This week I've started putting the sheep in the wooded lot. Since they are creatures of habit, that means haltering as many as I can and leading them past the pasture gate they are used to entering and into the "new" space. See jet-black Bing in there? Yep, I'm taking advantage of the situation to start his halter training.
Enjoy your freedom, Bloom and Bittersweet; your turn's coming!Later this morning while working at my computer, I heard a lamb's incessant call (good thing my window was open!). I went to investigate and found Bing with his head caught in the fence:
Another very good reason to have smooth-polled Shetlands!Our record-breaking heat wave is over, and it is cool and overcast. The rain hasn't started yet, but there's already a "puddle" (of cherry blossoms) on the driveway:
I'm not at all blue about the weather change
because our pink flowering cherry is bursting into bloom!
That's it for today from . . .
11 comments:
Poor Bing. Funny how they can always get their heads thru the fence and then scream because they cannot figure out how to back out. I often have goats that have a piece of pvc pipe duct taped to their horns, looking like something from outer space, but keeps them from getting caught in the fences. I use a small size pvc cut about 2 inches wider than fence openings and duct taped half way up on back side of their horns.
I'm jealous that you can halter your Shetlands!Mine run to avoid me everytime I enter the pen.
HI Michelle,
I would like to halter train some of our lambs this summer. Any tips as I've never done it before :-)
Still waiting for my fleece...Canada Post has not updated the track# in days!!
My halter trained sheep hound me relentlessly at feeding time and have real issues with the "my space~your space" concept. :)
Lovely rams and beautiful shots of the flowers.
Trust me; most of mine don't walk up and offer their heads to be haltered! But once haltered, most DO lead nicely.
I "just do it," Jody. I adjust a halter to fit (I love the Mallon adjustable alpaca halters), put it on, and preferably lead them with the whole flock (like in the photo) so they WANT to go where I'm leading them. I also tie them to a fence in a grassy spot and let them learn that they aren't able to escape the restraint, then I work on leading intersperse with lots of scritches. I don't use treats, for treats seem to create VERY pushy sheep like Kelly refers to in her comment.
OK - I'm laughing here, because that first photo looks like a dog-walker, only with sheep :-D
City girl, country girl.... :-)
We really need to start do this with our new lambs don't we?
Ok, just checked out the Mallon Halters. What sizes would you recommend for my ewes and lambs? Thanks!
Kim, I use the small alpaca size for lambs and the adult alpaca size for my ewes. I just ordered two medium llama sized halters for my two bigger rams; the adult alpaca size is too small for them. Not sure how that translates for Jacobs; they are a little bigger than Shetlands.
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