for a big, fat milk-filled belly this afternoon.

One last image from this morning,of the morning sunlight coming into the barn. Nothing special really, but I just love barns and old wood…

There’s an interesting discussion going on, on-line, in my university course right now. One of the students asked why some people like non-human animals more than they do members of their own species. There are some extremely interesting comments posted to that question, especially about animals being ‘innocents’ rather than moral agents who can choose to be cruel.

The question, and other potential answers, reminded me of an essay I wrote in Dog is My Co-Pilot, titled “Love is Never Having to Say Anything at All.” In it I argue that one of the reasons we love dogs so much is that, well, because they can’t talk. As I write in the essay: “Words may be wonderful things, but they carry weight with them, and there’s a great lightness of being when they are discarded.” Of course, this appliesall to animals, not just dogs.

Surely there are many other reasons that so many of us are especially comfortable around animals, whether it is dogs or members of another species: so much research attests to the lack of social anxiety that is normal in human-human interactions being absent in the presence of another species (heart rate decreases in the presence of non-human animal, even fish; cortisol decreases while petting a dog (but may increase in the dog!) etc etc. But I’m curious–how many of you feel especially comfortable around animals compared to people? How many feel more comfortable around animals than around people, even friendly, familiar ones? And if so, why do YOU think that might be true?

Meanwhile, back at the farm, it was 9 below this morning, and windy. You’d think we’d all be used to the cold by now, but it felt especially difficult to me last night when I fed the lactating ewes for the last time around 9:30 pm. The cold requires a lot of energy from the sheep, even though they are masters at keeping themselves warm.  Snickers and Truffles, the ewes with lambs, are starting to lose weight, no doubt in part because it takes so much energy for them to stay warm. But most ewes lose weight while they lactate: their lambs begin to put an incredible amount of nutritional pressure on them, so I’m giving the ewes ridiculous quantities of alfalfa hay along with supplemental corn, oats and a protein pellet. I wish they could be eating grass, but that’s a long way off. However, it’s supposed to go into the 40’s by Friday. I can’t imagine.  Here’s what it looks like now:

And just for contrast, here’s another absurdly colorful and ridiculously structured orchid from the orchid show last weekend–I think I’ll look at this photo every day after reading bad news, yet again, about our economy. You have to admit, isn’t this just the most joyfully amazing thing?

Much warmer now, might even be up to 20 degrees. Wow, feels like an entirely different place. The lambs are doing beautifully. On Sunday Jim and I opened up the panel dividing the two ewes with lambs and let them all in together. We wanted to wait to be sure that the lambs were well bonded to their moms (and vice versa) and that they were stable and healthy enough to tolerate being shoved around a bit by the ewe that wasn’t their mom. Given how vigorous Snickers was (I am being so kind here, using the word vigorous instead of several others I can think of) when she was trying to reject her own little ewe lamb, I didn’t want to subject the single lamb to that kind of abuse. However, we don’t call him White Dude for nothing. He looks like he’s in training for a starring role in professional wrestling, so we figured he would be able to handle some ‘nudges’ from Snickers.

(You should know that lots of sheep people will be laughing right now… getting shoved away by sheep that aren’t your mom is just part and parcel of being a lamb.  Granted, I was being a bit, uh, cautious, partly because of the cold, party because Snickers seems out-of-the-box aggressive to other lambs, and partly because, okay, I’m a wuss.) After a few minutes of confused lambs and indignant ewes, everyone seemed to get it all sorted out. Whew. Now the lambs are able to play together and have more space to run around. Ideally, they’d be frolicking on emerald green pastures up the hill, but the grass is  under about a foot of ice and snow.

Here’s the lambs from this weekend:

You can see how big White Dude is in this photo of him and the little ewe lamb:

Meanwhile, Willie and Lassie are warming my heart. They started playing in the living room Saturday night, and I was completely transfixed while watching them. First Willie threw himself in front of Lassie, with his head held high, his ears up at the base, with the rest of the pinna (ear flap) flattened against his head. His legs were erect and stiff, and he stood still as if frozen for a moment, then threw himself down in a play bow in front of Lassie. She responded with her “play bark,” (only heard while she’s playing, one WOOF, repeated about every 3 or 4 seconds) and picked up their favorite tug toy.  They proceded to play tug for several minutes, while I was transported away from huddling in the cold on the couch, blue snow, frozen ice buckets and bitter winds.  I imagined that they were individuals of a wild species that one rarely sees… imagine how enchanted you’d be if you’d never seen a dog and all of sudden there were 2 of them, playing this amazing game right in front of you. I felt overwhelmed with gratitude that they were in my life, and that by simply doing what dogs do, I could be elevated and warmed with amazement and appreciation. Those of us lucky enough to have dogs are lucky indeed.

