Funniest thing that has happened while training?

[kelpiegirl]

I thought this might be a great topic. I have one, just one, to write about- although, I am sure there are many, but this one will always rule.

 

So.... Lucy was just 8 months old- her first time on sheep. We had her in a small paddock, trailing a line- you know, just in case we needed to catch her... Anyway, we were doing some balance work, serpentines, nothing big, but lots of me following trainer, staying out of his way, and watching my dog. Dog does a quicky little flank, and then another in the same direction. We were busy trying to get her to stay out and change direction. Oookay, then boom- at the same time we both lose our footing, we are both falling- into- eachother. The dog hog tied us. We were ready for a three legged race! So, we both start laughing heartily, which only served to make the dog be crazier, and boom down we went. I have not laughed that hard in a long time. Thanks Luce.

[Carson Crazies]

Most of the funniest moments come from June. Early on we were taking a set of sheep from a training field over to a holding pen at a friend's farm. I was (duh) walking backwards, because at that point I didn't trust her a whole lot, and managed to trip over a short post in the ground (maybe 1' tall). I landed flat on my back in a pile of what appeared to be mud and other things - and wound up with the ick from my heels to the back of my head. Needless to say I had to ride home on a towel.

 

Other than that, most recently the lambs were making a break for it and June actually covered them. You'd have to know June to know why this was so significant, and to know why I threw a little bit of a happy party for her. She promptly launched herself into the air and onto the backs of the sheep. Don't know that I've ever seen THAT move before.

[juliepoudrier]

Here's the best I can come up with, although it wasn't while I was training (I have had my share of falling over things while walking backward though, but luckily never ended up covered in any sort of ick). And it wasn't too funny at the time, though I was laughing about it shortly thereafter. Laura was here working sheep I think, and I had put the rest of the flock out into the unfenced pasture to graze. Somehow by the time we got done doing everything, it was dark and I still needed to get the rest of the flock back. So I went to the gate at the bottom of the pasture and sent Twist to bring the flock. Because it was dark, I wanted to control who came through the gate so I could count heads as they entered and make sure I had everyone. BIG MISTAKE. The gate is in a corner, and opens away from that corner. So here comes my best dog, pushing the flock at 90 mph right into me. Since it was dark I didn't see them till they were actually on top of me, and the tidal wave of sheep pushed me into the brace wires on the corner post. While being slammed against the braces, somehow my large dorper wether managed to get his head between my legs, and the next thing I know I'm going for a ride. All I could think about at the time was the pile of logs nearby that I was sure to be impaled on when I finally fell off. So picture my wild ride on the big dorper, screaming at my best open dog to "lie down, get back!" hoping I'm not killed before I can get myself back onto solid ground. I did finally fall off, but missed the woodpile thank goodness. Needless to say, I gave up on the idea of counting heads at the gate and just opened it wide and let them all barrel through....

 

J.

[Shoofly]

Oh man, i hate sheep riding like that! It's one sure way for a sheep at my farm to work its way onto the cull list - stick that head between my knees more than once and you're gone. The worst ride i've ever had was working one of Joan's dogs one time - her 3 legged Jake dog. Had a big old wether pick me up *backwards* and go running along. My legs were too short to reach the ground and here we were tearing around with a 3 legged dog following along. I can just imagine what that looked like!

[juliepoudrier]

Robin,

That had me laughing out loud! Too bad we don't have a video of it. Tee hee...

 

J.

[ItsADogsLyfe]

My not so funniest thing was also not really during training. I have had my share of backwards falling and having to deflect sheep off me. But I had to gather about 10 large Rambouilett ewes in a large pasture at night. This field sloped uphill and I was down at the bottom. I sent my dog and it was so dark that after he was only a few yards away I couldn't see him anymore. He came back twice and I sent him a 3rd time reassuring him there were sheep at the top. He was gone for a while and I was just standing there in the dark when I could hear thundering hooves coming at me. I had a few choice words for my stupidity at that moment but fortunately none of the sheep bowled me over. Never send your dog for sheep in the dark.

