In Italy, or at least Lazio, the sheep are guarded in the fields by vast woolly white dogs called pastori italiani. Sometimes it’s hard to spot them as they can be indistinguishable from the sheep themselves. They don’t round up the sheep, like English sheepdogs, but simply stand guard. Sometimes three or four of the dogs are deployed to guard a flock.  The dogs work shifts, occasionally allowing one another time off.  Back in Derbyshire, these cute lambs in the field next to my parent’s house are a few weeks old. This pair of twins are numbered 18, but the birth rate has meant we are now apparently up to at least number 64…