Find me a good dog.
Tuesdays are always interesting in my world.
On Tuesday I get home and no humans are around. Nope. Just me and anywhere from 6 to 8 dogs. Honestly, normally Heidi has taken Bea to work with her, and Dove will spend the day with her pal Bill and his two Goldens.
So generally there are 6. And FIVE of them are NUT BAGS~! (guess which one is the saint... Gabe of course..)
Also, Tuesdays I get the chance to just do farm chores on my own and get things accomplished without supervision. That sounds nice... but sometimes you need a bit of help.
Often it's the sheep that flummox me. Most certainly once they ballooned from 6 sheep to like 30! It's difficult for one human to get 30 sheep to do most anything. Unless you're the human named Heidi. They'll so ANYTHING for her!
Anyway... with SIX possible helpers, you'd think I could move some sheep. I've used Fred before and it worked ok, but he's a big fan of eating sheep poo and wasn't really much more than arm candy (in the eyes of the sheep).
Hot Pie is actually somewhat learned on sheep. But he and I have large black holes in communication! So the one time when I really needed him it ended up being 30 min of disaster as he just pushed them all over the property and never to the barn. Sigh... that was one frustrating afternoon.
So, time to try out someone else. But who?? Rumble is MORE of a poo eater than even Fred!
Razor?? Razor likes to bother the sheep through the fence. Not cool. But certainly dog-like. And the sheep aren't big fans of him. So I put him on a leash and took him down to the back of the pasture to move the sheep all the way up to the barn. They would have to go through a zig-zag of small gate openings, and NOT stop to graze on areas they're not allowed in and FRIGGIN ALL STAY close together! Nearly 30 of them!
Razor was also interested in the poo. But I think more because he was nervous about what I might be asking him to do. We walked down to the sheep and they all bunched up nicely. Then we hopped over the fence (good jumping Raze!) and came in behind them. He woke up then. He got to the end of the leash and eye'd them nicely. They responded perfectly and trotted ahead of us all the way down to the barn. At one point they started to stop to eat, and he just woofed! and they got going again.
We were 20 yards away from them when they went through the barn gate. Often when I try to do this the sheep will come back out the gate and then I gotta round them all up again. NOT this time. Nope... they stayed in and even squished into the far north corner to stay away from the Mighty Razor! hahahaha.
It was quick and easy!
Next time I'll put him in a harness. He pulled on his neck a bit too much with all the excitement. He did eat poo (damn it raze!) but the sheep sure listened and moved nicely for me, unlike when I try to do it alone.
Maybe I found my helper? Maybe...
Pic by Heather.
On Tuesday I get home and no humans are around. Nope. Just me and anywhere from 6 to 8 dogs. Honestly, normally Heidi has taken Bea to work with her, and Dove will spend the day with her pal Bill and his two Goldens.
So generally there are 6. And FIVE of them are NUT BAGS~! (guess which one is the saint... Gabe of course..)
Also, Tuesdays I get the chance to just do farm chores on my own and get things accomplished without supervision. That sounds nice... but sometimes you need a bit of help.
Often it's the sheep that flummox me. Most certainly once they ballooned from 6 sheep to like 30! It's difficult for one human to get 30 sheep to do most anything. Unless you're the human named Heidi. They'll so ANYTHING for her!
Anyway... with SIX possible helpers, you'd think I could move some sheep. I've used Fred before and it worked ok, but he's a big fan of eating sheep poo and wasn't really much more than arm candy (in the eyes of the sheep).
Hot Pie is actually somewhat learned on sheep. But he and I have large black holes in communication! So the one time when I really needed him it ended up being 30 min of disaster as he just pushed them all over the property and never to the barn. Sigh... that was one frustrating afternoon.
So, time to try out someone else. But who?? Rumble is MORE of a poo eater than even Fred!
Razor?? Razor likes to bother the sheep through the fence. Not cool. But certainly dog-like. And the sheep aren't big fans of him. So I put him on a leash and took him down to the back of the pasture to move the sheep all the way up to the barn. They would have to go through a zig-zag of small gate openings, and NOT stop to graze on areas they're not allowed in and FRIGGIN ALL STAY close together! Nearly 30 of them!
Razor was also interested in the poo. But I think more because he was nervous about what I might be asking him to do. We walked down to the sheep and they all bunched up nicely. Then we hopped over the fence (good jumping Raze!) and came in behind them. He woke up then. He got to the end of the leash and eye'd them nicely. They responded perfectly and trotted ahead of us all the way down to the barn. At one point they started to stop to eat, and he just woofed! and they got going again.
We were 20 yards away from them when they went through the barn gate. Often when I try to do this the sheep will come back out the gate and then I gotta round them all up again. NOT this time. Nope... they stayed in and even squished into the far north corner to stay away from the Mighty Razor! hahahaha.
It was quick and easy!
Next time I'll put him in a harness. He pulled on his neck a bit too much with all the excitement. He did eat poo (damn it raze!) but the sheep sure listened and moved nicely for me, unlike when I try to do it alone.
Maybe I found my helper? Maybe...
Pic by Heather.