It’s time for a Ragnar update. He’s been back about a month now.
Quick recap: Ragnar is a 2 year old ram I sold at 6 months old. He’s the son of one of my favorite rams, Whitman. He left here approachable, but respectful. He returned ornery, over confident & with zero boundaries. He will crowd a human & turn sullen quickly. His previous owner shared that she was frightened of him. We know he was given treats & shown ‘who was boss’. A tough cycle for a ram to interpret. We don’t know much else.
After years of being asked, can a mean ram be changed, & responding, ‘no, it’s just not worth the risk’. I found myself with a ram whose lineage is gentle. It’s also a special lineage in my flock. He’s a beautifully built ram. I’d like to see those genetics in my flock, but is it worth trying to retrain Ragnar. Or is it even possible? That’s what I set out to discover.
Here is the black & white list of pros & cons.
Pros: zero property damage, respects gates/fences/stalls, not destructive, acclimated to 5 other rams with little to no aggression
Cons: took a cheap shot at the 14 month old LGD, won’t hesitate to push around a lamb, does not understand any back up/back away cues from the shepherd, overly confident in the shepherd’s space, when you ask him to back up he construes it as a challenge, he has anger issues around buckets & wanting treats, he’s not easy/nearly impossible to doctor alone because he swings his head.
At the end of the day, Ragnar has helped me to clarify so much of what I’ve learned about rams. For anyone who has worked with horses or dogs, his issues surround dominance & power dynamics. The same way a horse needs to yield & back up, or a dog must be taught to respect a person’s space, Ragnar is the same. He needs to learn to yield. He once knew that a stomp of my foot, or snap of my finger, meant move away, but he no longer remembers these cues. If I was determined to retrain him, I think I would need to halter train him & have him get use to being haltered in one place (the same way horse trainers do). This is to learn patience, but also to establish a healthier power dynamic.
I raise my rams to be approachable, but respectful. What I mean by that is that I need a ram I can walk up to in the pasture, excluding breeding season, & grab hold of. I need to be able to check his eyes & doctor him if necessary.
I also want this ram to never approach me & if he does, I want to stomp my foot or snap my fingers & have him instantly back away. That’s my perfect ram.
By age 3, I’ll begin to occasionally pat rumps, but before that I try to only handle them at health checks. I’ll always speak to them affectionately. I’ll never discipline them with aggression. I’ll also never give them treats. This has worked well for me. They feel secure, but not coddled. They know what to expect from me & vice versa. I give them their space during breeding season. They have a serious job & I respect that, but otherwise they’re easy to get along with & stay with the flock. I move freely amongst everyone.
This is why I can’t keep Ragnar. He hasn’t outrightly proven the maxim: NEVER TRUST A RAM but he’s reminded me of the second most important maxim: TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS.
If you’re here because you enjoy the dialogue about rams & your new to rams then you must follow the first advice. Don’t turn your back on a ram, ever, ever. Don’t trust them. They are called rams for a good reason & they can do a lot of damage. Yet if you stay with shepherding you will develop intuition. You will remain wary & careful, but you’ll also develop a sixth sense, a natural instinct, for the animals you raise. Watch your back always, but raise animals where you’re not on eggshells. It’s no fun that way. BUT, if you ever doubt a ram, trust your instincts, & NEVER TRUST A RAM! I think I am beginning to sound like Dr Seuss, but hopefully the meaning is there.
In this case, I’m trusting my instincts. He hasn’t done that much wrong, very little actually, but he makes me very nervous. I have 7 mature rams at the moment & dislike the fact I’m being caught off guard by a ram that runs right up to me or worse sneaks up behind me. It’s not his fault, but I will never be able to trust Ragnar. He’ll be staying for breeding season. I am not worried about handing down a bad temperament. This isn’t genetics.
The last month has shown me this is a clear example of nurture over nature. He is obsessed with any & all buckets. He won’t hesitate to bully & intimidate to get to that bucket. He also flinches involuntarily every time I lift something over his head, even if it’s just a flake of hay. The first time I saw this reaction I wanted to cry. I’ve never seen a ram do that. It’s my guess that Ragnar fell into a cycle of getting treats, he was then pushy, then it escalated to aggression, & this was followed by physical punishment.
I will continue to advocate that appropriate behavior that is achieved by fear lacks the longterm solidity of behavior that is achieved with fairness, predictability, & respect. This includes horses, dogs, etc.. & rams!
Rams want boundaries (okay, fences during breeding season may not be their favorite, you can select for rams that don’t break fences, but for the majority of the year they want boundaries they can depend on).
A secure, confident, non-destructive, cooperative herdsire is better for the entire flock. Sheep grow better when conditions are harmonious. The herdsire plays a key role in achieving & maintaining this. I believe this can never be achieved with treats, affection or punishment. It must be earned with calm & consistent boundaries that make sense to both the ram & the shepherd.
So in conclusion, even the nicest ram, once he’s been allowed to acquire bad habits, is seldom worth the risk of rehabilitating. I know that’s sad, but when I was doctoring Ragnar recently he suddenly threw his head towards me. It wasn’t an attack, more a moment of dislikable peevishness, but he’s 202 lbs with thick horns, the impact of that horn left a big bruise. It is tender enough to remind me 10x a day that rams can hurt you. This was a stationery bump of a horn, not a ramming gesture. Ragnar has the potential to be extremely dangerous.
So between my intuition & aching leg, I’m going to have to let Ragnar go after breeding season. It’s sad, but I feel good about the fact that I bought him back & tried. I also feel he’s had the best months possible. It’s been fun to watch him decompress & lay under the trees with his very mellow sire. As usual, Lamborghini befriends everyone & Ragnar has taken to following him around. Sadly, Quixote, our LGD, has not forgiven or forgotten the cheap shots Ragnar took at him when his back was turned. I wonder sometimes if it’s just a grudge, or if Quixote is aware of the same ‘off’ energy I feel coming from Ragnar. Either way, I’ve been working hard to keep them apart so that Ragnar can have an enjoyable autumn. I wish things could have been different, but he’ll have a golden fall, plentiful hay & a few ewes.
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