I have 3 herding dogs and they are a huge help. Though mine did not come trained.. For me with the dogs, the 8 foot alley was the thing I used most. I had it blocked off at about 12 feet in, so the sheep did not get a chance to run far. I had a wether who cleared a 5 foot gate standing in front of it when my dog spooked him.
At my new place, I built a 10 foot alley so I could get my truck through and it so far seems too wide to use for a catch pen. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of BF Morris Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 6:05 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [blackbelly] RE: Some tips on how to handle blackbelly sheep and enclosures Thankyou Mary. My wife is all for the dog idea. I'm not, because we have six mutts already!! ;) Brad ----Original Message Follows---- From: Mary Swindell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [blackbelly] RE: Some tips on how to handle blackbelly sheep and enclosures Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 11:04:58 -0600 Hi Brad, All the tips on shaking a can of grain, building narrow pens, sheds, etc., are good ideas. But in my opinion, nothing can replace the value of a good herding dog in gathering these Blackbelly sheep. I have two trained border collies which are invaluable to me and which I use every day. If you have a herding dog available, her or she can catch the sheep if the gates, chutes pens, and fences fail. If a sheep gets out on the road, you can send your dog to herd them back in and you can avoid having a catastrophe. If you need to hold a bunch close to you and gate-sort one or more of them into a separate area, the dog can help you do this. The dog can react much faster than a human, if some of the sheep start to bolt and run. A dog can gather in 5 minutes what it might take a human 2 hours (or more) to accomplish. The purchase price of a good trained herding dog and the additional effort to get yourself trained as a dog handler will often be the best investment you ever make. I know many livestock producers have developed stock handling methods that work just fine for them without utilizing dog(s), and I greatly admire their ingenuity. Just wanted to put my two cents' worth in, to tell how great it is to also have a stockdog! Sincerely, Mary Swindell At 08:05 PM 11/16/2003 -0700, you wrote: >Message: 4 >From: "BF Morris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 18:08:59 -0800 >Subject: [blackbelly] Some tips on how to handle blackbelly sheep and >enclosures >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Hello. We are new to this list and new to Blackbelly sheep. Last summer we >purchased two Blackbelly lambs and we really like them. We want to start a >flock for rasing our own meat. Having had these two for the last several >months has generated some questions that we would like to pose to this list >please. > >One of the first things we found out is that these animals are difficult to >handle as they are very quick and hard to catch. We are in the planning >stages of building enclosures just for these sheep and we wonder about >enclosure shape and size in relationship to this issue. We are in the >Southern California desert and have zero pasture(no rain here seldom) so >all >feed will be hay not graze in case this information is important. Is the >shape of the enclosure important in that it can be made to facilitate >easier >capture and control of the sheep? Would long narrow pens be a good idea for >herding the sheep down to one end when they need to be under control or >selected out and moved to other pens? How do you get control of your sheep? >I think we'll have many more questions and appreciate the help very much! >Thanks, Brad =============================================== This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list. To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly _________________________________________________________________ Send a QuickGreet with MSN Messenger http://www.msnmessenger-download.com/tracking/cdp_games =============================================== This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list. To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly =============================================== This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list. To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly
