Do City Dogs Dream of Chasing Country Sheep?

Let's get a few things out of the way about Lily: She has never tried to herd people, children, cats or dogs. She does not look like a classic herding dog. You wouldn't mistake her for Lassie or the border collie in Babe. And we have no particular reason to think she's been yearning to herd sheep.

But she is a proud adoptee from a shelter called Herding Dog Rescue, so we in her family have always had two basic, interrelated questions: what breeds are mixed into her mongrel lineage, and if she ever met a sheep, what would she do?  

Years before we even had Lily, I'd heard about a place in Delaware you could take dogs to try their paws at herding. At the time, we had a mutt named Nomi, whose cattle-oriented pedigree we'd loosely verified by taking her on a roundup one time on a ranch in her native Kansas. 

But now we’ve had Lily six years, and unlike Nomi, Lily has never had a chance to lift her nose, take a sniff, contemplate her destiny — and either chase some livestock or turn away perplexed.

Last month, I set out to remedy that. With Google's help, I found a place called Raspberry Ridge Sheep Farm, in eastern Pennsylvania. Several times a year they invite dogs for "herding instinct tests." Now we're putting Lily to the test.

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When Lily chases other dogs, they often turn the tables and chase her — not an issue with sheep. 

(Fred Mogul/WNYC)