Herding
Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group, maintaining the group and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. While the layperson uses the term "herding", most individuals involved in the process will call it "working stock" or "moving" and not herding.
Herding can be performed by people or trained animals such as
herding dogs. Some animals instinctively gather together as a herd while some
predators, such as
wolves and
dogs have instinctive herding abilities. Herding can also be done using wire through which electricity is sent.
Herding is used in agriculture to manage domesticated animals. The people whose occupation it is to
herd or control animals often have
herd added to the name of the animal they are
herding to describe their occupation (
shepherd,
goatherd,
cowherd). These
-herds may use dogs to assist them and a competitive sport has developed in some countries where the combined skill of man and dog is tested and judged in a
Trial.
See
sheepdog trial for more information.
*
HerderHerd behavior is an excessive collective behavior, for example in
stock market bubbles,
riots, and
cults.
*
Herder*
List of collective nouns for non-human mammals* The competitive sport of
Sheepdog trials
* When
people are herded it is often known as
crowd control.
