Well today started off with – joy of joys – a puncture. So before we could visit the sheep at Sheepcote Valley, the tyre had to be changed by the very nice man at the AA. Thank you to the person who left a 3″ nail in the road that caused the problem.
Now Georgie and Jessie have met sheep before. We had a ‘dog-friendly’ holiday in Scotland – on a sheep farm. This was the one piece of information missing from the description and had we known, we wouldn’t have gone there.
On the first morning of our holiday, we’d let Georgie and Jessie into the front garden, which we assumed was safe and enclosed, only to find the whole area around the house surrounded by sheep. By that time it was too late, the two species had met and two dogs and two sheep ended up in the sea. Everyone survived but after that, the dogs had to be tied up on long leads whenever they went into the garden.
Here they are in the amazing ‘front garden’ of our holiday home safely tied to the picnic table.
So when I discovered that sheep were being brought in to graze our local patch I thought it was an opportunity to do the ‘sheep thing’ again.
It was a while before the dogs noticed them. But when they did, the same excited barking started and Georgie, especially, thought she had new friends to play with.
What I didn’t tell the dogs was that there was a low voltage electric fence surrounding the grazing area. Sure enough, both dogs got too close and both got zapped. And this was actually what I wanted. Not pleasant I know but certainly effective and I’m hoping they’ll now make the association between sheep and that nasty shock they got today.
I may go back tomorrow and see if they remember. Probably not an ideal way to cement a life long friendship, but one way of making my dogs just a little more respectful of sheep then they were.
Well, lessons have to be learned, and society often decides what’s out of limits. It’s always the best scenario when our dogs ask us first and act later, but when scenario two takes place (which happens quite often, doesn’t it) with instincts going before any human consultation whatsoever, you’re happy there is a lesson learned at the end…
Over here in West Africa, I had the chance to teach Sheba at an early age that people’s yards are out of bounds. Since she is careful not to put herself in a situation where she is one against a pack of humans (without my support), any goat chase that takes place normally ends at the gate. And if she does venture inside, she knows very well what she’s doing and it only takes a minute before she comes out with a big smile as in “oh but you know I wasn’t going to take them down for REAL, lol!”
That first photo is beautiful. Makes me want to pack up my dogs and head to England!