And there was also the time I sent my dog after a flock that had knocked over a fence and were in the horse pasture (a ranch I worked at). I sent my dog away and noticed while he took off away he then started crossing over straight back up the incline. I called him back and sent him again..a bit more sternly...he did the same thing. I called him back again and let him know I was not happy with his cutting back over as I had no idea where the sheep had gone and couldn't see them so I thought I'd send him on the fence line so he could pick them all up. This was a steep hill with rocky outcrops and lots of brush. I finally walked over to see why he was cutting back and lo and behold there was a 15 foot dropoff down into a wash..heheh...stupid handler, smart dog. #2 lesson...never send your dog over a cliff. After I let him go and pick his own way he gathered all the sheep up on top of that hill, fetched them back down to the bottom of the hill, inbetween the horses legs, past the huge goat with horns and right to me. I'm so glad my dog is smarter than me.

[Bo Peep]

Nothing like going to a clinic when you've raised & trained dogs before only to have your 7 month old dog drag you out of a lawn chair or climb a fence when you are trying to show that you "actually have knowledge" in sheep dogging and just need a little more settling in- LOL

Most embarrassing moment-not really

Dogs humble you.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I've lost count. I think I'm desensitized to actual embarassment so I don't really register these incidents anymore. The early stuff sticks in my mind more.

 

Let's see, there was the time very early, when my Trim dog was training. She was pretty blase about working sheep and had troubles with covering, so we did a lot of fetching and wearing.

 

Well, suddenly she out of the blue got a notion she LIKED working sheep, and she ran the sheep over top of me on a fetch, flattening me. I was about 80 pounds lighter then so a fall was not so serious. I did sprain my elbow and it hurt like heck, but instead of thinking - "Well, here I am, alone, no way to get to a doctor or contact anyone, this sucks," I was yelling, "Yay! Good job Trim!"

 

So Trim caught on that working the sheep to me was the point of the game, and brought them back. I had seventy large wool ewes at that time and I was working about half of them. I was still sitting on the ground.

 

I watched them come back and was thinking, "Don't panic. Don't make her think you are upset or you'll screw up what you just got going."

 

I panicked.

 

"LIEDOWNLIEDOWNLIEDOWN!" I screamed.

 

I was using my squeaky flyball voice and Trim just got more excited - "Bringing sheep! That's the game! Here they are!"

 

I was flattened again and I was becoming certain I had broken something. I decided it was time to get upset.

 

"TRIIIIIIIIIM! YOU!!! LIEDOWN!"

 

She ignored me again and we repeated this about three more times. I had ewes that topped 200 pounds at the time and I think every one of them aimed for me.

 

It was actually not the yelling that finally stopped her, but the fact that I caught her eye through the oncoming crowd of stampeding legs. I crawled to her and kept repeating shakily, "Good girl, lie down, good girl, lie down." She said, "Yup. I'm a good girl. I bring sheep! Want me to do it again?"

 

As a postscript to this story I was able to drive myself to the clinic and it turned out that I only had a sprained elbow. I had a really good time explaining what caused the injury. Although not nearly as fun as the time I strained my back pushing a porta-jon out of the mud.

 

Let's see, there was also the time I was unloading a ram, and for some reason, even though my dog wasn't even out yet, he ran across a dam and jumped in a pond. We waited but he just stood there in the shallow end. Finally, I let me dog out to see what he'd do.

 

He ran around and eyeballed the ram for a moment. The ram simply looked back at him. Then he leaped out and jumped on his head, pushing him under the water. He did that a couple more times and the ram decided the water was not a smart idea after all. He came out and let Rick fetch him back to us. We were laughing so hard we were falling over and could hardly work the gate that needed to be opened and Rick had to wait for us to calm down before putting the ram up.

[kelpiegirl]

The ram thing- what a smart dog- I can just see him saying "So mr big shot ram, you WANT to stay in the water? You like the water? Well, here's MORE water for you!!!" Another video moment.

