The handler is apparently issuing commands to the dogs with some whistles. A lot of them. What do these whistles mean? Is he addressing the dogs as a group, telling them to move the herd this way or that? Or is he addressing the dogs on an individual basis? What is he telling the dogs to do?
The behaviors the dogs have are bred in then refined by commands–a basic glossary of what a herding dog is being told can be found here. He’s got the dogs into position around the ducks then issues commands to make them herd the ducks where he wants them–probably these guys work together so much that by now they know which command is meant for which dog based on where they are and each dog takes the task that makes the most sense. Like if he wants the dogs to move the ducks straight forward, the dog in the rear will push them on while the flanking dogs make sure none of the ducks make a break to the side. Another thing you can’t see in the video is that herding dogs watch you and know when you’re looking at them so the dogs watch the handler to see if he’s “talking” to them. I can eyeball my heeler cross and make head gestures to get her to pick up a specific toy off the floor. Those are some well trained doggos there, I love watching border collies work.
Competitive sheepdog trials used to be a regular Sunday evening programme on the BBC:
That sure beats the hell out of Lawrence Welk reruns
Sorry, I can’t let this thread pass without this YouTube link to the best herding dog ever.
Douglas Adams really should have made Border Collies the second most intelligent lifeforms on earth.
My first thought on reading the thread title: border collies are really smart, but they aren’t posting here. You’re not going to get any answers from them.
For a more useful answer: the whistles mean what the handler has trained the dogs they mean. That can differ from handler to handler. This site has some sound clip examples of common commands.
For the most part, it’s circle clockwise, circle counterclockwise, go away from me, come to me, go to the herd, come to the herd, and stop.
If the shepherd wants the flock to move forward, he might give commands or whistles like “clockwise, counterclockwise, clockwise, counterclockwise, clockwise, counterclockwise” to make the dog go from 3 to 9 to 3 to 9, pushing the herd forward.
When a trainer works multiple dogs at once, he teaches them each a different set of whistles so they know which dog is being addressed, to do what. As Chessic Sense said, the basic commands are which way to circle, to stop, to walk directly toward the herd, and to quit working and come to the handler. But any instinctive dog will wear (go back and forth behind the flock to tuck the sides of the flock in and move it in the direction indicated) without any commands at all. I have a dog right now who wears behind my horse, believing she is herding it – just her instinct to do so. It’s annoying but luckily my horse ignores her.
A trialing Border Collie responds to incredible nuances of these commands, to the point that with a whistle the trainer can lift the dog’s foot and put it down – from a quarter mile away. Although the dogs are extremely intelligent, it isn’t intelligence that makes this possible, but intensity, athleticism, instinct and obedience.
I once owned a CD of whistles by a famous Scottish trialer. It was total gibberish to me, just way way too complicated. I taught my dogs the whistles for lie down and for ‘walk up’ (go slowly straight towards the herd), ‘come by’ (go clockwise) and ‘way t’me’ (go counter clockwise), and that’s all I could manage.
By the way, those shepherd whistles are really hard to learn how to make any sound at all with. They are just a folded piece of metal with a hole in it. But they are hella loud once you figure it out.
I won’t make more jokes about the marines, but… to be a good working dog, you’ve got to be dumb enough to want follow orders. The really smart breeds don’t make good working dogs.
I own a working border collie, my third, and you’re wrong. They’re not just bred for obedience and intelligence, but also a quality we call ‘biddability’, which just means they are trained to WANT to follow orders. There’s a world of difference between submissive and subordinate, and a good sheepdog’s relationship with his handler/owner is like Silvio on the Sopranos: they’re a consigliatore, the boss’s right-hand who brings with him the authority to make boss-type decisions, i.e. with stock that are out of sight of the handler, a standard test in a trials. The collie anticipates what you will want and reacts accordingly. They’re frighteningly intelligent and every BC owner has stories of the dog doing things that aren’t simply difficult, they’re impossible.
