Herding with My “Enlightened Wolves”

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This post was originally published on ActiveHistory.ca.

black long-haired sheepdog herding at a competion
One of the author’s Belgian Shepherds, Khan, herding sheep. Photo courtesy of Fraser Telford.

My collections would, perhaps, better be termed a “pack” and a “herd”; the “collections” that both inform and provide respite from my research are my four dogs and my small flock of sheep.

It wasn’t until I was finishing up my doctorate in Chicago in Islamic and Middle East history that I finally had the opportunity to get a dog. Since 1998, our household has been sharing space with Belgian Shepherds, my “loyal wolves.” Belgian Shepherds have participated in my academic journey, telling me at 5:01pm that it was time to turn off the computer, stop working, and go for a play session, a run, or a swim in Lake Michigan. They still keep me company while reading, writing, or grading. But city-living can be difficult for a Belgian, a very active and intelligent herding dog who will choose a job for himself if you don’t give him one. Our first Belgian fit this bill and someone in the local Chicago dog park suggested we try taking Mr. Spock (named for his pointy ears) to a sheep farm to instinct test him with people who knew our breed.

Thus began my entry into the world of sheep and herding dogs. What started as an exercising outlet for my dog (and then there were two, then 3, and currently, 4 Belgians who live with us!), became a passion for seeing this breed do the job it was originally bred for back in continental Europe. After a few years of paying a dog trainer with Belgians and sheep to teach me how to train and compete in sheepherding trials in the US, my husband and I eventually moved for my academic career to a university in Australia, where we bought our first farm and sheep, and eventually to Canada, where we are now. We have a small flock of sheep, we compete in herding trials, or competitions on sheep, ducks, and cattle, I am a herding judge, and we teach people how to do this with their dogs as well. It is my “alternative life” from the rigors and pressures of academia, though somehow, this rural livestock-keeping lifestyle has come to intersect with my scholarly pursuits in ways I had never contemplated until we owned livestock ourselves. I suppose this was all very timely, as Animal History has recently become a new and innovative sub-field of historical inquiry that explores yet another largely “voiceless” group whose active agency in history is now finally being explored and amplified.

Learning the history behind herding dogs and their instincts led to my interest in wolves. The question of canine evolution comes to mind immediately.  When wolves and dogs became separate species is still being debated today, as well as whether humans “domesticated” or “humanized” canines, or if it was actually the reverse – that homo sapiens were actually “wolficized” – learning from early canis lupus how to follow herds and hunt, and how to work together as a social unit.1  “Commensal hunting” for survival that emerged between canids and hominids is said to have  caused “coevolution” between species rather than simple “canine domestication.”  Indigenous knowledge now informs and is being incorporated into research about these questions of pre-modern canine-human relationships.2

As humans domesticated ovines and bovines, dogs became a loyal helper in the agricultural revolution.

At some point, the transition from cooperative hunting and coexistence between canids and hominids coincided with evolutionary patterns that resulted in the separation of canine species into wolves and dogs. As humans domesticated ovines and bovines, dogs became a loyal helper in the agricultural revolution. Dogs became useful as livestock guardians protecting against predators; they accompanied shepherds as they ambled with their flocks in search of grazing pastures. This trajectory of domestic canines, dogs, eventually placed them in an often-adversarial relationship with their wolf ancestors, who became a threat to the shepherd’s livelihood by preying upon their livestock.

The most ironic part of this story of wolves and dogs is that, as livestock management became a significant aspect of human life, and as the predatory wolf population was intentionally decimated by humans, dogs that could assist shepherds in raising and moving their flocks and herds became a reliable, efficient, and often necessary tool. In other words, as they killed off the real wolf, the physical wolf of the wilderness, humans had to create an “imaginary wolf” – the loyal (herding) dog – to facilitate livestock production. Beyond the early livestock guardian-type canines that merely protected herds against predators, now humans needed herding dogs that could contain and control livestock. I call these herding dogs “enlightened wolves,” for their ability to assist human shepherds with their livestock.

Herding dog behaviors originated from the hunting instincts of a wolf pack to chase, surround, and kill their prey. The human shepherd was able to redirect and utilize these instincts for their own survival and profit.

Herding dog behaviors originated from the hunting instincts of a wolf pack to chase, surround, and kill their prey. The human shepherd was able to redirect and utilize these instincts for their own survival and profit. Human engineering modified those wolfish instincts; selective breeding of canines suppressed some types of “prey drives” based upon the needs of shepherds, the conditions of the local terrain, and the type of livestock the dogs were responsible to herd.3 While many human societies eagerly anticipated living without the predatory wolf in their world and acted on that hope by mercilessly killing wolves, they simultaneously developed a deep bond, an affection, for their “enlightened wolves,” the dogs who lived with them, worked with them, and herded for them.

Livestock management with dogs inevitably led to competition, to rival shepherds wanting to claim their type of “enlightened wolf” was the best at their job. Dogsports that demonstrated certain canine abilities were already popular; by the mid-nineteenth century the first sheepdog herding competitions, or trials, were held in New Zealand, Australia, and in the UK, and soon after also in the United States. Most of these were the traditional Border Collie style competitions, although in continental Europe, a particular style of herding trial was also developed for European breeds, the first having been held in Brussels in 1892.