What a difference a day makes. Here’s what happened late last week between Will and Redford:

Yep, that’s Willie running away. He ran back about five feet, then turned and walked back toward Redford, with me encouraging him.  For reasons I don’t  understand, this time Redford turned and walked away.

And here’s what I really don’t understand. After that, every time, Will has won every interaction. Will walks forward with confidence, and Redford turns tail (now you know where that phrase came from!). I simply don’t know exactly what transpired between the two of them, but Will’s posture is now one of confidence as he approaches Redford. Only once, a few days later, did Redford turn to face Wilie and challenge him, and Will stood his ground, opened his mouth and snapped at the ram’s face. (Wish I had a photo of that!) That’s been all she wrote since then: Will stalks into the barn like Clint Eastwood, and Redford turns and walks away.

I’m not sure where Will’s confidence came from, although I do believe that being allowed to move freely when he felt threatened helped him gain some courage.  I didn’t correct him (Will) for running away at all, simply encouraged him to get back in, and I wonder if having the freedom to protect himself helped. (Although he’s always had that, I’ve never corrected him for running away when he was frightened.)

I am fascinated by the power of his increased confidence, and equate it with what we often call ‘presence’ in a human. People with ‘presence’ have so much power, but it is a quality that is hard to define and quantify, isn’t it?  And yet, hard as it is to quantify or identify, it seems to be something that is physical, a kind of physical manifestation of a self contained confidence in one’s self. I’ve seen other animals besides humans and dogs that I’d say have ‘presence,’ I’m thinking mostly of horses. And cats. Of course, cats! (Who could be better at it?)  Any one else? I’d love to know what you think.

Meanwhile, it’s brutally cold here. Beautiful, but cold. Two below this morning when I did the chores. I do love so much about winter, a cold, snowy day has an ethereal quality that is almost other wordly. There’s a purity and simplicity to it that is moves me in a way that is hard to describe. I’m reminded of the folks in Antarctica who talk about becoming addicted to the beauty of the place, when they’re taking about a place that is flat, white and black. Period. Sounds horrible… but, I think I understand something of what they feel; something about the primal nature of such purity that gets to you.

The lambs are doing incredibly well. Full, fat bellies all. I’ve been supplementing with goat’s milk, but the twins are becoming less and less interested. Snickers must be in full milk production, because they are thriving now, even in the cold.  I still can’t help but worry a bit; tomorrow it is expected to be 19 below, and that’s without the wind chill factor which is supposed to be dangerous because the winds are predicted to increase. Man, it’s cold enough now just at zero or so with a barely perceptible breeze.

Too cold for many photos (the camera battery froze before my fingers did, but it was a close call), but here’s one from this morning. Willie is getting the sheep up so that I can walk in with hay without getting run over. As he gets closer I’ll open the gate and spread their green, leafy hay out on the fresh snow. He’ll hold them off for me while I get it spread around, and then I’ll say “That’ll Do” (yes, Babe fans, we really do say that!) and we’ll both go back into the barn. He’ll sit at the gate to ewes with lambs while I freeze my fingers off smashing the ice out of their water buckets. I would never let him in with the ewes and lambs now; the ewes would be forced to attack to protect their lambs, and what’s the point?  So Will waits outside impatiently while I bottle feed and refresh the water buckets. Wish we could work the main flock more though… too much snow and oh yeah, too cold!

xx

xxxx:

Has it just been two days since Snicker’s lambs were born? Or two weeks? Here’s the good news: the lambs, at the moment anyway, are doing well. Here’s the bad news: since I last wrote, Snickers tried her best to kill the ewe lamb, both lambs got diarrhea, both lambs began bawling non-stop as lambs only do when they are not getting enough food, it sounded like the white lamb had pneumonia, my car threatened to break down so we had to drive it into Madison in a snowstorm at rush hour, and then go back in to get it at rush hour later that day.

