Bravo’s reclamation tour began this morning.  We moved both of the imminently-lambing ewes from the pasture to the barn yesterday, so there should be no lambs to temp him until some time in May.  But when I released him from the tether he’d been on since last Monday, he immediately started chasing the flock; he clearly needed some kind of supervised parole.

Bravo seemed anxious to show me that fences — even 5-foot electrified fences — couldn’t contain him when he first arrived on the farm.  He was jumping over effortlessly, and digging under almost as easily.  A number of friends with guardian dog experience suggested that he needed to pull something heavy for a while, until he developed more respect for boundaries.  I was a little uneasy with this solution (cruel?), but desperation led me to get him a tire.  He was strong enough that the tire barely cramped his style, but it did put an end to his Houdini act.  I unshackled him after a few weeks, and he’s seemed happy to stay in with the sheep since then.  So today I redeployed the tire drag, hoping that it will slow him down just enough to keep the sheep out of his reach…