Yeah, herding dogs have a lot of internalized rules knowledge and the smarts and drive to put that to work–my heeler cross doesn’t actually KNOW she’s supposed to herd the cat if she gets out but she damned well knows the cat isn’t SUPPOSED to be out, can hear me calling the cat and being upset about the situation so she just HOLDS that cat right where she is until I come along and fix the situation. She’d keep that cat in place if she had to sit on it, run circles around it, grab it by the back of the neck and hold it or do whatever the hell she felt necessary in order to make the situation right–which means getting the cat inside or making sure I can get it inside. She just recently did this on her own volition, with no command and not even within eyesight of me at all and she’s never before seen the cat get out. Easiest job I ever had getting that recalcitrant kitteh back in the house–usually if she escapes she’s UNDER the house like a shot and I have to break out a big bag o’treats to lure her within grasping range. This time, Shoga had her out in the open, dog between her and the house and circling and aggravating at her until I just swooped her up and deposited her on the correct side of the door. Good doggo!
Watching a herding dog be VERY UPSET that the RULES ARE NOT BEING OBEYED is pretty funny but it can cause them distress if they’re very sensitive. Yelling at a herding dog really doesn’t work because they will already be feeling inadequate and terrible that they didn’t do the Right Thing and allowed you to get mad at them. I totally understand why most people don’t like herding dogs, they can be a handful but so rewarding if you understand them and give them a job to do. Even if that job is just following you everywhere.
I’ve just been reading A Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks, about sheep farming in the Lake District in England. It’s a brilliantly written book, and a New York Times bestseller.
The sheep live freely on the fells (mountainsides) for most of the year. From time to time all the shepherds in the area go together up the fells with their dogs to gather the sheep, bring them down, and sort out which sheep belong to which farm.
James Rebanks’ family have been sheep farmers in the Lake District for at least 600 years. That’s as far back as the records go, but it may be a lot longer. He himself took a break to get a degree from Oxford University (double first in history), before going back to run the family farm - which is the only thing he’s ever wanted to do.
Extract:
Sometimes verbal commands are used, such as “Come by” and “away” (presumably when the dog’s reasonably close by).
This seems to get at an important part of what I was wondering when I wrote the OP. So it’s not “Jeff, flankleft” and “Jim, flankright” - it’s more like “Jeffflankleft” and “Jimflankright”, with the whistles being distinct enough so that Jeff and Jim don’t interpret whistles not meant for them as anything other than gibberish.
I met a lady in a remote area of Northern California once. Her family were some of the original white people settlers back there. They had a Scottish neighbor who imported some “Border Collies” from Scotland in the late 19th century – I put that in quotes because they were not the trialing type at all. More like the “fell dogs” I guess. She still had some of that line; we agreed they were more like working-type Aussies than BCs. They raised sheep on several thousand acres of some of the roughest country I have been in outside the Rockies. Horses were of no use in much of it. The sheep ran feral until shearing time, and then they sent the dogs out to get them – alone. All day the sheep would come trickling in, and then finally the dogs, with their pads bloody. Then next day they would send them out anyway, to do another section. The people worked as hard as the dogs.
Those were hard dogs. I think that terrain and the heat would kill a trial-bred Border Collie dead. They are still around, especially in California, called McNab Dogs. Used more on cattle now. Slick-haired, loyal, not averse to biting people doing something they thought they shouldn’t. Good dogs.
I would love a McNab, they’re awesome dogs!
That they are.
There are only 10 commands needed to work any sheepdog, and each will have a corresponding whistle or physical gesture. The specific instructions the dog needs to know are:
- Stop
- Down
- Left
- Right
- come here
- Come on (move closer to the sheep)
- Come back (retreat from the sheep)
- Steady on (slow down)
- Speed up
- that’ll do (all-purpose quit)
In the OP I was impressed by the girl* who can bend herself into a croquet hoop.
Here is a team of handlers and dogs doing more than herd a handful of ducks. The resolution is pretty crummy so I suspect some of the dark specks are handlers working close to the sheep to do the subtle stuff.
*Can it be anything but a young girl?