Mazee - from townie to shepherd in a day

My sister-in-law, who lives on a farm in Worcestershire, recently took in a young Welsh sheepdog bitch who had been raised in a city and had never seen sheep before.

This is what happened today...

This is Mazee.  Mazee is 6 months old and mostly Cefncoch breeding.  She has lived in town as a pet all her life and has been here for a week.  She went on her first walk here yesterday and today we thought we'd see what she thought about sheep.

To start with she thought it was a game and was following Blaidd

This is almost comical with Mazee asking Blaidd to play and Blaidd, who is very serious about her work, saying WTF is WRONG with you??

But a few minutes watching what is going on and you can see her thinking

And when these try to break away she's on to them. She's not sure why or what she's doing but ...

....bingo!

Blaidd a lot happier with a co-worker than a playmate and that crazy eye scares the wits out of me

This breakaway she's more committed to, even though they get away from her

This is a different little bunch and you can see Mazee really starting to get with it, Blaidd has been messing about splitting one and horrified to find it's Mazee who has it covered

Mazee is big, committed and full on, she's got a lot of presence and wants to bark

Blaidd is downhill with a pet lamb who isn't playing, Mazee is full on on her own

Both of them back now, I left it here, she came off easily. Needs a couple days to think about it

She's going to be a beast in the right hands, it's always a thrill doing this the first time with them. She is looking for a working home!

Adeline often posts photos of her working dogs, but I really loved this particular set. It's somehow very encouraging to know that despite her starting out having lived in a city and knowing nothing about sheep, it was in her genes and all she needed was a chance to show her colours.

A lesson for us all I think!