As Sillyewe above said - all depends but bucket trained hugely helps
Personally I would say to avoid southdowns because I have found them more prone to flystrike with the wooly faces AND although super docile when hairy, they seem a bit daft and spooky when shorn and can see properly again .. the next poster may find something completely different
Your Southdowns got flystrike on their
faces? Never seen this in the many hundreds that I've bred. I trim round the eyes if necessary, when gathering for vaccinating and condition-scoring. Some sheep need to be done twice a year, some never. If they're wandering around in the dark I expect they
would be freaked out by suddenly being able to see again. Flystrike isn't a problem iif they're shorn early enough and pour on applied when the fleece has grown back to about 1cm.
As TimW says, go for a flock, whatever breed, where problems have been culled out.
Down sheep are very docile - for centuries the shepherds were with them all day, leading them up onto the Downs to crop the short grasses in the day time and bringing them down to fold them on the arable fields at night, so their dung fertilised the soil. Their short legs make the average fence far too challenging. If you're passing Herefordshire you're welcome to come and take a look at our flock, although we presently don't have any for sale.