Tim White

Wiltshire

Sheep worrying incidents increased for me over several years, I usually suffered 2 to 6 attacks a year that I am aware of . These varied from a dog being loose and chasing sheep before being caught to vicious attacks that left animals dead or injured and the remaining flock suffering from abortion etc

One particular attack may have resulted in just one ewe injured (although clearly, one too many!) that needed veterinary treatment (stitches/antibiotics etc), however when this flock was pregnancy scanned there was a susequent lambing percentage of 143% in utero, the rest of the flocks averaged 192%, this therefore represented a loss of 63 lambs worth potentially over £5000. Suffering a number of attacks like this and you wouldn't be in business very long. 

So what have I done to try and reduce the problem? I have taken to social media! I have had great success with Facebook as a way of reducing incidents. I just put a picture up on local Facebook pages when sheep are going to be in popular dog walking spots or places I have had problems before and add details like ‘’sheep will be at ‘X ‘ Meadows from the start of October through to early Feb , please keep your dogs on a lead etc.

The response has been very good, it seems to work for me and I have definitely seen a reduction in dog problems in these areas.