Stand at the edge of the field during a run and you’ll hear a stream of whistles and short words carried across the field. It sounds like another language because it is one.
Every handler is in constant conversation with a dog hundreds of yards away, and almost every instruction comes down to a handful of traditional calls, polished over generations of shepherds and passed from one to the next.
Here’s a quick introduction to the language of sheep dog handling! Learn even a few of these and you’ll find yourself quietly translating the field like an insider.
Come by
Send the dog clockwise around the sheep. One of the two most important calls in the whole sport.
Away
or Away to me
The opposite: send the dog anti-clockwise around the sheep.
Walk on
or Walk up
Move straight in towards the sheep and push them forward, gently, without spooking them.
Steady
or Take time
Ease off. Slow down. You’re doing well, but don’t rush it. Often the most important call of all.
Lie down
Stop. The dog drops flat to the ground, eyes locked on the sheep.
Look back
Leave these sheep and turn back for more. Used when there’s a second group to gather, or when a sheep has been left behind.
That'll do
The work is finished. Leave the sheep and come back to me. Three of the most satisfying words in shepherding, and the ones every dog longs to hear.
The whistles
Across an open field, the wind can make it difficult for words to carry clearly, so every one of these calls has a whistled version too, played on a special two-piece whistle held against the roof of the mouth.
A rising note, a sharp double-pip, a long falling tone: each handler develops their own private set of whistles so that a dog can pick its own handler’s commands out of the noise of a busy trial field.