[NancyO]

My funniest moment didn't even involve dogs! We were over a friend's farm trimming hooves. There were 3 of us in a 12x12 stall with a bunch of sheep. It was my turn to sit on the bucket and trim and hold the sheep and Nancy M's turn to catch the sheep. As she was trying to catch the sheep, she ended up riding it backwards, as only Nancy M can, in her ride she and the sheep hit me while I was sitting on the bucket, knocking me onto the ground and knocking my hoof trimmers out of my hand. The trimmers flew thro the air and imbedded themselves deeply into the oak boards of the stall. We were all laughing so hysterically that it took a very long time till we could continue.

 

Somehow my best stories are when trimming feet

 

I had a large dorset lamb (about 100lbs) that was limping and had the brillant idea to be lazy and have my Ben dog just hold all the sheep in a corner of an alleyway to me (about 50 sheep) and I would find the limper and just tip her. So I set my trimmers on the post (after knowing from the above experience how dangerous they can be) and got ahold and tipped this very large dorset lamb. With her firmly held between my thighs, I realized my trimmers were just out of my reach. So I took one step to the right. Stepped on a rock, lost my balance and fell over onto the ground into the other 49 sheep with the very large lamb still firmly held between my legs.

 

Of course all the other sheep spooked and started to run, towards Ben who was valiantly trying to stop them. I am laying on the ground, with said sheep still firmly held between my thighs, yelling to Ben " LET THEM GO!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET THEM GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I finally realize I will not be able to get up with the sheep still between my legs, so let her go. Fool that I am, I decide to try again. So have Ben gather and hold all the sheep to me again, tipped the same lamb, found out it was the wrong lamb after all! Trimmed her feet anyway and then got and did the limper.

 

Next day I had to go for my bone density scan, they asked me if I was having any problems. I was laughing so hysterically that I could barely say to them, "Well if I didn't break my hip yesterday when I fell with a sheep between my legs, I guess my bones aren't too brittle!"

 

I can't even imagine what they thought!

 

Nancy O

[Marilyn T]

AHHHH trimming feet. I was triming feet, kind of like a farrier trims horses. Picking up one leg, and trimming, then the next. The ewe jerked just as I positioned the trimmers and I stabbed myself in the crook of my left arm. Now, I didn't think it was all that bad, so I went up to the house, cleaned it up and put on a pressure bandage. About an hour later, Wendy V came by, and asked what was going on, and I showed her... still bleeding, with some 'meat' hanging out. Boy did I catch hell for not going into emergency. Well, when I got there, I was a bit embarassed to admit how I had done this to myself, so I was kinda vague about it. I live in suburbia, and this was an Ann Arbor Hospital. The next thing I knew, I was being interrogated about domestic violence and if I felt safe at my home! I then had to fess up to how I did it, which resulted in everyone in Emergency parading past to check out the suburban farmer who had sheep!!!!. The Doc put in three stitched, but I swear my vet could have done a better job. Just one of my 'moments'.

[L and M Ranch]

One of the funniest/most embarassing moments I've had wasn't during training but at a trial. It was when I had just moved up to PN and was at a fairly good sized field trial. It was out here in the "sticks" but they had a little building set up for a concession stand. There were tables out in front where people could sit and eat as well. There was a short chunk of snow fence up between the post and it. Well, my dog decided on the drive that he'd had about enough listening to me and proceeded to head the sheep up the hill well past the end of the snow fence. I left the post to get after him and he thought it would be fun to see if he could keep the sheep away from me at all cost! He ended up taking the sheep (not overly fast) right through all the tables where everyone was sitting and park them in front of the concession stand door. I wanted to crawl in a hole and pretend it was someone else's dog right then!

[sheepandakom]

I then had to fess up to how I did it, which resulted in everyone in Emergency parading past to check out the suburban farmer who had sheep!!!!. The Doc put in three stitched, but I swear my vet could have done a better job. Just one of my 'moments'.