I should start at the beginning. Having lambs at all in the depth of a Wisconsin winter can only be described as an agricultural whoopsie of major proportions. Our lambs are supposed to come in early April, when it’s warmer and the grass will be lush and green by the time the lambs are ready to leave the barn. It became apparent that this plan had a glitch when I noticed that Truffles and Snickers were, what can only be described as, rotund. Once their bags began to enlarge in December I knew we were in trouble. They were apparently bred by last year’s ram lambs, who couldn’t have been much over 3 months of age. I have never castrated the ram lambs.. it’s stressful on them (okay, me too) and intact ram lambs grow better than neutered ones. I’ve never had a problem with it, just moved the ram lambs away from the ewes in mid-August when the ewes started to cycle and the ram lambs became old enough to breed.

Well, that was then, and this is now. Truffles and Snickers are a new breed for me, 1/2 Katadhan and 1/2 Dorper, each of which is known to breed out of season. Little did I know that they are also shockingly precocious… the ram lambs that bred them (one of their sons no doubt, ouch) couldn’t have been much over 3 months of age. That’s equivalent of an 8 year old boy… well, never mind.

About two weeks ago it became clear that the lambs were coming soon. Truffles seemed to be coming due first, so I kept all the flock in the barn pen, assuming Truffles would have her lambs in a safe place, perhaps in the straw inside the barn where most of my ewes give birth. I came home from a movie (Milk, fantastic) to find a tiny white lamb standing outside in the sleet beside Truffles. I did not say “oh boy.” Truffles has always twinned, and I knew there should have been another lamb. Sure enough, I found a cold, wet body lying outside, a poor little dead lamb who would have been a lovely, beautiful lamb if he had lived. I have no idea what happened… did Truffles just not attend to it fast enough and it died of hypothermia? It seemed to be barely licked off, perhaps she got so busy with the first one that she ignored the second. Jim and I both felt sick about it. It wasn’t a good night. Raising animals teaches you a lot about the inevitability of death, but it still comes hard.

That was a week ago. Here’s the good news on the one that lived: He is huge now, fat and lively. I swear he’s doubled in size. It’s beginning to look like he is an albino. My my. Here he is at the milk bar.

On Thursday, Snicker’s bag filled up and I knew she’d be having her own lambs soon. Luckily I was working at home, and just happened to check the barn my way out to yoga. As I walked in, the little black ewe lamb slid out of Snicker’s onto the hay. Snickers seemed far more interested in the white ram lamb, who was already up and active, so I helped clean off the little ewe lamb while Snickers alternated between the two. When I left the barn they were both up and looking for milk. I came back about an hour and a half later, and found both lambs with warm mouths and milk in their bellies. That’s when I came to Black Earth and sent my last post (dial up at home… urrrrggggggh). When I returned, Snickers was busy smashing the ewe lamb around the pen, rejecting it as if it was an alien.

Since then she accepted the lamb, rejected her, accepted her again, rejected her again and finally, as of last night, decided that both lambs are indeed her lambs. Whew. Jim and I were working on building a ‘crush pen’ (no one is crushed, honest) that basically prevents the ewe from turning and butting away the lamb in hopes she’ll finally accept it. I spent a lot of time smearing the white lamb on the black one, in hopes that the smell would transfer enough so that she’d accept them both. (It’s all about smell if you’re a ewe.) We had also gone early Friday morning in the snow storm to a dear friend and country neighbor, who amazingly enough this time of year, had goat milk. The lamb had clearly, thank god, gotten enough clostrum, but was just as clearly in need of more food than she was getting. She took to the bottle easily, so we were able to start supplementing her yesterday. Good thing too, because last night, the white lamb was bawling his head off…. clearly wasn’t getting enough food. Soon he was joined by a bleating black lamb, and now we had two lambs starving, even though Snickers let them nurse. To cap it off they had a bad case of diarrhea and I didn’t like the way their lungs sounded. What else?

I treated them w/ Vit E and gave them medicine for scours (lamb trots) and we began bottle feeding both of them with goat milk. They need feeding every 3 hours. Suffice to say I didn’t get to bed very early last night.

