By Kathy Davison

The amazing skills of shepherds and their dogs during televised sheepdog trials have fascinated large audiences. There seems to be an uncanny, almost telepathic relationship between man and animal. But, although the performances are truly remarkable, they are easy enough to explain in terms of canine hunting behaviour. The working sheepdog is simply drawing on instincts inherited from its wolf ancestry and modifying its ancient hunting pattern to suit the needs of the shepherd. This becomes clearer by looking briefly at the way a wolf-pack behaves when it is stalking.

To be encircled by a pack of wolves is a memorable experience. Even with a well-fed pack you have known since they were cubs, there is an eerie sensation as the animals fan out around you. You know what it must feel like to be a hunted deer about to die. In the same moment you understand in a flash what a sheepdog is doing when it is herding a flock of sheep. As it runs this way and that, it is trying to act like a one-dog wolf-pack. The odds are heavily stacked against it. Instead of one prey and a whole group of predators, there is one lone predator and a whole group of prey. The poor sheepdog must do the work of ten wolves, and it is little wonder that these amazing dogs die much younger than other breeds, so exhausted are they by their absorbing work.

The reason why sheepdogs push themselves to the limits is that as soon as they have crouched down in one place, eying the sheep with a fixed expression, they notice that, to their lupine horror, there is no wolf to the left of them and no wolf to the right either. They alone constitute the primeval encirclement. So they scurry this way and that, running and crouching, running and crouching, trying to be a whole circle of wolves all at once. The wolf instincts inside them will settle for nothing less.

The hunting strategy they are acting out is based on four inborn ‘instructions’. The first says: when you have singled out a prey, you will approach it to approximately the same distance as your pack-mates. The second says: you will position yourself equidistant from the wolf on your left and the one on your right. Put together, these two rules automatically produce a circle of wolves around the prey. If you have ever watched a pack forming a circle around your own body, you will see how these two rules interact. When the group first sights you and advances, it may be quite tightly clustered together. Then, as it approaches, each wolf moves apart from its nearest companions and continues to spread out, but keeping a set distance from you. Encirclement, which looks so elegant and complex, is therefore really quite a simple manoeuvre. The sheepdog, as it dashes from one position to another around a flock of sheep, sets its own ‘key distance’ from the flock and then proceeds to fill the different stations Qf its missing pack-mates, one after the other.

A third feature of hunting by a wolf-pack is the ambush element. One particular wolf may take off on its own, separate from the encircling pack, and hide from the prey. Lying still on the ground, it waits as the rest of the group slowly drive the nearly encircled victim towards it. This ambush refinement is also part of the sheepdog’s strategy. Sometimes it will run and lie, as if hidden, low on the ground, fixating upon the flock of sheep. At this moment it is the ambusher, but when the flock starts to move, it must then become the whole encircling group again.

A final and crucially important aspect of wolf-hunting is the role of the dominant member of the pack. This ‘top wolf’ is the one that initiates the various moves and decides on the selection of a particular prey. The other wolves pay great attention to its behaviour and follow its lead. This avoids disagreements which would completely destroy the efficiency of the hunt. For the sheepdog, the shepherd is the ‘top wolf’, and his commands are therefore readily accepted at moments where decisions have to be made as to how to manipulate the flock of sheep.