Metchosin Day 7 & 8

Friday was another gorgeous day. We played in the sunshine.
Today I woke at 7:30a to John Buchanon knocking on the door and rushing through the house saying that there were dogs in the fields chasing the lambs!!!
I threw on some clothes and followed him outside. There was a large black dog pacing along the fenceline at the bottom of the field. John had shut all the gates so there were sheep scattered in several places. While John was calling 911 and Animal Control, the black dog disappeared through the bottom field. Once an officer arrived I used Blair to gather the sheep back together & into the barn. One little lamb is severely savaged and one other has some bad bites. The others seem ok. John is coming back later today with the farm truck to take the two injured lambs home to the main farm. John had managed to get near the dog and make out it's tag # so Animal Control will try to track it down. Otherwise they will come back. Not sure what we're going to do with the sheep in the meantime. There is another flock of lambs just up the road as well as a large group of ewes on the trial field just across Taylor Rd. (which is the direction the dog went).
There are no coyotes on Vancouver Island and the only other rare predator is the odd cougar. Most of the neighborhood dogs are kept in.....but are the biggest danger to sheep.

ps: Neighbor phoned to say there was one more lamb acting very stressed in the far field. I grabbed Blair and he worked a single for the first time. We managed to bring her back to the others without undue stress. She is chewed up too so when John arrived at 3pm, he took her back home also. No word on the stray dogs so I'm keeping the lambs in tonite. Gave them a little extra grain and a dozen apples for their dinner.
I should also add how proud I am of my 'hobby weekend trial' dog. Handled those poor traumatized, in shock babies with calm and confidence. At one point, with the single, he stopped and did a 'look back' as he thought there must be more sheep out there! lol What amazing dogs they are.