 

 

I have a pretty scar on my right index finger from a pair of hand shears. Last fall, one of my dogs gripped and left a pretty good mark on one of my best show flock ewes. I wanted to clean her up and make sure she was OK. I got out the "brand new" aka "extra sharp" hand shears to trim away the excess wool around her leg so I could get a better look at the bite. I didn't want to cut the ewe, so I pulled the wool away from her and proceeded to snip. I then turned to my boyfriend who had been watching me and said "I think I cut my hand". I was calm about it, so he didn't think it was that bad until he got a better look at it. He ended up hauling me to the emergency room filthy and smelling like sheep in my work pants and rubber boots. I can only imagine what everyone thought of me, but I'm glad that Michael happened to be over when it happened because I might not have gone to the emergency room. The end result was 7 stitches and a very careful bath when I finally got home.

[Sue R]

Never send your dog for sheep in the dark.

 

Somewhat similar advice should have been given to me with regards to sending my dog for a couple of dozen weanling Angus steers and heifers in the dark. Just about the time I heard the hoofbeats (they were eager for their dinner), I realized that I had not approached doing the evening feeding chore in the smartest possible fashion. Luckily, young stock both see and smell better in the dark than I do.

 

Well, suddenly she out of the blue got a notion she LIKED working sheep, and she ran the sheep over top of me on a fetch, flattening me.

 

At the Virginia State Fair a couple of years back, a very kind gentleman insisted on shutting the handler/dog entry/exit gate (combined with the sheep exhaust gate) for me. Too bad they'd let out the new batch of sheep before the gate was closed, and they made a dash for the exhaust gate, with one making it through and taking me out at the knee at a dead run. As one handler said, "I didn't know a person's leg could go back that far". It couldn't without serious damage, I found out.

 

As I lay in the dust, my dear Celt dashed back into the arena to fetch me the other two sheep. I was crying and yelling "lie down" and "that'll do", and praying he wouldn't get those two sheep through the exhaust gate before it closed because they would be across my back like tire marks on a drag track.

 

Embarassing, and one of the most painful things I've ever experienced, but we did take 3rd in our class. Bless Laurie etc. (on these boards) who got me up and out of the dirt, and helped me to my car, blubbering mud all over her nice clean shirt all the way.

 

Truly embarassing, though, was the time we finished a Novice run quite nicely, and Celt dove into the sheep when I released them from the pen and came as close to gripping as I've ever seen him do. That certainly erased the minor euphoria of completing the course reasonably well. Pride goeth before a fall...

[stockdogranch]

Mine's kind of like Marilyn's...I was teaching a young dog to grip, holding a wooly sheep just behind the jowls on either side of her head. Without gloves. Anyway, the young dog jumped up to take a really nice hit just as the ewe turned her head to the side. I ended up with a nice gash in my left forearm just above the wrist--it looked pretty deep and was bleeding a LOT. First, all I could say was, "good boy!!!" I had to let him know he had done exactly as I asked. I was by myself, so I drove the 20 minutes to the ER with my left arm out the truck window, bent at the elbow (above the heart, you know). Of course, I wouldn't tell them my own dog had bitten me, so I made up a story about an old T post with a ragged edge...they bought it. Seven stitches later, home I went. Ever since, I ALWAYS wear gloves and long sleeves, AND have a better grip on the sheep when doing this trick,

A

[DeltaBluez Tess]

>>old T post with a ragged edge<<

 

 

I have a few of those *special type of grips...oh, I mean T post holes myself*

 

Diane

[kelpiegirl]

When I got my leg broke by that sheep, I remember the nurse in the ER looking at my knee, and asking me what happened. I said "I got hit by a sheep". Well, apparently, she thought I said "hit by a JEEP", because she put that down in my chart. Then, when the Dr. came in, he again asked what happened, and I told him I was hit by a SHEEP. Oooohhh, he says.... Apparently, this sort of injury is known as the bumper injury, because when you get clipped by a car, this is right where you get hit. Anyway, after he digested what I said, he said "I thought we were becoming more urban these days?" Then, I had a whole succession of nurses and doctors coming in, to look at what the jeep, er sheep did to me.

