On a ranch outside of Seattle, city dogs are getting back to their roots.
They're ditching doggie-day cares and play dates to learn about their great-great-great grandparents, who herded cattle in Northern Europe and chased sheep across dry ranch land in Australia.
At a place called Ewe-topia [0] (yes, that really is its name), dogs are being trained to herd livestock. Herding has become a popular sport, even for canines who are more cosmopolitan than country. Ewe-topia trainers say they get roughly 4,000 customers a year who come to practice for herding competitions, which are sponsored by the American Kennel Club, or just to enhance their dog's obedience skills.
If you can control your pooch's prey instinct around farm animals, says trainer Linda Leeman, you can teach him to sit and stay in most any situation.
"People train dogs to do this because it makes better pets," she says. "Prey is the ultimate distraction. If you can get them to listen around prey, it transfers to other kinds of distractions."
Leeman and her partner Joe Kapelos have a combined four decades of experience training herd dogs. Kapelos instructed military dogs and later taught Postal Service employees how to protect themselves from potential "Cujo" [1] encounters.
The couple established Ewe-topia in Roy, Wash. in 1992. The 10-acre site is home to 60 sheep, 80 ducks and a dog park. Services extend past herding, to agility and obedience training. This is important, since sometimes they have to fix a dog's bad habits before it can do a good job of herding, says Kapelos, who has a strong reputation for turning around problematic dogs.
"Our society has a habit of putting our projections on dogs," he says. "We expect them to respond to us in a human way. If you forget he is a pack animal, you can have serious problems."
Kapelos and Leeman don't advertise their ranch. Though they operate a modest website, they don't have a computer. Their business spreads by word-of-mouth, and it's spreading faster than most tail-waggers can sprint. On a recent weekend, Ewe-topia was bustling with people from as far away as Canada. Some just come to watch and others park their RVs on the ranch.
Hedy Rankin drives to Ewe-topia from Vancouver B.C. with her rottweiler, Jazz. She heard about Ewe-topia from her breeder, and began training with Jazz when he was about five weeks old. Now they make the four-and-a-half hour drive from Vancouver twice a month, at least.
She thought Jazz could benefit from herding, since rottweilers were historically used to drive cattle in Germany. She hasn't been disappointed.
"It deepens the relationship you have with your dog," she says.
She enjoys the challenge that herding provides and the sense of community among Ewe-topia customers. It keeps her traveling to Ewe-topia even though other training facilities are located nearby her home.
"There's a tough learning curve," she says. "People who stick with it find a sense of community here."
In advanced herding competitions, a handler stands in the center of the arena, using voice commands and hand signals to help their dog lead the livestock through obstacles. When done properly, the canines are gentle with the animals they're herding, says Kapelos, and the livestock are quiet and controlled.
"If it looks like a rodeo, you're not herding," he says.
American Kennel Club regulations [2] say that herding trials aim to "preserve and develop the herding skills inherent in the herding breeds and to demonstrate that they can perform the useful functions for which they were originally bred." The Australian Shepherd Club of America also sponsors herding competitions. Events occur year-round in Oregon, Washington and Canada, but summer is the prime season.
Many facilities only take dogs that were traditionally bred for herding, including German Shepherds and English Sheepdogs, but Ewe-topia draws many customers because it trains all breeds. You'll find Great Danes and little Pomeranians along with traditional herding animals, like the hefty Bouvier des Flandres [3].
Olalla resident and math teacher Elizabeth Schaab owns two of the Bouviers, Emrys and T.J. The husky breed originated in Belgium where the dogs were used to move cattle and pull carts of milk into town, she says. When the dogs are out and about these days, their size and fluffy hair-dos turn plenty of heads.
At a recent practice competition, she brought 100-lb. Emrys out in the arena to herd a flutter of ducks. He has 12 herding titles.
"There's nothing in the world like this sport," she says. "It's never the same twice. You have some control over your dog, but you never know what the livestock is going to do. You have to think on your feet."
She comes to Ewe-topia three times a week and says it makes her dogs "so much more well-rounded." They get exposed to a variety of different dogs, people and experiences.
"It's that whole business of seeing a dog doing what he was bred to do," she says. "It's so cool when it works."
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
