A Marathon day!

Today is the first official day of the school holidays here, and we've already been flat out.

Today was the day to drench all of the ewes, and to bring the older lambs (and ram) up into a pen (mainly to keep them out of the way lol).

The job fell to Jock to bring the lambs and ram up first. The ram has been worked many times, but this was only the second time for the lambs. Obviously the telling off they got from Jock yesterday carried some weight because they all stayed together today. He had the job done within about 5 minutes of starting, which is a record.

Next we had to bring the ewes and lambs up. That involved fetching them out of a paddock, pushing them through two more and into a small paddock that has the yard. Then get them all into the yard. Again, Jock did this beautifully. He pushed steadily and got the job done.

The best part is, the work I had done with him about 2 months ago on "driving" has paid off, because today he was walking about 6 feet ahead of me, and about 15 feet to my left pushing the sheep into the yards, whilst I got ready with the panel to close in behind them. It was done perfectly!

Jock is still rather too enthusiastic when it comes to the sheep, and gets in too close, however he does get the job done.

I am going to have to work on a few things with him though. First he needs to stop trying to bolt off around the sheep when we first get into the paddock. I want him to wait until I am ready, so that's step one.

Number 2 is, when the training pen is put back up, I'm going to spend quite a bit of time getting Jock to widen out. He's coming in really close now and it's no good for working the lambs, so he HAS to back off.

That'll be worked on over time in the Spring and Summer, which is still a couple of months away!

So, thanks Jock for your help today, and to my husband and kids for their help as well. The best part is (I think), is we get to do it all again in a weeks time! Hopefully next time I'll be able to supply photo's.