The amazing capacity of shepherds and their dogs during the sheepdog trials have captivated television audiences large. There seems to be a strange telepathic connection between man and animal. But even if performance is truly remarkable, are quite easy to explain in terms of hunting canine behavior. The sheepdog is working just drawing on instincts inherited from its ancestor the wolf and changing its ancient model of hunting to meet the needs of the pastor. This becomes clearer by looking briefly the way in which a pack of wolves when it involves stalking.

To be surrounded by a pack of wolves is a memorable experience. Even well-fed with a package that has known since they were puppies, there is a strange feeling as the fan of the animals around them. You know what it must feel like a hunted deer to die. At the same time to understand in an instant what a sheep dog is doing when a flock of sheep farming. Since running this way and that, trying to act like a dog-wolf pack. The odds are stacked heavily against him. Instead of a dam and a group of predators, there is a solitary predator and prey group. The poor sheepdog must do the work of ten wolves, and it is not surprising that these incredible dogs die much younger than other races, so exhausted by their work absorbing.

Sheepdogs - Sheepdogs

The reason sheepdogs push themselves to the limit is that as soon as they crouched in one spot, eyeing the sheep with a stare, they note that in their horror of lupine, it does there is no wolf to the left of them and no wolf to the right, either. They alone constitute the surrounding primitive. Then they rush to and fro, running and squatting, running and squatting, trying to be a circle of wolves at a time. The instincts of a wolf inside them will accept nothing less.

Hunting strategy, they act out is based on four congenital Guide. The first says: when you've highlighted an exchange, will you approach it to approximately the same distance as your pack-mates. The other says, you will position yourself at an equal distance from the wolf on your left and one on the right hand. Put together, these two rules automatically produce a group of wolves around the spoils. If you've ever seen a pack forms a circle around your body, you will see how these two rules interact. When the group first sights you and advance can be quite closely clustered together. So, as it draws near, each wolf moves apart from the closest comrades and continues to spread out, but keeping a certain distance from you. Encirclement, which looks so elegant and complex, is really a fairly simple maneuver. The shepherd, as it dashes from one position to another around a flock of sheep, makes its own 'main distance "from the crowd and then proceeds to fill the various stations QF his missing pack-mates, one after the other.