Stock Breaking

[new to the flock]

The following was borrowed from another forum with the authors permission.

 

He stood in the shadows at the edge of the wood, the field sloped away to the bridlepath, sheep with new born lambs grazed peacefully, across the path , a second field disected in half by a wooden fence , ran up to a wood of mix pine and birch, in the second half, feeding cows ambled here and there, the man was old now ,and to all purposes was no use to this modern world, but he was watching and waiting , his gaze led to the brink of the sloping path , that led down and through the centre of the fields, he knew they were coming, then they came, two youngsters , one a boy , perhaps nine or ten ,and a pup, just starting its third month, the urchin couple stopped at the brink , and the boy then unfastened the pup from its bondage, well it was just a bit of string , but at this stage of youth , the most inportant tie they would ever have, the pup gambled away , unsure but driven to investigate all the smells and sounds around it, the boy followed behind , everynow and then he would bend low and call the pup with a whistle, the old man smiled, the pup had that urge to chase anything that seemed to move ,a drifting leaf , the flight of a whitethroat, going down to its nest ,tucked into a mixture of grass and nettles at the base of the hedge, the man liked the boys attitude , no silly screaching or yelling, just low calm words of encouragement , and a beam of pleasure , this was bondage of pup and boy at its best, and so the pair made thier way down the path ,that would lead to the fields opposite the man, the pup just slightly in front of the boy stopped, it had caught the scent of sheep, at that moment the pup could not figure where the smell was coming from, but it soon would, a dormant sense of hunting instinct started to grow in the pups brain, then a gentle hand touched the pups back, and the boy put the loop of string over the pups neck, the little chap then lifted the pup , and showed it the now gambling lambs close by ,the pups tail started to wag , but the boy then did a strange thing, in a low but meanfull way the boy said :no; the pup in a vauge way understood the meaning, he had heard it often enough ,when it was chewing the carpet, and other sundrys, but this was not the same, it was a over whelming desire to chase, and his friend and master was now saying no, he had never uttered this before when he shown the hunting instinct, so the pup wagged his tail harder and started to squirm a little, again the command : no;, was repeated but the boys hand at the same time tightened on the pup neck, this made the pup unsure, so it relaxed a bit, the boy then put the pup on the ground , and walked along the sheep fenceing, now the pup was interested , and sniffing and now knowing the direction the smell,spied the sheep from ground level, he lunged forward but a sharp tug, and :no; command from the boy ,stopped him in its tracks, so this proceedure went on , till the boy and pup , had reached the limits of the field, by now the pup was steadying up a bit ,not perfect ,but steadying, when the boy was satisfied the pup though excited was standing fast ,he did a strange thing ,he slackened the string , now the pup feeling freedom ,lunged foreward ,there was a tug ,and a bit of a yelp, more from shock than pain, then the boy shortened the string again, the pup feeling the the restraint stood quiet though still on the run of excitement, then the boy slackened the string again, the pup lunged ,the boy tugged ,the pup stopped, this went on two or three times, the pup was still keen to chase ,but the boy was more keener it would not, in the end the pup seemed to get the message , when the boy was satisfied, the man heard him ,say heel , by now the pup was happy to comply , and anyway ,there was plenty of other exciting things to chase ,the man watched the boy leading the pup on, then when the boy had got about 50 or so yds from the field, he stooped down , and then did another strange thing, he tied the end of the string to his little ankle, then showing the pup his empty hands, went to walk away calling the pup to go with him, now the pup was free this was it, one bound and he was heading back for the sheep , then shock of shock ,he was stopped in his tracks ,what was this bondage, this was not a good feeling , the boy bent low and whistled the pup ,the pup came to him ,the boy praised the pup, and stroking and coaxing the pup ,to go the way the boy wanted to go, at the same time the boy deftly , hooked the string from around the pups neck, the pup did not know he was free, all he knew at the time , was something telling his little brain ,that doing what the boy wanted ,was so much fun ,than not, the old man smiled .

