During the 21 days of differential handling training, latencies for sheep in the gentle group to approach the trainer were recorded daily, as were the times taken until restrained sheep ceased struggling in the head gate. Gentle handling of the sheep resulted in a decrease (P< 0.01 ) in latencies to approach. The means_+ standard error, were 203.55 _+ 35.92 s on Day 1 to 88.55 _+ 32.12 s on Day 21. In addition, the sheep in the restrained condition appeared to habituate to their situation, as evidenced by the decrease (P