We Like Sheep…

Sheep, which are not known to be the most intellectual creatures to exist on planet earth, are what I look after in some of my spare time. Ideally, I’ve learned it is important to provide them opportunities to roam, not only because they love it, but because they need it for their health. Being intentional with rotational grazing is supposed to minimize risk to them in the way of parasite infestation. So, I move them about as best I can.

Sheep are skittish, living in fear a lot, which is probably why they love routine. While they may like to find their groceries in a new patch of foliage or green growth of their preference, they don’t usually want to roam too far to get it. Boundaries are their friend, which is a good thing for me. But when they get trained to a routine inside their set boundaries, inside their comfort zone, they can get lazy.

A word that has come to me several times lately is the word training. In many regards, I believe a lot of people think of the word training and put it in the “bad” category of things to do with your time. I can remember trainings at work. Many times, most people just blew it off as a waste of time, things that the HR department had to teach you to meet their quotas and requirements.

But keep in mind that the word training is also closely related to the word discipline, which can also have negative connotations to some folks. Runners train for races, athletes discipline themselves to compete at the highest levels to obtain the prize. Most of the time, I don’t suppose we think of things quite the same way when it comes to training.

When an employee begins their work at a new job, they are required to go through a number of repetitive steps in order to learn the basics, to get in their routine. Once the routine is in place, then harder work can be introduced to bring that employee to their highest potential for the company.

Sheep aren’t much different. Take the fields on our farm for instance. For a while this year, I’ve been rotating the sheep between a one-acre field and a three acre area that is mixed with trees and grass. On a weekly basis I moved them back and forth, one week in each location. These two places were their safe zones, where they got comfortable. When they saw me, they generally filed through the gate, no problem, especially when I brought feed in a bucket.

In mid-summer, after our field got cut for hay, it was time to start rotating the sheep into the large field, about four acres of wide-open space. Each morning, as the sheep got up to begin grazing, I would open the gate to the large field and the sheep would reluctantly follow. One reason for their trepidation was that they had to walk past my daughter’s large pen of Golden Retrievers that she takes care of. Naturally, when the sheep would arrive in the area near the dog pens, the dogs wanted to have a bit of fun, so they would run the fence lines barking at the sheep from the opposite side of the fence. What did the sheep do? Run. And what did the dogs do in delight? Run faster, while barking. But each time, once the sheep got in the open field past the barking dogs, they felt safe when they got a certain distance between them.

Well, this process went on for days. I would let the sheep out, then put them back in their comfort zone each evening. Then, after a couple of weeks of that, I just opened the gate and left it open, hoping the sheep would walk right out into the field in the morning. Did they? Heck no! They got up in the morning and waited for me, and then when I showed up, they would follow me through, run past the dogs and enter wide-open pasture for the day. A few days of this went on as I trained them, until, one morning, I didn’t go out to walk them over. What did the sheep do? Well, they grazed in the small field for a while, but then they discovered the wide-open gate and greener pasture. Eventually, they wandered on over to the better, bigger field and ate to their heart’s content. And after a few times of doing that, now they are in a routine of waking up in the small field (where they feel safe at night), wander over to the big field during the day and then back to their safe zone at night. They are creatures of habit; except I adjusted their habit with training.

You know what’s funny about the sheep, though. Even though they have that great big field to wander in, they don’t explore its entirety. Oh, they may wander a bit, but not for long. One way to get them to wander, though, is for me to walk out there with them and walk all around the place. They just feel as confident as a cauliflower, able to just take on the edges of the field as long as the shepherd is walking along beside them.

These sheep, living on the edge of fear most of the time, are not reaching their full potential. They are not taking advantage of the greenery that is fresh and lush out to the edges. They instead settle for some of the same trampled ground they’ve seen for days. Is there some value to their doubts and fears? Somewhat. But ideally, if they would get out to the boundaries set for them inside the fence lines, they would not only enhance their digestion, but would also benefit the shepherd by keeping all of the grass and weeds neat and trimmed.

We may be more like sheep than we think. More training may be required.