Since my llama story got such a great response from my
peers, I thought I would share another humorous experience from the Fort Worth
Stock Show. This time, I attended
the sheep dog show. I went once
when I was little but didn’t remember much about it.
For those who aren’t familiar with the sheep dog show. A sheep dog and its handler enter into
the arena at one end and three sheep enter at the other end. The dog is required to follow a certain
course before herding the three sheep into a pen. The handler commands the dog by verbal commands and/or
whistling. If the dog doesn’t
complete this task in the allotted time (5 minutes), it is disqualified.
On to the story.
I went with a group of about 20 (ranging in age from about 3-70+ years
old) and had a blast. However, we
do more than just watch the dogs.
We have a “dog draft.” For
each round, we get the list of the dogs, and we all pick a dog and bet a dollar
on our dog. If you win the round
you end up making about $15.
However, if your dog bites one of the sheep, your dog is disqualified
and you get your dollar back.
In this case, the sheep attacked the dog, and the dog
continued to fight back. What is
unusual about this situation is that the sheep first attacked the dog. Usually, the dogs are so excited to
round up the sheep that they run, catch up to them, and bite one of their
legs. Sheep are followers and tend
to stick together at all times. However,
in this instance, one sheep removed itself from the flock, faced the dog
face-to-face, and pounced.
We all broke out into laughter because of the unexpected
nature of the situation. We all
hope that some of the dogs disregard their handlers and go after one of the
sheep, but none of us expected any of the sheep to go after the dogs. The incongruity of this situation made
us all burst with laughter. What
was particularly amusing was the handler’s reaction to this situation. He thought he would be able to control the
dog and got visibly upset. Another
reason that this situation was so funny was how long it lasted. The dog and the sheep kept going back
and forth at one other. The
handler couldn’t control the situation and the animals were determined to be
defiant. We felt sympathy for the
handler because he had worked to hard to train his dog, but we were more
excited to watch what “wasn’t supposed to happen.”
And as we all laughed at the situation, I looked over to my
friend whose dog was involved in this incident, and I was thankful that this
wasn’t “my dog.” However, the dog
I did pick – Dell – did go on the win his round, and I walked away with
$16…just enough to cover the price of parking and a coke.
Luckily, I was able to capture the end of this moment on
video, and now it can bring laughter to others…
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