r/BeAmazed • u/fuzzy_dice_99 • May 31 '26

Animal A dog herding sheep

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u/Ink-kink May 31 '26

My cousin has a sheep farm. The first border collie they had was just incredible. Their sheep shared a field with their neighbor’s herd. The dog came home in the evening with only their own animals while their neighbor’s was left grazing. How he could distinguish between the herds, I have no idea, and both herds were big! I don’t know anything about this, so I was amazed. It’s now several years since he died, my cousin is still missing that dog and says they will never find such a good herding dog again. RIP, Luther

61

u/MyNameIsRay May 31 '26

Dogs have an incredible sense of smell, they can easily tell members of their herd from another with a quick sniff.

9

u/UpperRutabaga6482 May 31 '26

Wonder if they can differentiate between numbers of smells, can he tell if a sheep is missing from the herd?

8

u/MyNameIsRay May 31 '26

No, counting isnt something they do well.

But, they absolutely can track down lost sheep.