[Jacob-list] Medical / Social behavior ...

[Linda Bjarkman]

Usually, what I see is that once the "undersheep" makes a submissive gesture, the 
other ones leave her alone. 

Which reminds me of a story.....
Seven years ago, I spotted a cute little 4 month old puppy in a ditch by the side of 
the road.  She looked like a Shar-Pei. (it was later confirmed by the vet that she 
was most probably a Shar-Pei/Pit Bull cross).  She wagged her tail frantically, but 
was too timid to come close. It took me 2 hours to coax Lucy to me.  Once I touched 
her, she became mine with a passion, but is still afraid of anyone except us.  
Anyway, our best guess is that she was part of a litter raised for dog fights and 
was dumped because of her refusal to fight.  She was seriously mistreated in that 
time.  Anyway, I was walking among the ewes with Lucy and a feisty old girl butted 
Lucy.  Lucy immediately rolled onto her back into a doggy "I give up" mode.  
Priscilla, being a sheep, did not recognize this as a submissive gesture and seemed 
to consider that Lucy was standing up to her with her refusal to run away.  I had to 
go chase Priscilla away (because when it comes down to it, I am the dominant one in 
my flock ;-) as she continued to butt Lucy trying to make her back down while Lucy 
lay there, all four feet in the air "yelling" "I give up."   It was interesting to 
see the two species trying to communicate in such different languages.

Linda

On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 03:43:15 -0500, gf wrote:
>Linda,
>
>Yes, and that was part of my concern, why is my oldest ewe submitting,
>running, being beaten up and ... dry. Is she feeling old? Is the younger ewe
>too much for her now? Everything seems normal this morning.
>
>Ahh the wild swings of the sheep society.
>
>Gary ----- Original Message ----- From: "Linda Bjarkman"
><patchworkfibers at alltel.net> To: <fayg at mebtel.net>; "'jacob-list'" <jacob-
>list at jacobsheep.com> Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 9:53 PM Subject: Re:
>[Jacob-list] Medical / Social behavior ...
>
>
>[...] I have not seen it very often in my Jacobs (maybe once or twice) - they
>seem to duke it out rather than submit.
>
>Linda
>
>


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