Learning how herding dogs work a herd of sheep may yield favorable implications in crowd control, say researchers
Dogs have long been used to work alongside humans, and one of the oldest ways is in herding sheep. In order for the effort to be successful, there are two simple concepts that are in place. Sheep, by their nature as a prey species, employ what is called the " selfish herd theory ": putting something — in this case, other members of the herd — between themselves and a threat, thusly making every effort to move toward the center of the group. Herding dogs capitalize on the "selfish herd theory" to bring the sheep together and manipulate them to be where they want. With a joint effort on the part of researchers from Swansea University, Uppasala University, University of London and University of Cambridge were eager to learn how dogs bred for this purpose get the cooperation of the sheep, but their interest went a little further than that. The researchers are hoping that the knowledge gleaned from the study might be able to facilitate new ways that ...