Border collies are our best tools, hands down. Without them we would spend way more time moving sheep and gathering them would be close to impossible. With a small flock it is easy to bucket train sheep. They will come running when they hear feed and follow you wherever you want to go. But with a flock of close to 400 breeding ewes (and over 350 lambs at the moment,) you don’t really want them surrounding you when you have a bucket of feed. Sheep are at just the right height to take you out at the knees and trust me, they will. So here is where our border collie dogs come into play.

These dogs aren’t just any old collie, they are well bred and trained. We have four working dogs right now: Tess, Anna, Jill, and Glenn.

Typically a border collie starts their training around one year old and isn’t considered a “finished” dog (meaning they are done training) until they can demonstrate proficiency at all the skills. These dogs can be trained to work sheep, cattle, ducks, chickens, geese, and more. They are very smart, sometimes too smart for their own good!

Our number one goal is for all our dogs to be able to gather a pasture full of sheep, both big and small groups, and bring them to us. We also want our dogs to be able to walk the sheep to a new pasture or pen with the shepherd leading the way. Driving the sheep is also useful for us, that is when the shepherd is on the same side as the dog and is moving the sheep away.

Our dogs follow the basic commands for working sheep. These commands can vary from dog to dog or depending on what they are trained for or who they are trained by. Here is our most used commands and what they mean:

• Lie down - stop and lie in place

• Away to me (away) - gather or circle the sheep counterclockwise according to where the shepherd is

• Come by - gather or circle the sheep clockwise

• There - stop in place and face the sheep

• Walk up - walk in a straight line toward the sheep

• Steady - continue what you are doing but do it slower!

• Look back - look behind you and go gather the sheep you missed

• Out - get further away from the sheep during an away or come by command

Some dogs also respond to whistles as commands.

There is so much to know and learn about herding dogs! Check out our Facebook and Instagram to see videos of our dogs working and feel free to reach out with any questions you may have.