Mary Swindell
Tue, 02 Aug 2005 11:38:30 -0700
Annette,I certainly appreciate all your good intentions with trying to "train" your ram Yasha to not butt you and your family. However, I absolutely feel compelled to tell you my reactions to some of the things you have said below. Although some of what I am about to say may sound offensive, I certainly do not mean them that way, but rather as a warning from a friend. Frankly, some of the things you said frightened me because I think I see you setting yourself up for disaster. It also looks to me like you are misinterpreting what is going on before your very eyes. Please read on.
At 12:04 PM 7/27/2005 -0700, you wrote:
....I reached out to him to give him some corn with the others and he took acception to it immediately.
Why are you hand feeding him? This is an open invitation for him to butt you! You are actually encouraging him to come up close to you by holding out feed for him. And with your hand outstretched, you are presenting him with a target. On the contrary, you should be doing just the opposite -- that is, you should be making threatening motions every time he approaches you. You should never encourage a ram to come close to you. If there is some reason you need to feed him, just put his grain in the feed trough and get out of there.
....So I just stayed that way for a bit...maybe about 5 minutes and I talked to him all the time telling him he was Not going to do this and IF he did he would be done away with....I knew I had to be stern with him....
Also, you should not talk to the ram -- at all. Do not communicate with him. Every action that you take to familiarize him with you (your touch, your voice, your eye gaze, etc.), all these things just make him more comfortable with you. And the more comfortable he is with you, the greater the chance that his ego and his aggressive behavior will be turned on you again and again. Instead, you should be presenting yourself to him as mysterious, unpredictable, and fearsome. You should WANT him to be AFRAID of you, and to know as little about you as possible.
Anyway when I let him up I was not sure how he would act but he just got up and walked away with his head down and went back to the shelter, not even looking back once....I think he knew he was defeated.....hopefully.....I'll see how he is next time I go in....Hopefully I wont have to do it again but if I do ....I will and sit on him longer the next time! :O) I love the little bugger and I really hope we can work this out so he will be able to be interacted with again...I don't want him as an enemy....but I know he has to see I am boss
Why do you feel the need to "interact" with him? Personally, I do not think he walked away with his head down because he felt defeated. Instead, I think he walked away with increased resolve to get you the next time. He understood more than before, that this is open warfare. It was as if you said, "Hey, the fight's on!" And he has all day, every day, to think of new ways to make your life miserable if you let him. Annette, do NOT buy into this behavior. You are not disciplining a naughty child or even a naughty dog! You CANNOT change this ram's behavior by your attempts at "tough love". He is not motivated by psychological conditioning. He is motivated by his hormones, and that will NEVER change. If you continue playing his game, it is inevitable that you, or someone else in your family (heaven forbid that it might be a child) is going to get seriously hurt. My advice to you: Stay AWAY from him. Do not look him in the eyes. Do not talk to him. Stop trying to change his behavior. Stop trying to interact with him. You cannot change him. I believe that if he were a bull, we would not be having this conversation. Everyone knows you cannot change the behavior of a bull, and a bull would just as soon kill you as look at you. Well, I am here to tell you that Yasha thinks just like a bull. If he could get you down, he would ram you again and again until there was nothing left of you. And as he ages, he will become more and more like this. He cannot help it or change the way he is. Yes, he is magnificant and beautiful. But you must learn to admire him from afar. Accept his beauty and do not try to make him a pet. And when you go in there the next time, take a heavy hardwood board, a baseball bat, or something that can do some serious damage. And be prepared to use it. And if you're going to hit your ram, hit him hard the first time. Do not let him think he can survive a strike on the head from your stick. It may be unthinkable, but if you have ever experienced the damage that a ram can potentially do to property or people, you will be a believer. You want that first hit to do enough damage that he will back away and not approach you again. And if he does come back after the first hit, you should be prepared to hit him twice as hard the second time. I just hope someone doesn't get hurt in the process.
From what I have observed in my own rams, the only way to avoid this escalation is to not get started with it in the first place. From birth, I try to avoid my ram lambs as much as possible. I do not talk to them. I do not touch or cuddle them. They grow up this way, left to themselves, and we essentially have no relationship. Then when they are adults, if I have to go in to tend to them (examine their feet, horns, etc.), I approach them cautiously, and always have a big stick. They are usually cooperative because they fear me -- And I want to keep it that way. But even still, I have seen one of my rams try to kill the other one (it took two people and 4 dogs to break up the fight, and we all considered ourselves very lucky). And I have seen one of my rams seriously damage a 16-foot tubular gate to the point where it was bent like a bow. We had to take it down and drive a tractor over it to flatten it out again. These guys are strong. The skeletal matter on the tops and fronts of their heads is unexpectedly thick, and can be used to ram and batter solid objects in an amazing manner. I guess it is no surprise that the term "battering ram" came from this exact behavior. My oldest ram is 3.5 years old. He is almost unapproachable. He looks at me with fire in his eyes, and I am certain he would kill me if he got the chance. And Annette, this "look" has increased over time. He was not nearly this aggressive 9 or 10 months ago. I have kept him because he is so excellent and gorgeous. But I don't have any misgivings about what he is. And I would never go into his area without my best stockdog and my very big stick.
Please forgive me for any implication that I'm being preachy or condescending to you. I certainly do not mean it that way. Like you, I love all of my animals dearly. And I sympathize with your attempts to make all this work out and still be able to get physically close to your ram. But I am very concerned that anyone who persists in believing that he or she can change the behavior of ram sheep, will sooner or later have serious injuries or damage on their hands. Love your ewes. Love your ewe lambs to pieces. Love your wethers. Hug them, and make special pets out of some of them if you like (I have a couple of ewes and wethers like that in my flock!) But please try to understand that you cannot change the nature of your rams. And please, remember to keep your distance from your ram lambs and your adult rams. If you really want to keep them out of the freezer, then do not ask them to behave in ways that are impossible for them.
Sincerely, Mary Swindell Bellwether Farm Cobden, IL _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info mailing list Visit the list's homepage at Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info@lists.blackbellysheep.info http://lists.blackbellysheep.info/listinfo.cgi/blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info