While in Oregon, my parents and I attended a Sheep Herding Competition. It was surprisingly fun and I feel like I learned a lot. But it isn’t as simple as it looks in the movie Babe – let me tell you.
Here is the course that the trainer has to navigate the dog through.
The trainer has to stand at a pole while the dog does the “out run” all the way at the end of the field and gets the sheep. Since the dog is so far away, the trainer uses a whistle to tell the dog where to go and what to do. But hopefully, the dog can do this part all on its own.
Then they herd the sheep back to the trainer, through a set of fences, around the trainer, through gate 1 and gate 2. Then the trainer is finally able to leave the pole and go to the “shed ring.” It is here that they try to get two sheep away from the others, preferably the two who are wearing colored neck scarves. Then they get all five into the pen, shut the gate, and if there is time left they go back to the shed ring and get one sheep away from the others. That is hard because sheep don’t like to be alone. They enjoy the company of their companions.
Oh, and did I mention that they have to do all of this in 13 minutes. Each section is worth points, so you want to finish the course, but you also need to do it without losing points. The fewer calls you make with your dog the better.
Here are some pics. I only had my iPhone, so they aren’t the best.
Going around the pole.
Trying to get the sheep into the pen.
If the dog bites at the sheep they are disqualified. It happens – it happened 2x in the 3 hours we were there.
I was really impressed and it made me want a border collie and train them. All the trainers had their dogs just trailing after them as they walked all around. They were really well behaved dogs.
What I wish I had gotten a picture of was that the dogs who weren’t competing at the moment would line up at the fence and watch what was going on. You could tell that they were thinking about what they would do if they were out there. It was adorable.
If you get a chance to see a competition – go. It is quite an experience. To read more about the rules click here – this website has a lot of great information.
