DOGS FOR SHEEP.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 8, 20 May 1893, Page 11

DOGS FOR SHEEP.

In a late number of the American Sheepbreeder there is a notice of a paper read by Mr G. W. Franklin, an old and experienced sheepfarmer, in which he gives what he calls “ a solution to the dog disorder as it affects sheep.” He said that dogs could be killed when out of the line of their •duty by the use of sponges soaked in lard. He quaintly remarks that “ a good-sized piece of sponge as large as a dog cau swallow, well filled with melted lard, will give grief to the dog that swallows it.” With respect to the employment of dogs on a sheep

farm, he says : —“ The longer I live without the aid of a dog’ on the farm, the more I wonder at having' kept one so long. I find that my stock are more quiet, easier handled by shepherds, and altogether more satisfactory than when I kept a dog.” So far as we (Australasian) are aware there is only one large sheep-Avalk in Australia where the use of dogs is entirely dispensed with, and that is the Havilah Estate, N.S.W. This property is situated amid steep and rocky hills, and yet no difficulty is experienced in mastering the sheep. They are certainly much more quiet than on those estates where the sheep are worked with the aid of dogs.