So day after day the old man waited in the shadows, and day after day ,the training was getting nearer and nearer to the boys fulfilment, it was the same routine , the pair would reach the brink of the path ,and the pup was released , the boy would follow ,again now and then calling the pup to him, but also giving a little bit of heel work ,this to the boys thinking would make his mate that bit more steady, the man smiled , thats what he was hoping for, they were mates ,not just boy and dog, they reach the sheep field, and the old man noticed the boy had now got the pup very steady to the sheep ,in fact the pup never really took much notice of the sheep, but then there was the fence ,that kept them apart, half way down the path the boy stopped, called the pup to him , the man noticed the boy put the string around the pups neck ,but what the old man noticed more ,was the way the little mite, did it with a crafty gentleness, of a mature nature , that was it, the way he use to do it once, he smiled, he knew what was coming , he smiled wider, the boy entered the field, the sheep though not sure of what the intensions was of this pair, were still unnerved enough , to amble away, the boy put the pup down ,stroking gentle ,but at the same time repeating the :no; command, he relaxed his hold ,the pup not realising that the string was around his neck , leapt forward to pull down the prey, unbeknowing the string had been lenghthened, by the boy the night before, after running a couple of yards , again the pup speed was killed to a standstill, by now the pup through a routine of a couple of minutes a day trainng , knew why the jolt happened , and knew the meaning ,the boy called the pup , the pup ran to him, then the boy said heel and at a distance ,walk towards and around the sheep . keeping a distance, watching the pup all the time, every now and then the boy kept giving a gentle tug ,just to let the pup know ,he was in control ,slowly the distance shortened, and by this time the sheep were getting use to the pair, that always followed but never touched, soon the boy and pup were only a few yards from the nearest sheep ,the boy through continuous eye on his pup, noticed how the pup was taking less and less notice of the sheep ,and more and more notice , of its sorroundings, to the man in the shadows the training was reaching its outcome, but the smile was for the boy, that knew as well, the boy turned from the sheep ,and in no hurry headed away back to the gate, all the time the pup was at heel, just before the gate the boy stopped , the boy then watched the pup, he noticed the pup though giving glance back to the sheep, had not that trembling and keeness ,in its little body it had a few days before, in fact it was keener , for what was infront than what was behind, the boy calmly let the pup off the lead, and walked to the gate ,at the same instant ,the pup ,followed, this pattern was repeated , for a couple of days, and by now the boy knew he had the pup in the control he wanted , so did the man.

 

the next morning , the old man waited , soon the little pair appeared, the pup, and a couple of seconds later the boy, what a happy couple ,the man was thinking , what pleasure they must be having together, they strolled towards the sheep field ,the pup hunting and chasing away just in front ,the boy , full of pride , the old man ,shifted his foot a bit, even he was excited, what an old dodger he was , the local folk ,all seem to look at him ,as a bit strange, he was often called names by the youngsters, they often remarking how they bet he had never done anything of excitment in his life, i mean how could anything he's doing, beat big brother or eastenders, he knew what was coming, the pair had reached the gate of the field, the boy had watched the pup , not interfering , all walks in the fields was to be a pleasure , not a chore, training was just a minute part of the pups eventual hunting life, just the odd minute or two a day , no big deal , just giving that wider scope ,of achieving anything you want, thats the big deal, the boy was advanced in his thinking of dog training , and it had not come amiss that the pup ,had not aknowledge the sheep ,the time had come, with the pup off the string the boy entered the field, the old man pleading for success for him , the sheep was about halfway up ,some looked ,but most just kept feeding ,all was calm, the boy walked to the right ,just a bit away from the sheep ,but still near to test the pup, the pup ,followed for a short distance ,then ran in front , the boy stayed calm, he walked the the edge of the field ,and the pup kept dancing and hunting in front ,the boy ,just stared at the pup, once the pup lifted its head ,and looked towards the sheep ,the man watched the boy tensed a moment ,then said:no; the dog ignored the sheep ,so slowly and calmly the boy walked the field , just getting that bit closer ,soon the pair was with in yards of a single ewe, the man was thrilled to realise the boy ,had the sense to pick ,this moment, no lambs close enough , the boy stopped ,the pup stopped looked at the ewe, the boy said :no;, the pup turned away ,at that the boy ,called the pup to him ,and with a pat on the side of his knee, walked away ,with the pup .to carry on thier little adventure in the fields and woods, there's all different schemes, to train dogs to leave sheep alone, putting a pup into a pen with a surly tup or ram ,what a dangerous path to take ,a sensitive pup could be ruined for life ,an aggresive pup , could even turn nastier through a confrontation like this, you could learn it through an older dog , why, the pup sees a dog in the field with it , how can you be sure of the outcome, this might give the pup, the chance to prove its a hunter, you know trying to reach the sheep ,before its elder, then when all the screaming and shouting starts ,this can upset ,the older dog ,as much as the pup, its like tying a dead fowl to a dogs neck, to stop it chasing chickens , i cannot see the benifit of it all ,only to cause truama to the dog ,and more fear of you, and as for trying to give a hard mouth dog a hedgehog to cure it , i mean where's the logic, one the dog could feel pain to make it shy from picking game up ,or worse i've seen some dogs crush hedgehogs , with thier jaws, and the more pain the more glee, the boy left the field , and for a second ,looked up to the cows chewing their cud, the man knew what was next, perhaps some difference in training but not that much, the boy could master anything now, he was a man, like the man in the shadows, in fact ,the man was that boy again, he smiled

[Country_est]

Can some mod please move the one above for this one, and also do caps on it as I only had time to change all to lower which is a bit easier that all caps.

 

Cheers

Trev

 

Thread now modified as requested by "some mod".

[lurcherboy]

Hows the scooter mod? :( :thumbs:

 

That is so much better than giving your buddy grief NTTF.

 

I wish I knew that a few years ago

 

 

LB