We were treated to one last edition of Zak’s famous delicious breakfasts before he and Kim had to hit the road to make their flight out of Auckland.
We sadly parted ways in the Rotorua campground.
One of the things we’ve been looking for in New Zealand is a nice woolen blanket or sweater, and although we’ve been taunted by thousands of roadside wooly sheep, our search for affordable “woolies” as they’re called here, has not been very successful. So on our way out of town we decided to stop by Rotorua’s “Agrodome.”
The Agrodome is a place where city slicker tourists can pay to be carted around pastures in a tractor-driven tram for the opportunity to observe various farm animals in their unnatural habitats. They can also see a sheep shearing show, and other demonstrations of sheep and wool management. We were just interested in checking out the woolies in their shop, but as luck would have it, we parked our van right outside the fenced area where a sheepdog herding exhibition was about to begin.
Three large newly shorn sheep were minding their own business at one end of the paddock, when a man brought in a small but lean and muscular dog named Dot.
Once inside the fence, Dot immediately dropped down into a stalking position with her gaze fixed steadily on the sheep.
Though they’ve probably been through this a hundred times, her stare made them a little nervous.
Dot’s trainer explained that she was still a young dog, only 18 months old, whereas it takes at least two full years before a sheepdog is fully trained. Though she was far more obedient than any other 18 month old dog we’d ever seen, it soon became apparent that Dot still had to learn to control her dogly impulses. She was very good at getting the sheep moving,
but then would lose herself in the thrill of the chase and couldn’t resist trying to taste them. Very bad form for a sheep dog.
The trainer noted that one of the hardest parts of training a young dog is slowing them down. When Dot was in hot pursuit she had a tendency to scatter her sheep.
But when he would tell tell her to slow down or “go behind” him, the sheep would automatically regroup and bunch back together.
Dot succeeded in herding her sheep between several gates, to the applause of the audience. But her real test was to be to get them into a small enclosure. She got them close a few times but really just seemed to revel in just chasing her sheep in circles.
Her trainer thought Dot had selective hearing that day, and all of us in the crowd who’ve ever owned a dog chuckled sympathetically. Though she still has a bit of learning to do, Dot’s level of training was impressive and it was fun watching her having such a good time.