Lambing  

Each day in the spring, lambing erupts with great fervor. Little packets of new sheep decorate the pasture as the grass turns green with the new warmth of the sun. It is a busy time of year, but dog training must go on as well.

Pat is my right hand man at the dog training.  She has a great sense in how training should be done and who needs help. It is uncanny how she can pick out a novice dog within seconds and take command upon the situation.

With new outside training dogs, I usually let Pat hang out and help when needed. Sometimes she would be happy lying next to the gate, while at other times, she felt her presence was needed. Most of the time, she was correct in her assumption of duties.

This brings us back to lambing. During lambing, I hate to move the newborn babies until they are a few days old. Since I still need to train dogs, I usually leave them at the bottom of the pasture, about 400 yards away.   Sometimes there are as many as 6-8 ewes with their babies at the bottom of the pasture.

This day, I had ewes at the bottom of the  pasture as well. Pat was helping me with the training, and keeping the training sheep in the proximately that I needed for each dog. Unfortunately, this day, I told Pat to stay and the training sheep got away. They bolted to the end of the field to be with the ewes with their newborn lambs. I had 5 training sheep among the 6 ewes with their new babies.

Well, I was mad at myself for letting the sheep get away. I should have watched the situation better, but lost the training sheep. Pat looked at the situation and took off. As with many times with Pat, I first thought of telling her no and going down and sorting the training sheep off. This would have been complicated and taken quite a while. But my gut instinct said let her go…the worst that could happen would be that I would have to go down there and sort them.

Pat immediately focused in on the training sheep. They were trying to hide among the ewes and lambs, but she spotted them immediately and took control. Meanwhile, I was 400 yards away with my young pup watching. She knew which sheep were the training sheep and sorted them off the ewes on her own. She left the ewes and lambs and within just a few minutes, I had my 5 training sheep. She thought nothing of this and continued on like nothing happened.

Fourth of July

The Partner at Home

Lana's Pups

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