Oh Diego, not the sheep!

[Aroura]

My darling Diego has been a very, VERY naughty boy! :o

He has been finding ways out of the yard and yesterday I found him down the paddock chewing on a sheep! :x

The poor thing had half the wool on one side of it torn off and was walking around, bleeding and in pain. I feel terrible :cry:

Now he has to be either inside, outside being watched, or in the dog run that Josh built for him. When Diego was younger I wanted a potty lamb so that I could socialise Diego with it and get him used to living with sheep and not hurting them, but Josh's nan wanted all of them and the farmers attitude was that she rang him up too often needing help so he just wasn't picking any more up that he found wandering around, so I missed out :( Now I'm a bit angry about it all, it could have been avoided if everyone had stopped being so damn stubborn and let me take one for a couple of weeks while Diego got used to it. Too late for that now, I think if we can't find a way to keep him in without him having to be locked in a run I am going to have to move :(

[Crystal]

Poor Sheep. Hope you can figure something out.

[Aroura]

Yes, poor sheep. Its a good thing they don't feel things much, they have been selectively bred not to feel pain because when they are shawn they always get huge cuts along them. Still, I feel SO terrible :cry:

He is in the run with Merlin at the moment, I'm so glad Josh got that built before he left - it's great, its huge and even has netting across the roof to prevent Eagles from getting Montie!

[JackieMaya]

My sister raises sheep, and she bought a Great Pyrenes puppy about 4 years ago and let him grow up with the sheep so that he basically thought he was a sheep.

Good luck with Diego. Do you think he was playing with the sheep and played too rough? That happened with my sister's Pyr once when he was still real young.

[Aroura]

Oh a Pyr, I would love so much to own one of them, what a beautiful breed. Of course it would be in their nature to be friendly to sheep I believe?

I don't know what was going through Diego's mind when he was tearing the wool of that poor sheep. I imagine it would have been a game for him, he loves wool, he is in no way an aggressive dog and I'm certain his intentions wouldn't have been bad. :drinking:

[Bensam]

Wow! Haven't been on here for ages, lots of things been happening but that's another story. So here I go opening my big mouth!
Aroura - For heaven's sake keep Diego locked up - you're lucky the sheep owner didn't see him as he'd be a dead dog now, either shot by the farmer, perfectly legal, or collected by the Ranger.
Living in sheep country I've seen what dogs do to sheep and they're not playing. Any dog which gets the taste of 'sheep harassing' is never to be trusted again so don't let him out of your sight - being a hound it's even worse.
BTW - sheep do feel pain and any farmer who uses a shearer who cuts the sheep needs his head read - no professional shearer who puts 'huge cuts' on the animal would last two minutes.
Sorry - JHMO.

[kendalyn]

What did the farmer say when you showed him? I hope the vet bill wasn't very expensive.

I'm pretty sure sheep can feel pain.

[Bensam]

Just thought I'd throw this in to perhaps impress on you, Aroura, the seriousness of your dog's actions. There are quite severe penalties for this, including muzzling the dog at all times, having a completely enclosed area, wearing a special collar identify the dog as dangerous and the onus is on the owner to prove the dog is not dangerous.

33E. A dog may be declared to be a dangerous dog
(1) A local government, or on behalf of the local government an authorised person or person specifically authorised by the local government for the purposes of this section either generally or in a particular case, may, by a notice in writing given in accordance with section 33F, declare a dog to be a dangerous dog if, in the opinion of the local government or that person

(a) the dog has caused injury or damage by an attack on, or chasing, a person, animal or vehicle;

This is part of the legislation, you can read the entire thing by doing a search "Dangerous Dog Legislation".

There is a disturbing trend in Governments in Australia to implement BSL with quite a number of breeds being targeted in Queensland and this is spreading to other States. Responsible dog ownership is imperative to the future of many breeds.

[JackieMaya]

BTW - sheep do feel pain and any farmer who uses a shearer who cuts the sheep needs his head read - no professional shearer who puts 'huge cuts' on the animal would last two minutes.

I agree with this. My sister breeds show-quality sheep that she sells to 4-H kids as show lambs. She used to do the shearing herself, but she just has too many irons on the fire, so she has someone come in to do it. I've never seen cuts from the shearing, either when she did it or when she has the professional shearer come in to do it.

[Aroura]

Well Josh's parents and grandma own the farm, so they wont be shooting him or putting him in for a dangerous dog act. However, he is being kept locked up now - he was before also but he found ways to get out and seeing as he has grown up around sheep and doesn't have an aggressive bone in him I didn't freak out too much, he has always run around with the sheep and just ignored them.

I'm looking to move at some point in the future and wanted to move to another place out of town so the dogs could run around like they do now, only I've changed my mind now. I'm just lucky Josh's parents own the farm :-?

JM, I wish the sheerers here were like that. When I was working in the wool shed every sheep got a few slashes, some got large cuts in which case the sheerers would pull a needle and thread out of their pocket and stitch it up on the spot! I didn't mean sheep don't feel pain, but I have heard that their pain is numbed - but then again I guess you hear a lot of things in your life time...

I think some of you got the impression that I don't take this seriously, of course I take it VERY seriously and am making every effort to ensure it never happens again.