A Day in the Life of a Sheep Dog

While on our Ireland travels and around Dingle Bay, our tour guide informed us we would be making a ½ hour stop, but that participation was optional and would cost five euros each. We would be watching a demonstration of dogs herding a flock of sheep. I really wondered if something like watching dogs could possibly be worth money….but hey, it’s a vacation….and Bob highly recommended we attend. So, off we went to watch the shepherd, sheep dogs, and sheep.

The shepherd was an older gentleman who owns the land and runs approximately 250 head of sheep.

He told us that in order for a person to make a comfortable living off of sheep, he must own at minimum 600 head. In fact, he said that the wool he sells old barely covers his costs of shearing and shipping. Rather, the meat is where he receives his income, and even then, he only receives 1/3 of the price the consumer pays. I assume he provides this particular demonstration as a means to ensure he lives that comfortable lifestyle.

The shepherd has two dogs – Bess and Max. While they will respond to his voice commands, he primarily uses a whistle.

Each dog has a unique whistle that he/she has been trained to respond to: forward, back, side, and off. The dogs lie down (off), waiting for his command to move. In his first demonstration, he whistled for Bess to run up the hill (forward) and round up the 6-7 sheep. Subsequent whistles instructed her to move the sheep down the hill. Max, all the while, never moved from his spot and the bottom of the hill…although he was alert and ready.

The next demonstration allowed us to see the dogs working in tandem in order to cull one sheep out of the herd. It was fascinating to hear the shepherd talk to and whistle at the dogs, and how quickly they responded to his commands. They were obviously well trained animals.

Next, the shepherd had one of the dogs move the sheep from side to side, seemingly making them dizzy! The dogs then worked together again to move the sheep back up the mountain.

The speed of the dogs, particularly when they are running up a mountain, was extraordinary to watch. I wish I would have taken my video camera.

It was truly intriguing to watch the discipline of the animals and the rather gentleness of the shepherd. When the dogs would approach the sheep, they appeared to be stalking the animals. We were told that since dogs are descendants of the wolf, the sheep view them as predators, although they would never intentionally hurt the sheep.

The shepherd took many questions from the crowd and was eager to share his knowledge. He explained that when he intends to buy a pup, he goes to the seller’s place and asks to see his trained dogs in action. If the seller is unable or unwilling, he moves on to another seller. He firmly believes it is important to see the seller’s other dogs in action, to really get a good feeling for the quality of the animals being sold. On average, a dog is trained for 7 ½ months over a course of a year and a half. They usually work up to the age of about eight, when they tend to slow down. He has 5-7 dogs at any one time, and two who are in training. He told the crowd gathered that a dog’s hearing is seven times that of a human. He demonstrated this when both of the dogs were a good 500 feet up the mountain and he quietly gave them a voice command; one to which they quickly responded.

Next to the demonstration pasture was a smaller pasture with a variety of different sheep. I’ve included a picture of them, but frankly….I don’t remember what they were called. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of sheep.

We all greatly enjoyed this stop….who would have thunk??