Rialey on Sheep

 It's been a cold, wet winter and our pastures are not the greatest. I've been trying to get the sheep in the backyard occasionally so that they can munch on the weeds and clover that tend to grow back there. Plus, free lawn fertilizer!

   I decided to take advantage of the flock being in a closed space to work the new puppy, Rialey, on sheep.

   I put a harness and a long line on the girl to keep things from getting too out of hand.

   At her age, we are working on very simple things. Walking up to the sheep to get them moving, walking behind them, and calling off the flock and back to me. Rialey got lots of praise and treats for doing all these things calmly.

 We also worked a bit on learning to go around the flock to turn them back toward me. Again, the emphasis was on calm and confident movement.

  Rialey even had to face off against an angry Maggie who decided she needed to defend her lamb against the new wolf cub. I was ready to swoop in and defend my youngster, but Rialey faced down that angry ewe with a couple of her deep, growly woofs and that momma turned tail and got back in the flock!