Ivy Shows What She's Got

Today I let the new ewes outside along with the old ewes.

But before we did, we spent most of the morning setting up the electric fence behind the barn for them.

But somewhere along the way I did something wrong because there was no electricity getting to the line.  The sheep looked pretty content inside the fence so I felt safe to leave them long enough to go inside and youtube instructions and see where I went wrong.  Not fifteen minutes later as I was sitting in the office at my computer, I noticed something in my peripheral vision outside the bay window facing the front of our property.  It was my sheep.

Any other occassion this wouldn't panic me.  Ivy and I have worked together enough now that she knows that the end goal is to gather the sheep, get them behind me and walk them back to the barn.  But we have never worked with the new sheep.  They were older, bigger and probably smarter than me and Ivy.  After all Ivy is still a young pup just learning to herd.  She's still a kindergartner when it comes to herding.  And our small flock are small and weak, a fairly easy practice herd for a young sheepdog. But not those new girls, they were bigger and braver and would probably laugh in young Ivy's face.

But not owning any other herd dog, I grabbed Ivy and ran outside.  Just as we did, the new girls came running after our original ewes who had been the sheep I saw in the window.  The two herds were separated and couldn't see each other.  Thinking a small group would be easier for Ivy than a larger one, I immediately shouted my commands at her and she flew after the new and bigger ewes.

The above photo is actually not of Ivy herding the sheep but of her playing with the other dogs.  I never have a camera on me when there is something actually noteworthy to photograph.  But anyway, I digress, the new ewes didn't know what to think of Ivy as they had never been herded before.  They had only ever lived in a yard pen before.  Ivy sensed their confusion and came to a standstill in front of the leader of the herd and stared her down hard.  The sheep turned and bolted in the opposite direction.  I knew Ivy had gained their fear.  So I shouted my commands once more and she did as she always does except this time with a group of strange sheep she'd never herded before and did a top notch job of collecting them and bringing them back to the barn for me.  I was so happy and pleased with her but had no time to celebrate as we still had seven sheep on the run back at the front of the house.  We took after them and easy-peasy she herded them up and drove them back to the barn.  After latching the stall pen behind them I turned to her and lavished her with so much praise.  Probably not the thing to do with a working dog but I didn't care.  I was so proud of her.  And super glad we never let Oldest sell her because I couldn't do this shepherding thing without her.