TOPSHAM

In his shepherding demonstration at the Topsham Fair, Joe Grady of Harpswell uses his two border collies, two year old Nuala and six year old Lily to position the sheep anywhere he wants with just a few verbal commands.

Grady has 10 years of experience on his farm, which is home to 50 lambs and 40 ewes.

“Whenever I have a demo, I’m trying to make folks understand what these dogs do and what their skill level is and what their instincts are,” Grady said. “Border collies are gathering dogs.”

Grady said everyone’s familiar with retrievers, who go out and back in straight lines “fetching.” He said some shepherds are also straight line dogs, intended to drive animals forward.

Border collies, Grady said, are gatherers who work in circles. Grady said their instinct is to work in circles to get around the animals to move them.

“Lily’s happy to do circles all day long and keep the sheep at my feet,” Grady said, adding that training begins when the dogs are young.

Grady said along with training comes some guidelines, like not touching or grabbing the sheep. Dogs are be given permission to touch an unruly sheep when they’re older and their instincts are more refined.

The difference in Grady’s dogs shows in when they began training. Nuala began working with animals when she was just six months old — when her brain was still developing.

“It’s like the five year old who starts taking piano lessons,” Grady said. “They’re going to do better than the 25- or 35-year-old who tries to pick it up.”

Lily, on the other hand, didn’t begin training until she was over two years old — prior to that, she was a house pet.

“Her brain developed chasing things and running after squirrels and she was allowed to do all kinds of things,” Grady said, “so, I have to verbally stop Lily a lot.”

Nuala moved around the pen, stalking in a crouched position before flattening out at a distance several feet from the sheep, causing the sheep to move naturally to a safe distance from her. Again, Nuala would move at a measured gait, coaxing the sheep back again.

In contrast, Lily on one of her runs, charged exuberantly in a wide arc around the sheep, almost making contact with the sheep in the rear, causing them to bolt forward.

“Lily — a great heart, she loves to please, but her manners are not great and if I don’t pay enough attention, she’ll get herself in trouble which means the sheep will spread out,” Grady said.

This in turn, kicks Lily into overdrive, feeling the need to move strays — grabbing them in order to push them back into the herd.

“If your dog freaks out the sheep, it’s not a real useful dog,” Grady said.

Grady said the greatest reward for his dogs is to be able to work, saying they’ll ignore a beef bone if it’s close to sheep. Grady said it was a matter of “feeding their addiction” in a really controlled way.

It’s an addiction, Grady said, he has to remember to turn off with the command, “that’ll do” or else his dogs will remain fixated on the sheep. It’s a command he has to repeat when work is done because as the sheep move naturally, the situation changes and again, the dogs are locked on the sheep.

The compulsion carries over to seemingly benign games like “fetch,” which Grady discourages, as the dogs do not know how to disengage from the game.

Occasionally, Grady said, visitors will get tricked into fetch by one of his dogs who, after looking around for Grady, will throw a stick at a new person’s feet, enticing them to throw.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com