A sheep dog penning a group of sheep at a herding competition while a crowd looks on in 1930
Luke Pasco and Heather Jean “penning an unruly group of ewes before an audience in the south” in the late 1930s. Photo courtesy of Wendy Jones of Cabot, Vermont, whose mother, Ruth Botz Jones, an undergraduate student at the time, took the photos and submitted them to Wisconsin Country Magazine, published by the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Extension Service.

Nineteenth century nationalism and eugenics spurred countries to create a “national breed.” Since livestock management was a major aspect of Anglo-European economies, herding breeds would be embraced as several nations’ canine symbols.  In the United Kingdom, it would be the Border Collie, who is now also associated with Australia and its Merino wool industry. Once the wolf population had been erased from the UK and land clearances and enclosure had created vast estates, sheep could be left to forage freely across the countryside until it was time for shearing or taking to market. Thus, shepherds bred dogs who showed the instinct to run in a wide circle or “outrun” across vast distances, and rather independently find and bring in the flock. The Border Collie and a few other related breeds control the livestock from a distance with their instinctual wide outrun, crouched posture (replicating a wolfish hunting stance) that allows the dog to get behind the stock somewhat undetected, and the “strong eyed” stare that can pressure livestock to take flight away from the dog.

Nineteenth century nationalism and eugenics spurred countries to create a “national breed.”

In continental Europe circumstances were different. Wolves had not been eradicated, and there were other potential predators like bears who could threaten a shepherd’s flocks. In addition, the land tenure systems had evolved differently, with many smaller farms adjacent to one another, often with no fences between them. Grazing one’s livestock required a human shepherd to take their herd out of a barn or enclosure and walk with them along roads or paths to a pasture to graze for the day before bringing them home at night. They needed a dog that could amble along the side of the flock as the shepherd led them, stretching them out in a line. The dog’s responsibility was to “patrol” along the side of the flock as a “living fence” to keep the herd off the neighbor’s crops. The herd was part of the traffic pattern, and if a cart (or vehicle) was passing it, the dog needed to move the livestock to one side, out of the way. The dog had to make sure none of the flock lagged back or strayed from the path. Once in a grazing area, the dog kept watch, containing and patrolling when needed to make sure the whole herd remained there until the human shepherd decided it was time to head home. Part herding dog, part guardian, this style of work has been called “tending.” The dogs selectively bred for this style of work have larger statures, are “loose-eyed” or “upright” dogs, and their instinct is to work physically closer to the livestock. They use their more imposing presence to pressure the herd instead of a staring eye, and their larger, sometimes wolf-like physique would also deter predators. The German Shepherd is perhaps the most famous breed for this style of work, though Belgian Shepherds, Briards, Beaucerons, and a few others became well-known as tending dogs. As powerful working breeds, these tending breeds were the choice for Germany, Belgium, and France respectively. Most continental European countries still have a national breed that works as a tending dog.

Black sheep dog herding sheep at a competition in Texas.
Black sheepdog herding sheep at a competition in Texas.

Mr. Spock competing in Tending-style herding trials in Texas in 2008, patrolling and watching over the flock. Author’s photos.

Ultimately, the existence or disappearance of wolves influenced national economies that relied on livestock production, and dictated how dogs were selectively bred to manage this industry. In some places, wolves are slowly recovering from humans’ destructive instincts. Wildlife biologists and conservation organizations studied and came to recognize the integral role wolves played in herbivore population control as apex predators. There are still no wolves in the United Kingdom, but wolf packs are naturally reemerging in continental Europe. In the United States, work to reintroduce wolves in Yellowstone Park began in the 1990s with the release of several Canadian packs there. Some ranchers complain about livestock losses and demand the right to shoot and trap wolves. However, many farmers prefer to use their “enlightened wolves,” guardian and tending dogs, to coexist with the wolf.

Feature Image: “Reggie the Wonder Dog Herding Sheep with Solar Shepherd” by AgriSolar Clearinghouse is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Notes

1 See Wolfgang M. Schleidt, “Is Humaneness Canine?” Human Ethology Bulletin 13:4(1998), 1-4; Wolfgang M. Schleidt and Michael D. Shalter, “Co-evolution of Humans and Canids: An Alternative View of Dog Domestication: Homo Homini Lupus?” Evolution and Cognition 9:1(2003), 57-72.

2 See also Raymond Pierotti & Brandy R. Fogg, The First Domestication: How Wolves and Humans Coevolved (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017) for how canines and humans first interacted, and well-known wolf research biologist L. David Mech critiques some of these ideas in his “Do Indigenous American Peoples’ Stories Inform the Study of Dog Domestication?” Ethnobiology Letters 10:1 (2019), 69–75.

3 See Raymond & Lorna Coppinger, Dogs: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior & Evolution (NY: Scribner, 2001) for a detailed discussion of the suppression of certain prey drives to create certain dog breeds, depending upon the job of the dog.

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Renée Worringer

Renée Worringer is a Professor of Islamic & Middle East History at the University of Guelph. Her previous publications include Ottomans imagining Japan: East, Middle East, and Non-Western Modernity at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and A Short History of the Ottoman Empire (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020). She is currently working on a book about wolf folklore, sheep, and herding dogs in human history.

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