Author Topic: Taming/ Haltering pet sheep? (Read 1526 times)

kate7590 · « **on:** February 04, 2015, 02:00:47 pm »

*Another softy post alert*

I have been wondering about possibly trying to halter-train some of our pet sheep (we only have 5 ewes, 1 ram & 3 wethers) in the hope that they will become more trusting of us in the long run and catching and checking them won't be so difficult. I think it would be much nicer for the sheep if we don't have to manhandle them come foot checking time & shearing.

One of our wether rams, Norman, is massive now and he's only 5 weeks old. He's a Jacob cross (pure black) and is a friendly little fella. I recon he's going to be a bruiser when he's older so would like to get him used to being handled and wearing a halter so he can be handled safely and calmly.

They are only pet sheep so Iv got time to do one-on-one with them.

Any advice would be greatly received

Foobar · « **Reply #1 on:** February 04, 2015, 02:11:37 pm »

There are a few topics on here already about this ... try these:
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=37045
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=26458

Little and often to begin with and they will soon get the hang of it.

kate7590 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 04, 2015, 02:19:35 pm »

Thank-you very much, they're great threads to read.

moprabbit · « **Reply #3 on:** February 04, 2015, 02:49:35 pm »

Hi Kate! I've got 4 pet sheep that are now just coming up to 5 years old. I'd always said I wished I'd halter trained them when they were lambs ... but just a couple of months ago I thought blow it !!!! I'm going to have a go at training them now. I trained one at at a time and now I've got 4 sheep that are all halter trained! It really wasn't as hard as I'd expected. In fact by the time it came to the last one, who I thought would be the most difficult, she was probably the easiest, as she'd seen the others on the halter, all getting treats and wanted to do the same! It only took a day or 2 and she was walking the best of the lot! It really paid off 2 weeks ago, when I took one to the vets in the middle of town. She just walked out of the trailer on her halter and made things so much easier. I would highly recommend training them if you've got the time! I thoroughly enjoyed it!