Do sheep 'pretend' to be lame??

[greydales]

We were walking across the field today when I noticed one of the sheep was walking on three legs. I thought she may have foot rot so we caught her, turned her over and I inspected every inch of her foot/leg but found nothing at all. All the while the two castrated boys were trying to jump on my back/eat my jacket/wellies/hair . Then got her on her feet again and she walked off totally sound!!

Sheep are strange creatures ...

[taffydales]

I don,t know about Sheep Gill, but Bridey our elderly dog(princess) starts limping every time Tony gives her a telling off about something, its so funny to watch.

[leannwithconnie]

Lol Gill...perhaps it was a bad back and flipping her over to look a the leg corrected it.

[cadeby]

I don't think sheep have the intelligence to "pretend" - most of their brain-power seems to be spent devising ways to either DIE or ESCAPE !!!

Perhaps the boys had roughed her up a bit, but the indignity of being tipped over effected a sudden cure???

I miss our sheep (we only have goats now) so like to see the photos of yours.

[DalesLady]

I agree with the idea sheep are put on this earth to DIE or ESCAPE - that seems to be about right, they die for fun!

Not had one pretend to be lame, or at least I don't think so, perhaps she had tweaked something and yhou put it right by handling her

[harleydales]

She may have had something caught between the cleys which fell out when you tipped her up?? If your ground is wet and the skin is soft, even a pine needle will cause irritation.

One of my boys was hopping lame last week for an hour....... then he was fine ??

[justjordie]

I had a Weimeraner called Heidi who suffered a very severe leg break as a pup. When ever she was in trouble or you asked her to do something she didn't want to she would hop. She was hilarious to bath cos she used to look pathetic a wave her 'bad' leg at you. Not sure about sheep though.