Training dilemma brought on by inadequate set up--the sheep are conditioned to come into the barn when I call a certain word in a certain way--but after shearing they are a little leary, and after we had to catch Oats yesterday morning and I had to catch Mama Ewe in the afternoon a few of them are already more hesitant.
I don't want to make the barn a scary place, and calling them in to trap them... is pretty negative. I see my only course of action being to put up a few cattle panels across the paddock, and attach one to swing closed (they bend in an arc since they are 16ft long) and trap them into that, like we had back in the summer, where I was able to corral them by myself. Then they are in a small area and easier to catch---any comments from Steller trainers on this?
It just means some hard work today, in time to get Mama Ewe and give her the meds she needs, which are unfortunately SID x 4-5 days. If I don't fix our set up, after 4 more days of tricking them and then locking them in the barn I can't imagine how long it will take to get their trust back-except for Lace of course-she'll run towards me when the other sheep are sprinting away.)
Operant Conditioning--Sheep at Buffalo Zoo
(Sorry I tried to link the video directly to blogger but it didn't work--any advice on what I need to do to fix this??)
Glenn has to stay in the city for a few days for work--so I'll have to do this myself. I'm sure I could rope a neighbour into helping if I needed to, then at least the stranger gets to be the bad guy.
We'll stop at Menard's on the way to his hotel so I can pick up some supplies to build a fleece skirting table--I tried to skirt Starburst's fleece on the floor last night and it's just not very efficient, and I want to get them shipped out for processing asap. Will put up photos later today of the amazing fleece.
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