The Herding Test

A few months ago I registered Ms. Jumping Josie Foxotter (aka Josie) with the AKC Purebred Alternative Listing (PAL). PAL is a registry for purebred dogs that don’t have papers (ie their parentage is unknown or undocumented). A benefit of registering your dog as a specific breed is that it allows the dog to compete in breed specific AKC trials and to be judged against dogs of the same breed in other types of trials. One example of the latter is the Fast Cat which is essentially a 100 yard dash for dogs. If your dog is registered as a purebred then he/she can be ranked nationally for their breed. (Right now Josie is 23 out of 43 cattle dogs for 2021, but she is working on improving that.)

So, after the AKC accepted Josie as a purebred cattle dog, they sent us some paperwork, and in that paperwork I read about some sports/trials/tests that I wasn’t aware of previously. I learned about herding trials and tests that only herding breeds can participate in. Specifically, there was one test called an “instinct test” that required no previous experience with herding or livestock. The purpose of this test was strictly to test your dog’s natural instinct to herd by introducing them to sheep.

Well, that sounded like a lot of fun! We knew Josie had herding instincts because she likes to bite the heels of anything that moves (including doors), but what would she do when she met a sheep? We wanted to find out! So I got online and searched AKC events for one of these tests and found one being held on a farm in Bushnell (about a 2 hour drive away).

There were a lot of other herding trials at the same event and Josie’s test was scheduled to be the last one of the day, so we had to wait a couple of hours for our turn. From where we were waiting we couldn’t see the sheep trials but we could see some of the penned sheep through a fence. We weren’t supposed to disturb those sheep but I wanted Josie to at least see some sheep before she was let loose with them. So I walked here near the fence and her first reaction to the sheep was fear, followed shortly thereafter by intrigue and then excitement. And then I got yelled out for being too close to the sheep. While we were waiting, a woman approached us and introduced herself as the owner of the farm. She asked me a couple questions about Josie’s and my experience and upon hearing the answers she proclaimed “this is not an instinct test” followed by “this is going to be interesting“! Well, it turns out that the “Herding Test” (HT) that I signed up for was different than the “Herding Instinct Test” (HIT) that I thought I was signing up for. Apparently, Josie and I were supposed to have some experience around sheep in order to take this test. So, it was going to be up to the judge whether or not to allow us to proceed.

The owner of the farm felt sorry for me, so before Josie’s test started, she kindly took me (without Josie) into the pen with 3 friendly/tame sheep and showed me that Josie and I were going to have to walk the sheep back and forth between 2 cones, changing direction 3 times. These sheep were following us as we walked and I learned that Josie just had to stay engaged and not run amuck as we all went back and forth between the cones. Also, I had to exhibit some sort of control over her – I had to get her to stay briefly off-leash at the beginning and then get her to stay and be leashed at the end. After walking with the friendly sheep I started to feel a bit hopeful that Josie and I could do this!

Our turn came and before we began, the judge gave us a briefing and explained the rules. She had already heard about Josie and my lack of prerequisites, and said that we could go ahead with the test as long as I understood that if things got out of hand she’d have to stop the trial immediately.

And so it began. The video below includes the whole test except for the very beginning. From my point-of-view during the test, it looked like Josie was running amuk and I was expecting the judge to put a halt to it at any moment. So at the end when the judge told me that we passed, it was a bit of a shock. But now as I watch the video, it is clear that one of us (Josie, that is) knew what we were doing all along! So now the big question is do we start taking herding lessons so we can compete?! 🐑