@Zerose and Charlo47 : nice thoughts, this post deserves to be saved

And doesn't Oak shooting the disobedient dog which has destroyed his livelihood foreshadow Boldwood blasting off the villain Troy, come back from the dead to destroy his dream of having Bathsheba?

Revenge? Hahaha! The dog was clearly young and inexperienced as it bit several sheep while herding.
When Oak said "You mad dog", he was referring to the fact the dog was uncontrollable because the dog still hasn't learned how to conform to the 'rules' of herding. He'll come across this problem in Bathsheba, who'll be seen as uncontrollable for not conforming to the society's rules on how a woman should behave.

SPOILER i wondered about that too.. at the very beginning, he is yelling at the dog.. first he says "No, bad dog" and then he says "You mad dog" (i turned on captioning) so.. my thought is either the dog was just plain crazy and ran em off the cliff, or maybe he was mad at the owner for yelling at him, and got revenge on the owner.

I'm guessing that the dog did it because it was just trained to herd sheep and couldn't stop, even at night. It was an uncontrollable urge, unfortunately.

I still don't get it. Why did the dog run the sheep off the side of the cliff?
Velvet Voice

Sort of a mutual agreement. Thanks!

Fairly conclusive and fully comprehensive.
flfph.

Its a series of short stories.

Life is an incomplete story!
flfph