Anywho, back to the hook. When I was real little there were Basque sheep herders around that would drive their flocks thru town once in a while. (Thousands of sheep everywhere.) For everyday driving, they had just a walking stick. (The dogs, usually border collies, did all the work.) A hook like stick would be used when working the sheep in pens and loading them onto trucks and RR cars. Never witnessed a shearing but I bet they used them then too. I wonder if they use cattle prods nowadays?
I bet that someone on the Boards knows the answer but is too sheepish to say it.
The shear abundance of puns in this thread has fleeced the OP of his deserved answer. Now go to your corners and mewl over what you’ve done.
Boy the punsters are really flocking to this thread, huh?
A goat’ll do that…
wait,what?
Woo, these puns are really baa-a-a-a-a-a-d.
Ha! Best one so far.
In some areas the sheperds used stilits to keep up with the flock over broken/muddy ground and used the staff as a third leg/stool when at rest.
IMHO the best reason for the end of the staff to be curved over. 