Heifer, a border collie owned by Tom Blasdell, is assisted by Mavrik, a Welsh corgi owned by Arlette Baldwin of Kenai, during a physical demonstration to herd sheep.
Blasdell explains the concept of training a dog to herd livestock. In regard to instructions, he said typically dogs learn much faster than their owners.
Tom Blasdell, a cattle dog instructor from Prineville, Ore., watches closely as Siduri, an English shepherd owned by Sue Robinson of Fritz Creek, herds sheep during a two-day herding clinic at the Lancashire Farm, just outside of Soldotna, earlier this month.
Heifer, a border collie owned by Tom Blasdell, watches livestock with the same intense gaze that helped her earn the Western Cattle Dog Association's Dog of the Year title in 2006.
Story last updated at 6/15/2008 - 2:17 pm
Above the herd : Trained dogs work to keep the flock in check
Watching Tom Blasdell work with his dog, a 3-year-old female border collie named Heifer, one could easily think the two shared a telekinetic bond.
Blasdell was giving audible commands, but the black-and-white-colored canine's responses were so instantaneous and precise, it was as though she perceived what he was saying before he even said it. And according to Blasdell, this is true to some degree.
"Walk up," he said, while approaching a loose group of scruffy, white sheep that stared wide-eyed at him and Heifer, who immediately began walking toward the livestock as soon as the command was given.
From a low-crouching position, the border collie moved slowly and deliberately. Like a wolf stalking caribou on the open tundra, there was finesse in each of the dog's steps. Her eyes were wide and seemed never to blink.
The sheep acted like the prey for the day that they were. They bunched together tightly and began moving as a small herd rather than several individual animals.
"Walk up," Blasdell said again, and again Heifer responded. Even for someone who was a novice to livestock management it was clear Blasdell was beginning to drive the dog and the sheep with the command.
"Walk up. Away-to-me, There. Down," he said, to which Heifer approached the sheep, made a turn to the right, stopped and then lied down.
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