[Sue R]

Not stockdogs and not sheep or cattle, but the ligaments in my one knee got torn out by a pig. No glamour there.

[kelpiegirl]

A PIG? Okay, please elaborate (not that they can't be HUGE), but expiring minds just want to know more!

[Sue R]

In another, much younger, life - I was a part-time DHIA (Dairy Herd Improvement Assn) milk tester. I went to a dairy farm for the two or three milkings in a 24 hour period to weigh each cow's milk and take a sample for protein and milkfat testing, plus gather other data like breeding dates, etc.

 

Being consciencious, when one dairyman had a heifer or cow he had gotten from a neighboring farm, I went down to that farm to get some data on her background. When I got there, a group of farmers and neighbors (all men, I might add) were assembled in a motley crew, attempting to gather up a couple of knee-high-to-me pigs that had escaped their pen.

 

All but one had been "captured" but, of course, the one that hadn't was proving to be the problem. I told the farmer why I was there and had to wait until the piggy round-up was done to get my information. Any sane woman would have gotten back in her truck and gone home, and gotten the information next month. I figured that, if I could help, I could get my information and get out of there faster. Big mistake.

 

I joined the men in their semi-circle as they were working the pig to where they wanted him. As I was obviously the pig-ignorant and weak link in the circle, the pig made his break through me, hitting me on the outside of my knee. I went down like a ton of bricks and, oh, did it hurt. And my ego hurt even more, especially since most of the men found it quite amusing. I picked up my shattered pride and paperwork, hobbled to my truck, and drove home.

 

When I went to the doctor the next day, he picked up my foot and showed me that he could "bend" my leg quite some distance in a direction that the joint was not designed to bend, and had torn a bunch of ligaments. I have thankfully not had any dealings with pigs since, except at dinnertime.

[kelpiegirl]

Do you still have issues with that knee? Do knee problems ever go completely away? I have issues with this knee every day (night time actually- can't straighten unless I am very careful). So, consequently, I blame that type of sheep (breed) even though it was only an individual. When I work that breed, I am very wise to be ready for anything nasty that might happen....

[Sue R]

This happened in 1980, so it's been quite some time and I was only 32 at the time. We had moved back to the farm where Ed was raised and he was still working a couple of hours away, so all the chores (and the three young children, one in kindergarten, one pre-school age, and one toddler in diapers) was on my shoulders during the week.

 

My doctor said I needed to stay off the leg but I just couldn't, so I got one of those elastic knee brace things from the drugstore and just moved about as best I could. Maybe it took a little bit longer to heal that way but I had goats to milk, water to haul from house to barn (no water in barn yet), goats to feed and water, and dairy heifers to feed and care for. Plus the children. Someone had to do it and that someone was me.

 

I remember reading my medical chart one day and my doctor had made notes that it would not heal well since I would not stay off it but I sometimes think that my being active consistently (but careful and with the support) may have helped it heal better and stronger than it might have otherwise.

 

I have to say that it's been several years since I had a twinge out of that knee but it probably was twenty years or more that I could occasionally get a twinge and soreness there if I twisted it wrong. It's taken a lot of activity and a lot of abuse, long walks, some running, riding, farmwork, you-name-it - but it was never really an issue after about six months or so. But it sure took six months or more for it to no longer be a real issue.

 

I do have another funny piggy story, though, and nothing to do with my knee.

 

I see what you are saying about a particular type of sheep. After I hurt my leg at the VA State Fair SDT (mentioned in my first post above), I was a nervous wreck around sheep for quite some time. They, like that pig, hit you right at the knee. I'm over that now pretty much but I am still less worried about cattle than I am about sheep hitting me. The cows just go around (except the old pet cow who likes to get up close and personal, but would never mean to bump you except in the nicest possible way).

 

Sorry to hijack the thread.