The first lamb who is now 3 weeks old has a very outgoing and friendly Mom, so he is very outgoing and friendly himself. I don't especially like outgoing and friendly in my sheep, but as I am only keeping a very few to keep the field mowed and the dogs worked occasionally its not a problem. I have been bringing either Seth, who is semi retired, or Meg in with me to keep the sheep off while I pour their feed. While the sheep were eating and I'd gathered the eggs from the chicken house, Seth was up near me sniffing around and all of a sudden the little lamb came bounding up to Seth and sniffed him all over. Seth is used to lambs and actually loves them so he wagged his tail and said hi. Meg does not like anything blocking her view of the sheep while she is keeping them ON their feed so she ignores the impertinence of little lambs getting in her face. I decided to let Crue do the job of holding the sheep back while I fed and then I called him off and let him lie there watching while I gathered eggs. The little lamb came bounding up into Crue's face. At first Crue looked at me not knowing what to make of this situation. Sheep move away from Crue, not run up into his face.
Then he tried pretending the lamb wasn't there.
Then he decided maybe lambs are ok and he decided to make friends.
After they made friends, the lamb tried to hump on him and Crue got confused. So he tried to play with the lamb and went into a play posture wagging his tail. At this point Mom looked up from the feed trough and decided that was enough fraternizing and went over to the both of them stomping her foot. Play was over and Crue decided to go back to being a good sheepdog and do his job.
I've never had a lamb be this forward with my dogs. Usually they hold back with their Mother's. But this one's Mom has always been unusally friendly so maybe its a passed on trait?
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