# Another hurdle crossed



## carolinagirl (Mar 12, 2012)

I have two breeds of sheep....katahdins and barbados blackbelly sheep. With the exception of two of the adult blackbellies, none of these sheep had been around LGDs. I finally had to separate the two breeds because the flighty blackbellies were keeping all of the sheep in an uproar about the LGDs presence. If the dogs got anywhere near the sheep,they all freaked out and ran in a blind panic. So the blackbellies went to the front pasture and kats stayed in the pasture near the house. Over the past few months, the sheep got used to the dogs, the dogs learned to be calm around the sheep and I could finally leave them together 24/7. 

This weekend, we got a new pasture done. It's loaded with a nice healthy crop of rye grass and the other pastures needed a break so we decided to put all the ewes and the blackbelly ram in the new pasture...with both of the dogs. the sheep flocks quickly merged into one flock. I was curious if the kats would stay calm with the dogs and influence the blackbellies, or if the blackbellies would influence the kats to freak out about the dogs. 

I am thrilled to report that a cautious truce has been reached. The blackbelly sheep seem to accept the dogs and are staying calm, and the dogs are accepting these new sheep. When the sheep do startle and run, the dogs walk calmly behind and don't chase, and the sheep quickly calm back down. The blackbelly sheep are even allowing the dogs to sniff them.  It helps that the new ram came from a place that used LGDs, so I think his acceptance of these new dogs helped the other blackbelly sheep stay calm.  I am so happy that this is really working! 

The pups are really enjoying this new pasture.  It has a shallow pond (actually only rain-water runoff) so the pups spent hours chasing each other through the knee-deep water.  There is also some area where the grass is over their heads and they loved that!!


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