Whoever trained Red initially trained him to do broad outruns – that is, to find the widest perimeter or boundary, and circle it around the sheep. I think if I did not have fences, Red would run all the way to Montreal. We started today with “Come Bye,” the sheep were moving towards the gate, and I wanted Red to head them off. His outruns are so wide that I have to be careful that he turns in before the sheep leave. I do this by giving the command “there,” which means Red turns in towards the sheep and gets closer.

“Go-bye” or “Come Bye” is the traditional Scottish herding command for sending a dog around the sheep in a clockwise direction. “Away To Me” is the command for running around the sheep counter clock-wise, in the opposite direction. The ideal for the handler is to have Good Sheep, or sheep that move away easily from the dog, do not panic or show fright, remain together as a flock, and are in good enough shape to run considerable distances.

Sheep need to be healthy and have considerable lasting power, border collies have astonishing speed and stamina. It is, to me, painful, even cruel to use sheep for herding work that are not used to running. They can overheat easily.

In Europe, the border collie’s work is different than here. There is not much land in places like Ireland, and the dogs often take the sheep out to pasture, stay with them and bring them back. In the United States, there is a lot of land, border collies do a lot of trial work and some farm work. I trialed with Orson and Rose, got some ribbons, but I prefer the farm work now.

Whoever trained Red initially did a wonderful job, he was, I think, trained as a trial dog, but the work he mostly does on Bedlam Farm is as a farm dog, a different series of tasks, a different set of commands.  I did have to re-train him for that, he is a phenomenal dog, bright, alert and responsive. All winter,  I did not need him to do any outruns, we were working closing, moving the sheep about, moving through heavy snow, navigating narrow paths,  keeping the sheep from the donkeys and from fights over grain. He picked this up intuitively, he did a wonderful job for us.

Now, with the snow melting, he can return to more traditional herding work, he brings the sheep out to the side pastures, sits with them, brings them back. This is the work he was born and bred to do, loves to do, and I am proud of the fact that we can do it just about every day, the farm is designed for it. People pull their cars over on the road and watch.

This photo was of the beginning of the Bedlam Farm 2015 Sheepherding season, it began with “Come Bye.”