180 BRITISH SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING. 



shepherding as the possession of this faculty. That a shepherd 

 knows his own sheep is to be expected of him, and to a commonly 

 observant man is not extraordinary, having regard to the fact 

 that he is daily among them and constantly handling them, although 

 they may number some hundreds. He must know more. He 

 must be so conversant with them that the slightest change in 

 the demeanour of any one will be noticed at a glance. A really 

 skilled man with sheep will know at sight if a strange sheep is 

 out of sorts ; though a sheep may have some misleading peculiarity 

 that, until he has observed it for some time, he may not be sure 

 whether it is really ailing or distressed, or merely possesses an 

 eccentricity. Men not accustomed to sheep may walk through 

 them time after time and not recognise ailments until they are 

 very far advanced. A shepherd must be observant, or he is of 

 Little value except as a mechanical worker among sheep. 



The Sheep Dog. Moreover, he needs a good sheep dog, well 

 trained, or his own labours will be greatly increased, and his time 

 is well spent in training a capable dog. Sheep dogs can be trained 

 to perform duties which seem to place that animal's intelligence 

 above that of all other animals ; and a shepherd without a good 

 dog may be well described as only half a shepherd. The mere 

 fact that there is a dog about sheep keeps them under control , 

 but a good dog also directs and protects them. When lying wide 

 he collects them ; and, if properly trained, will go round hedgerows, 

 where a sheep may be hung up in briars, or into gullies and other 

 shelter, where those which are ailing are likely to creep. The 

 ninety -and-nine in a flock can generally be found, but the hundredth 

 should always be the shepherd's care ; as whenever a sheep has 

 anything the matter with it, its first instinct is to get away from 

 its fellows. This is the case, whether it be from ordinary internal 

 troubles, maggot caused by the fly, fly-troubles on the poll, bad 

 cases of foot-rot ; in fact, anything that is unusual. The shepherd 

 should, therefore, take a tally of his sheep, and make himself 

 sure that their number is correct every time he visits them. It 

 is the first duty of an overlooker to be able to count accurately 

 sheep lying out in a pasture, when at the troughs, when passing 

 through gates, or from fold to fold, or in whatever situation he 

 may find them. 



Lameness. Lameness should be noticed at once, because it is 

 sure to need attention, whether it be from foot-rot, sore feet, dirt 

 between the claws, foot-and-mouth disease, happily rare (though 

 in the past two years I have three times been in a restricted 

 area), strain, or a broken limb the latter are important, for the 

 inexperienced often handle a sheep in this condition with uninten- 

 tional cruelty, the frequency of foot-lameness and the rarity of 

 other sources of lameness, disarming the suggestion that the trouble 



