Sheep Naming and Training

The girls are beginning to learn our ways.   Manners is one thing I mind about.  I hate bad mannered animals.  They are getting better about this – like respecting my space, eating nicely and absolutely no barging or pushing. I have taught them the word “back, back” and, to some extent, they have learned I mean it.

They are absolutely not allowed in the feed shed.  Everyone must wait outside.  One foot on the door frame results in being growled at (by me) and two feet results in being flapped on the nose with my glove .  It is almost more than Edna (the old one) can do but she is learning.  However, she, and Madge, are obssessed with food.  It is their reason to live.  Nothing else. I guess if you have been starved, then it is inevitable and hopefully, as they realise there is food readily available if you don’t push, barge or nag, they will relax more into our routine.

This is patient waiting and this gets barley rings.

They are filling out nicely now.

Madge is still nervous but will walk towards me and take a biscuit.  She is thinking all the time and is a worrier.

I am hoping, as they get healthier and fatter, that the goob around their eyes, which is welded on (believe me, I have tried) will fall off.  It is a secretion from the infraorbital (preorbital) pouch.

The Boyzens are being nicer to them too. ‘Bert is best friends with the girls because he reckons where they are, food may also show up.  He also loves their mineral lick. Ever the blagger.

And as for names….. well at the moment they are Edna (as in Dame Edna Everage) and Madge (her silent sidekick, Madge Allsop), though this is not written in stone and all suggestions are appreciated and will be considered.

I am pleased with the girls. They are learning our ways and no longer walk into the house/feed shed (very little difference these days) unasked.

The power of the ginger biscuit is mighty!

15 thoughts on “Sheep Naming and Training

  1. Linda Loba

    The girls are looking so healthy and fluffy! And yeah, I’d like to see different names for them, but unhelpfully I can’t think of any. I’ll work on it…

    Reply
  2. Sam

    We knew if my mom named a cat, it was staying, so Edna and Madge seem fitting. And as for learning manners, one should always assess the “Coin of the Realm” when needing to entice wayward beings into nice manners. Be that a ginger biccie or barley ring or chocolate.

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  3. Margaret Robinson

    I’m going to look up the names as they are not familiar to me. I do like them however, and since you named them, figure you know the Ladies best and that’s the names they should keep.

    Can see they all keep you quite busy, especially with the truly bad weather going about. Stay as dry and as warm as possible!

    Reply
  4. Louise Stopford

    Oh those girls are coming on a treat – they look really good now and are no doubt improving healthwise all the time. I love the names you have given them. I think Edna and Madge have really stuck and I hope you keep calling them that.

    Reply
  5. Deb

    Frances, how come Edna and Madge were starving? Don’t all the sheep live out in the scattold eating grass? Do others also starve, or do the ones that are claimed get extra feed?

    Reply
    1. Frances Post author

      I think they had been always kept round a house and lived off hard feed at some time and their bodies could not exist or adapt to sparse hill vegetation. There is very little grass this time of year so unless you put on weight in Spring/Summer, you will lose it very quickly in winter. The older one, Edna, has a “broken mouth” (lost teeth) so she struggles with hay/silage/grass. They lost weight also because we had three weeks after Christmas of perpetual storms. So the input of calories was not enough to keep them warm.

      Reply

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