Thanks everyone for your input. "Sally" is the top dog in my small herd and she makes sure everyone else knows it. We are definitely not afraid of her, she just tends to get a little too excited with the play. I think the water bottle is a great idea if I see her not backing down. She does not head butt me for no reason...it is our interaction with her that causes it. I have already quit encouraging her to play and she seems calmer so I'll keep on that course. Thanks again. Dayna. ----- Original Message ----- From: Carol J. Elkins Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 11:57 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [blackbelly] Aggressive behavior in female Hi Dayna,
It is normal for a female sheep to head-butt other sheep. They do it for
fun and also to establish hierarchy. None of my ewes has ever tried to butt
me personally, and I would not tolerate it if she did. With rams, head
butting is discouraged by ensuring that the ram is afraid of you. I would
imagine that you would need to do the same thing with your ewe. This goes
against the grain because most of us try very hard to earn the trust of our
ewes so that we can handle them easier. Deliberately doing anything to
cause them to fear us feels like a set-back. But if you believe that the
ewe might ever physically harm you or your husband or children, then you
might want to perhaps take a squirt gun or spray bottle out with you and
use it anytime you see butting behavior emerging. Hopefully, your ewe will
learn that it is the bottle/gun that she should fear rather than you
personally and perhaps not develop any avoidance behavior.
I'm curious if anyone else on the list has a ewe that tries to butt them.
Carol
At 08:39 PM 9/18/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>What is "normal" aggression from a female Barbados? She wants to head butt
>(?) with myself and my husband, which we thought was a form of play with
>her but I'm not really sure?
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