A Rough Week for Flying Mule Dogs

I'm usually not one to look forward to Fridays, but I will admit that I'm looking forward to this week being over. I'm sure our dogs are, too.

Late last week, we had to take Dillon, our 10-month-old LGD puppy, out of a group of sheep. We'd had him with our replacement ewe lambs (we have 3 groups of sheep at the moment - 2 breeding groups and a group of lambs). Dillon had started chasing and chewing on lambs; he actually chewed ears off of 4 lambs. We switched him with an older dog, thinking he'd not chase the mature ewes. We were wrong - last week he chased a ewe into the electric fence, where we found her dead the next morning. That day, we also discovered that 2 of the lambs he'd chewed on had developed flystrike. I sheared them and treated them for maggots - they seem to be on the mend. And Dillon is back at home with a dangle stick (a piece of PVC hanging from his collar) to discourage him from chasing the sheep.

This week, I was headed to Rio Vista with Sage, one of our Border Collie pups, when he decided to try to jump out of the truck (despite being tied in). Fortunately, I discovered it quickly, but not before he injured his back feet. He's currently on rehab in the house - and will be for some weeks. And I'll be investing in a truck box for the dogs. Our older dogs have never been a problem, but I won't take any chances.

For me, raising sheep (at least in part) is a welcome departure from the day-to-day stress of my "real" job. This week, however, the sheep business was my primary source of stress. I'm glad Friday has finally arrived.