They huddled together on the intramural field like a football
team. All seven of them ran within two feet of the crowd sprawled
in the grass. Luckily for the girl who jumped up at the sight of
the sheep racing toward her, Corey saved the day.
Corey is a sheepdog.
As the capstone project for his Fiat Lux seminar,
“Sheepdogs and Shepherding in History: the British Border
Collie, Past and Present,” history Professor Albion Urdank
staged a shepherding demonstration on the IM field Wednesday in
front of a crowd that grew from 20 to ultimately over 30, as
passersby wandered on to find out exactly why sheep were on the
athletic field in the middle of the afternoon.
The demonstration precedes Urdank’s July trip to Ireland
for the World Sheepdog Trials in pursuit of what is considered the
highest honor in the sport of shepherding. This will be the first
time an American team will participate in the competition in its
132-year history, due to previous United Kingdom restrictions on
bringing animals into the country.
The IM field demonstration, which ran from 2 to 4 p.m., started
on a quiet note, as the small crowd of students and inquiring minds
chatted while they waited for the sheep and dogs, which came with
Urdank from his ranch outside of Los Angeles. Kathleen Addison, a
UCLA graduate history student and part-time lecturer at California
State University Northridge, used the time to chat with fellow
shepherding enthusiasts, while her own sheepdog, Beryle, ran
around, testing the limits of her purple leash as she tried to join
the crowd a few feet away.
“It’s just like “˜Babe,’ without the
pig,” Addison said of shepherding.
Sudden clapping and a low-volume chanting of “Sheep!
Sheep!” from the crowd signaled the arrival of Urdank and the
animals, as a red truck and white trailer pulled onto the field.
After the sheep were released from their trailer and began running
around the field, closely followed by Urdank’s border collies
Maeve, Kep and Corey, Urdank began with an introduction detailing
what was to come.
The job of sheepdogs is to take care of flocks, move and warn
sheep and help in everyday tasks, such as lambing, giving birth to
sheep, he said. A sheepdog trial course is a way to test the
ability of the dogs to live up to the standard set for them.
“The most common stereotype is sheep are stupid, when in
fact they are formidable foes,” Urdank said.
The demonstration covered a typical sheepdog trial course,
involving tasks such as runs (when the dog leaves the handler and
goes to find the sheep), lifts (the actual approach of the dog to
the herd of sheep, causing them to move or “lift”),
fetches (when the dog brings the sheep to the handler) and drives
(a directing of the sheep in a triangle leading back to the
handler). In competition, points are deducted for various faults,
such as the sheep not being in a reasonably straight line, canine
hesitation to command from the handlers, and too much command from
the handlers. The objective is to show the dog’s ability to
take command, but also to observe the independent control of the
dog.
Maeve, 12, was the first to go, finishing the course in
“excellent” fashion, according to a friend of
Urdank’s who was narrating the travel of the dogs through the
course. Maeve finished the typically 10- to 12-minute course in
about six minutes.
And then came Corey.
Nine years old and on the verge of retirement, she came out and
completed the course, not to mention intervening between the sheep
and the crowd at the end of the show. Corey quickly guided the
sheep away from the crowd as she followed them from behind.
Bahrem Karparvar, a fifth-year biology student and one of the
five students in Urdank’s seminar, said he enjoyed the show
more than the book-centered class, though the class was
“pretty good.” A passion for the sport of shepherding
like Urdank’s isn’t what drove him to the class, he
said.
“To be frankly honest, I just took the class. I said,
“˜Sheepdogs? Well, there’s something to
learn,'” he said.