Sheep are stupid animals. Sheep don't learn too easily. Sheep have only 2 speeds - grazing and stampede.
Where does that leave the sheepdogs? Mostly wondering why bother?
We keep sheep on our pasture for friends most of the summer, and over the last fifteen years I have learned a few things:
1. Sheep are followers with limited leaders;
2. Sheep can be gotten to follow any leader that says or does what they are looking for (rattle an empty bucket and they think they are getting fed ... look out they don't run you over, or pull up with the trailer and they think they are going to fresh pasture and stampede in for the trip);
3. Sheep are afraid of running water unless you work hard to train them - They will drink from the same old stale puddle for weeks, but keep a hose trickling into a stock tank with good water and they would rather die of thirst than drink);
4. Sheep will blindly follow the shepherd. The way to become their shepherd is to pamper and care for them for a day or two, and after that you can abuse them endlessly and they will keep following and begging for more;
5. Once sheep find a leader in their flock they will follow it until it is removed. Even if you can change the leader's behavior the rest of the flock will continue to follow them. And, the leader is typically the dumbest and most dangerous in the group. The biggest problem we have is ewes that will jump a four foot fence and the rest follow ... I have been instructed to keep a rifle with me while sitting on the deck and drop the first one over the fence. Sounds drastic, but if I do it in April we keep the ewes in all summer, and if I don't we fight them till winter barn time comes;
6. I have touched on this but more directly, sheep are easily deceived. A wild dog (or pack) or coyotes can slowly and calmly walk into the flock without trouble and then wildly feed.
This is just a short list, but I hope Shepherd ... er ... I mean President Obama enjoys deceiving his flock and leading us all astray
