Paul Flynn was taking his dog Daisy for a walk through Durham city centre when the sheepdog in training stopped in her tracks.
There, in front of her, was a 25 foot tall sheep. What’s a poor sheepdog to do? Stand up bravely and try to herd it of course.
Flynn says the giant sheep sculpture definitely confused Daisy. But he encouraged her to come over to it because he wanted her to conquer her fear. Flynn said, “I could see she was a bit worried about it and I wanted her to get over that and realize it was something that’s plastic.”
We understand why. We wouldn’t want Daisy assuming there were sheep out there the size of the 25 foot sculpture! “She’s a sheep dog in training so she’s still not there yet but I just told her to go up to it,” said Flynn. “She then had a go at herding it which was kinda funny so I encouraged it further.”
The pair often go walking together and Dasy can walk all the way through Durham off the lead. Flynn said, “She’s a really fun dog who always has a little bit of a play.”
He reveals that when they walked by it later that night on their way home from work Daisy attempted to herd the statue for the second time. Paul said: “We came back that night and there was a really good crowd of people around the sheep, because it was lit up.” The statue was part of Durham’s Lumiere light festival.
“So I let her go and say hi to the sheep and give it a good barking at, but this time she was on the lead,” Flynn told SWNS. “There were people there, including young children and families, so I let her say hello to it. But someone did turn around and say it made their day because they saw a Collie barking at the sheep.”
