National Sheepdog Trials

One Saturday morning in October 2002, I took Gillian and her friend Krista up to Dawsonville, GA, in the hillcountry north of Atlanta, for the national sheepdog trials. By chance, I had come across an ad for the trials and, remembering a movie or two involving such trials, I thought they might be interesting. The girls both liked dogs and in any case we were all ready for a day's outing.

Overall, it was an interesting excursion, though something less than exciting - at least to me. It had the overall feel of a country fair, with a community of tents with vendors and artisans hawking their wares. The blacksmith and leather workers went about their crafts, describing to the onlookers what they were doing. The crowds wandered the tent city or staked out vantage points on the hillside from whence they could watch the trials from their folding lawn chairs. Most seemed thoroughly interested in the trials. Indeed, it seemed like at least half the spectators had one breed or another of sheepdog with them. Whatever the breed, it was impressive to me that such a concentration of dogs was so very well behaved - only an occasional bark, and no displays of temper.

Visually, the trials themselves left something to be desired since they took place at a distance across the vale. The pictures would have been more impressive had the dogs driven whole herds hither and yon then through the gates. As it was, they fought the stopwatch and drove a trio of sheep through two or three gates located at various positions across the hillside.




On the hill behind us, past the tent city a few other things were going on. Among them, a local breeder had a beautifully matched team of mules in harness for wagon rides.


Through a small stand of trees near the public parking, we found a whole other community of observers - and their dogs - watching parallel trials of dogs working cattle instead of sheep. I should add that some of the dogs appeared to be sheepdogs that had gone on to bigger and better things. I never found out whether behavioral differences in the subjects made sheep easier or harder to handle than cattle, but I can say that an obstinate bovine can be demonstrably more aggressive than any of the sheep we watched.


We ended up cutting the trials a bit short and I took the girls to nearby Amicalola Falls for a hike through the woods at the base of the falls. Not an exciting day, but an unusual one for me and very pleasant.