This morning, glory hallelujah, Snickers was happily offering her bag to both lambs, they both had fat, full bellies and warm mouths. We’re still supplementing them, it seems the smartest thing to do. It’s supposed to get brutally cold, highs zero or lower, 15 below and windy at night. I want the lambs to put on as much weight as they can and develop a layer of fat (newborn lambs are little more than skn and bones… there must be muscle there because they stand up in minutes, but to say its minimal is a understatement.) If we can get enough food in them and get them stabilized they should be okay, but it’s hard not to be a bit concerned. Here are the twins now, trying to get milk out of the bottle by themselves:

One last photo, can’t tell you how good it is to see Snickers accepting this lamb! It is pathetic to watch a lamb only a few hours old being rammed away by its own mother. We are SO happy that Snickers had a change of heart……

Got to go… company for dinner, and time to finish the blueberry/raspberry pie…

More tomorrow, gotta run see how the lambs are doing. This photo was taken a few hours ago, when the black lamb in the back was about 10 seconds old… Both lambs were doing well when I left the farm about an hour ago, they were up in minutes and had nursed within 15 minutes of birth. Stay tuned!

This morning I tried to get a good photo of Redford confronting Will, but failed miserably. That’s great news… I couldn’t get the photo because every time Will walked within twenty feet of Redford, the ram turned and walked away. I did take a few photos, but my battery died so I can’t upload them for you. I’ll send some before the end of the week, of Will and sheep, and hopefully, of Snickers new lambs, if she ever, finally, gives birth. (We are calling her Explodo-Ewe at the moment.)

Truffle’s little white lamb is filling out like a champ. He’s got all the milk to himself and is growing like crazy. He has started what I call “popcorn” play, which is pretty much like it sounds. First there is a lamb standing still, then there’s a lamb leaping straight up into the air. Except in this case, the lambs twist their bodies a bit, land, run a few feet and do it again. It’s lucky the weather is warm (in the 20’s!) because it’s hard for me to leave the barn, he’s so much fun to watch.

I wanted to write more about Will, the ram and “power” in a herding dog, because it was herding dogs that taught me about ‘body blocks’ and ’space management’ in dog training. (See Other End of the Leash or Family Dog Training.) There is no question that different dogs have a different effect on the same sheep: some dogs seem to take charge from a long way away while others have to get much closer to get the same effect. If a dog has what handlers call ‘power,’ the sheep will look at the dog, turn their heads looking for the best route away from the dog and leave, even if the dog is a good distance away. Other dogs have to get much closer to get the same effect, or can even cause the same sheep to stand their ground or charge forward. When I first got into herding I thought the difference in the dog was in it’s posture… the more extreme the stalking posture, the more intense the effect? But it soon became clear that wasn’t it.

The biggest difference that is obvious to us is vector of the dog’s energy. Is the dog standing still but leaning forward, standing square over its 4 feet or leaning backwards, even an eighth of an inch or so? Biologists call movements and postures that always preceed an action “intention movements” and there’s no doubt in my mind that sheep can read where a dog is ready to go next: forward, to “take the space,” or backwards, to protect itself and get away. I show a video in many of my seminars that show 3 different dogs working the same group of cattle, and the difference in the reaction of the cattle is amazing. One, clearly fearful dog (tongue flicks, looks back to handler often, ears back, body leaning backward.. ready to run away) ends up with the cattle walking right up to him and sniffing his nose. The most confident dog walks forward with what can only be described as presence, and the cattle take one look at him and turn away. Dogs are brilliant at sensing these movements too, which is why we all need to be thoughtful about how we move around our dogs. You can use them to your advantage (teaching stay for example) or get into trouble by leaning forward toward a dog who is nervous around strangers.

Intention movements going forward or backward are just one factor in the interaction between sheep and dog. Some dogs are so strong that they worry sheep and can’t be used in small areas. Other dogs seem to take charge easily without scaring the sheep. Ideally, a dog is calm and confident, neither overly reactive but ready to win a confrontation if necessary. Some dogs seem to love confrontations, it makes other nervous. All of these things seem to be read by sheep, which makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Many prey animals in the wild behave comfortably around predators who are not hunting, but then immediately go on alert when the predators, lions for example, decide it’s time to stop lazing around and go hunting.

Willie clearly is nervous about direct confrontations. He tongue flicked a couple of times and ran back into the barn as soon as I said “that’ll do,” even though Redford never turned to challenge him.

Okay, he’s not the bravest dog in the world, but the fact that he tries as hard as he can and tries to work through his fears makes me love him even more. Besides, Redford apparently decided that he’s not worth challenging, at least not this morning, so I am pleased and proud that things are going in Will’s direction…

Now, if Snickers would just, PLEASE, have her lambs tonight!

Sorry no photos, battery is charging as I write!