All these posts, lately, about letters and herding kind of remind me of when I interviewed a working Briard in France. I was interested in finding out how they did their boundary work and what they thought were the most important parts of their job. I found a Briard tending a medium size flock, about 300 head, and I asked him if he would mind me asking him a few questions. (I did have a French translator along.)
Myself: Can you tell me what are the most important things you need to know to do your job?
Briard: I would say the three R's are about the most important things a dog needs to know.
Myself: What are the three R's?
Briard: Reading, Riding, and Rithmatic.
Myself: Can you explain these and how they relate to your duties tending this flock?
Briard: Oh, sure. I'll start with Rithmatic. When we take the herd out to graze, in the morning, I always count the number of head we have. During the day, I will count them several times and then count them again when we put them away at night. You would be surprised at how mad my master gets if I don't put away as many as I take out. Riding is the fun part of the job. Some of my master's sheep can get pretty stubborn. You know the old saying, the grass is always greener on the other side of the boundary? Well, when the sheep decide to sample the grass on the other side of the boundary, I trot on over to them and Ride their big butts right back to where they belong. Yep, that's some real important parts to tending a flock.
Myself: But, that is only two R's. What about the reading?
Briard: Oh heck, can't forget about that. You know I have to tend these sheep all day, right? There are a lot of times that the grass is real good and the sheep pretty well stay inside their boundary. When things are going this well., I like to take a good book, lay in the shade, and do some reading. Heck, the other day I was reading about how, in the US, people use BC's and make them run hundreds of, I think you call them yards, out to get just three or five head of sheep. Made me tired just reading about it.
Myself: Those are stories about herding trials. That isn't what the dogs would normally do as a working dog. We also have trials for tending dogs. They take 20 head of sheep through a course using the type of style you use for your work.
Briard: Trials, eh? What in the world would you need a dog for if you only have 20 sheep? Oops, I see a couple of sheep I need to go Ride so I don't come up short in tonight's count. See ya around.
with just a little
Happy Herding, ya all.