The day was wet and extremely muddy, but Kay and Bronwen had the work done in style
Today was busy with sheep gathering. First, a bunch of ewes needed to be moved along the lane to a new field and to join another flock. Then all the sheep were put through the race for ultrasound scanning (to see how many lambs they’re expecting).
Choosing the dog for the task
Kay did the road work and the gathering in the field, because she’s so skilled, but I decided to use young Bronwen to put the ewes through the sorting race. It was a good decision too. Kay won’t face an aggressive sheep, but Bronwen seems to love it. As you can see from the picture, with several ewes trying to “stare her down” she simply lay down and looked back at them.
Bronwen’s excellent in these situations. In the past she was too quick to attack the sheep without any need, but she’s more confident now. Bronwen’s “nip” is reserved for ewes who turn on her. You can see more about Bronwen and her training in the tutorial series “Bronwen and Scylla“.
Around the farm there seemed to be liquid mud everywhere. A railway bridge on the farm land is under repair, and the contractors are making a terrible mess. After Kay had gathered the first bunch of sheep, I put her back in the 4×4 to conserve her energy and, once again, used Bronwen to push the sheep through the race for scanning.
Bronwen rises to the job
Bronwen was simply superb, quietly weaving back and forth behind the sheep to keep them up to the sorting race. The picture above has two powerful messages. I can trust Bronwen to bring the sheep up through the race by herself, leaving me free to help at the sorting or scanning end. It’s useful to have an extra pair of hands to keep the sheep moving steadily along the race and prevent them getting jammed together.
The picture also demonstrates Bronwen’s courage. The sheep are pregnant and they don’t like having dogs around, let alone being moved by them. The ewes in the picture are threatening Bronwen. They mean business, but once again she’s simply staring back at them with her head up. I do like a dog who works with its head up – that’s a confident dog. Some people love to see dogs with their head right down when they work sheep. I agree it looks stylish, but in my opinion a dog who works that way is anxious.
A dog won’t learn in the pickup!
After this bunch had been scanned Bronwen returned them to their field, and gathered the next group. It wasn’t as smooth as Kay would have done it, but Bronwen won’t learn flock work while she’s sitting in the back of the car. She got the job done reasonably well, and she’ll do better next time. For more about flock work, and training dogs on a flock, see our “Flock Work” tutorial.
While the sheep were going through the sorting race, I spotted this one with a distinctive “hair do”, while the sheep in the picture above is distinctive for being remarkably strong-willed and physically tough.
You can see by her face that she’s determined and she proved it today. But Bronwen was tougher!
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