So, how do you stop your dog worrying sheep? Obedience training is essential – you need to be able to stop and recall your dog if you see sheep ahead. Insurance provider NFU Mutual calculates that livestock worrying costs UK farmers £1.4 million each year. The National Sheep Association carried out a survey in 2017 and found that the average number of sheep worrying incidents each farmer had experienced in the previous 12 months was seven, but several respondents reported more than 100 cases. Such horrific incidents are rare, but cases of sheep worrying are alarmingly high. We need to be particularly careful when walking our dogs at lambing time It was an incident that cost the farmer £17,000. The dog didn’t physically harm any of the animals they died either from shock or being crushed in the frenzied flock. In an incident near Chichester a couple of years ago, more than 100 sheep, many of them pregnant, died after a loose dog herded them up against a fence. It can also cause mothers and their lambs to become separated, resulting in the lamb starving or dying from hypothermia. Panicked attempts to flee can result in sheep drowning in rivers or falling off cliffs or crags. The stress of the chase, as well as causing abortion, can literally kill a sheep. Sheep worrying is a criminal offence, but it’s not just about dogs attacking livestock it’s also about them chasing the sheep, causing harm in ways that aren’t always immediately obvious. Maybe he really doesn’t intend her any harm, but he’s descended from wild pack animals and his instinct to chase will never disappear. “Rover’s a real softie he wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Unfortunately though, that pregnant ewe he’s chasing doesn’t know that, and the fear caused by his unwanted attention could cause her to abort. Jess’s instinct is to chase those woolly lumps on the hillside
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