Shooting Times & Country Magazine
EWE TURNS THE TABLES
Emma goes nose-to-nose with whitefaced woodland
In recent columns, I’ve written about sheep worrying by dogs, a serious problem that has become worse in recent years. However, until now, I’ve never written about dog worrying by sheep. OK, this report is somewhat tongue in cheek, but my sprocker, Emma, recently had an encounter that might well have left her somewhat worried.
Her memorable meeting took place last month, when I was visiting a shooting friend in Sussex. He has rather more than 20 acres surrounding his house, most of it woodland, but he also has a three-acre rough paddock, much used by hunting barn owls and kestrels. Though he has no livestock of his own, he likes to have the paddock cropped by sheep and he currently has a small loan flock of half a dozen ewes grazing it. “You must come and meet them,” he told me, “and do bring Emma, but make sure she’s on a lead.”
I assumed that the need for a lead was to ensure that Emma wasn’t tempted to chase them, though she was introduced to sheep when still a puppy and shows little interest in them. However, when we met the sheep, I discovered the real reason: the ewes all came trotting across the field to meet us, completely unfazed by the three spaniels accompanying us.
They clearly knew my friend’s dogs, so ignored them, but one ewe in particular was fascinated by Emma and came over to sniff noses.
Emma initially stood her ground, but after the touching of noses (above right), she decided that retreat was the best course of action, withdrawing behind my wife’s legs. The ewe simply watched, head bowed to spaniel level. It was clear that she was totally unafraid of my spaniel and was keen to meet her. There was none of the stamping of feet that is characteristic of an alarmed sheep.
The ewes were whitefaced woodland, which according to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust is “one of the largest hill breeds and is a powerful, well-balanced sheep”; both sexes have horns. There’s no mention of this breed being unafraid of dogs, so my guess is this little flock were all hand-reared and used to friendly dogs.