Acting on commands from owner and trainer Linda Bell of Georgetown, Windslow, a champion Australian shepherd, moves a herd of sheep into a corral.
Dance, a young Australian shepherd, cools his feet in a water bucket before escorting the farm’s ducks and guineas into their pens for the night.
Photos by Rebekah Workman ,Special to Country World
Working like a dog
By Clay Coppedge, Country World Staff writer
Dec. 20, 2007 - Sometimes the best cowhand a livestock person can have is a dog. That goes for herding sheep and even ducks. If someone actually wanted to try to herd cats, a good place to start would be with a certain kind of dog.
For Linda Bell of Georgetown, that dog is the Australian Shepherd, which was given its name because of an association with Basque sheepherders who came to America from Australia in the 1800s.
The breed as we know it today was developed in the 19th and 20th centuries as farm and ranch dogs, primarily in the American West. They were put to work moving large herds of sheep or cattle from summer grazing grounds and back, flushing livestock out of heavy brush and moving the cows or sheep into chutes or other tight quarters.
Bell’s dogs herd her ducks and guineas to shelter each night, which might not, in our minds, be the most glamorous of jobs but one that comes in handy for anybody with recalcitrant fowl.
From their days as working dogs, many Aussies, including Bell’s, have become show dogs. One of her dogs, Winslow, has placed first at nationals in all three disciplines: herding sheep, ducks and cattle, sort of a Triple Crown achievement for canines. If Winslow were a human athlete he would have a multi-million dollar guaranteed contract and commercial endorsements worth a few more million.
As it is, Bell is thankful for the sponsorship of Doug Trainor at Georgetown Farm Supply, who helps with the expenses involved with raising show dogs and taking them all over the country to compete.
“Mentally and financially, that’s been a real boost,” she says.
Like a superstar athlete, Winslow is a combination of natural talent and hard work. Aussies, as their owners affectionately refer to them, are by nature hard workers. The general consensus among close observers of the breed is that if you don’t give them a job to do they will find a job. Trained properly, they will work until the cows – or sheep or ducks – come home. Left to their own devices, they can become bored and destructive.
“You won’t win finals without a dog with a strong herding instinct,” she says. “But a dog with the talent to win won’t if it isn’t trained properly.”
Bell adds a third ingredient to the successful formula: stock. The stock has to trust that the owner will protect them from the dog, and the dog has to trust the owner to give the proper commands. The owner has to trust the dog to carry out those commands.
As part of her training techniques, Bell uses a long stick with a bottle attached to the end to help her Aussies overcome their natural tendency to run the sheep in a straight line.
“Border collies like to kick out but an Aussie’s natural tendency is to go in a straight line,” she said. “That’s one of the first things you have to teach them.”
Two of her other dogs, Eli and Dance, show every indication of following in Winslow’s paw prints. In less than a year of training, Eli made it to the finals in New Jersey in October and placed ninth. Dance won a cattle class and duck class at national trials.
Back in the spring, when Bell was training Eli, she referred to him as a “Ferrari without brakes.” Walking was a hard discipline for Eli to learn in those early days. A dogtrot was about the best Eli could do when commanded to walk.
“Eli has brakes now,” she said.
Bell trains most of her dogs for show but she has clients who use Aussies for the time-honored purpose of moving cattle or sheep. Choosing the right dog for the job you want it to do is important, she says.
“Some dogs are too aggressive to herd ducks; they’ll run right over them if you’re not careful,” she says. “Other dogs are great at herding ducks but they’re too timid to move cattle.”
Champions, like Winslow, can adapt to the job at hand. Bell gives lessons and the occasional demonstration but she doesn’t have much to say about people who take their dogs to her ranch just to see how good the dogs are at running sheep. For one thing, there are the sheep to consider.
“My sheep don’t volunteer for this,” she says. “We don’t do this just for fun. I raise my sheep. It’s how I make my income.”
As such, she doesn’t need curiosity seekers running the stock ragged or, worse, running them into fences where they might get killed.
Aussies are not for everybody. They like to socialize with their owners and they like to work. Leave them with too much lonely idle time and the dog might find jobs its owners might not appreciate. It’s a situation that can lead to frustrated dogs and frustrated owners.
“If you buy one you should think long and hard about it and stay with it,” she says.
“And you have to remember that if you ever put them in a situation where they can run cattle or sheep, that’s what they’re going to do. Once that switch is flipped on, you can’t flip it off.”
