Following the Herd : When it comes to moving sheep, border collies can’t be beat. The best can mesmerize the animals with a look.

A trainer of border collies once told Calabasas resident Lynn Arnold that only in California do people have sheep to work their dogs, instead of the other way around.

But in Arnold’s world, the work of herding is pursued as pleasure and in preparation for competition. On a recent morning, she put her dogs through their paces in an Agoura Hills field.

“Way, Mal,” she says so softly that it can barely be heard. But Malley is off in an instant, crouching behind the sheep with her mouth open. The sheep bunch together, complaining, but Malley keeps at their heels and brings them to their pen.

The crouching position of border collies is unique to the breed and makes them the best herding dogs there are, said John Apogee, secretary of the Southern California Working Sheepdog Assn., one of a handful of sheep dog clubs in the state.

Arnold is secretary-treasurer of the San Joaquin Border Collie Assn., which has about 40 members statewide. Another statewide club is the Central Coast Chapter, headquartered in Buellton. (There are no San Fernando Valley border collie clubs.)

Dan Hoag, a Salinas rancher who breeds border collies for work and competition, said the best dogs are ones that have “eye,” that is, a way to mesmerize cattle or sheep by just a look of confidence and power.

Hoag said that although border collies are not formally recognized as a breed by the American Kennel Club, the dogs are nonetheless considered a breed by owners.

“The AKC wants certain standards of height, color and size,” Hoag said. “Border collies may be black or red or brown, usually with a white collar and face, but not always. Sometimes the dogs are a mixture of colors. Border collie breeders I know are more concerned with the way the dog works with the sheep, not with what color the dog is or how it looks.”

Hoag said border collies are descendants of the European black wolf and were used as herding dogs there in the early 1800s. The dogs are medium-size and they have such a strong herding instinct, he said, that without sheep or cattle to organize, they will take to herding leaves, cars, flies, children--anything that moves.

Although people joke about the keeping of sheep for the purpose of working one’s dogs, Hoag said the mix of people who have border collies as working ranch dogs and those who keep them for pets and competition is about 50-50 in the United States. He added that in Europe the dogs are used more for work than for competition.

Arnold wasn’t always a woman with time to spend with her pets. She worked as a controller for a small bank in Redwood City, and her husband, Russ, was an assets manager at another bank. But when Russ’ company transferred him to Los Angeles three years ago, Lynn Arnold opted not to get another job. With time on her hands and few new acquaintances, she was bored.

“One weekend, about three years ago, as Russ and I were driving to Santa Barbara, I noticed a woman working her border collies and some sheep off of Kanan Road in Agoura Hills,” Arnold said. “I had two border collies of my own from Redwood City at the time, just as pets. One of the bolder things I’ve ever done in my life was to just go up to this woman soon after I first saw her and ask her if I could bring my dogs up to work with her.”

Years later, when the friend moved away, Arnold negotiated her own agreement with the owner of the land the two had used. Now she borrows about five sheep at a time from ranchers in Bakersfield and Moorpark and keeps them on the field. And each day, she drives from Calabasas with her three dogs to feed and water the sheep and let the dogs work. The sheep get special care, the landowner’s property is maintained, and Arnold gets to pursue a hobby that has become a passion.

So much a passion, in fact, that it has all but overtaken her weekends.

Arnold trains the dogs by attending weekend clinics sponsored by border collie clubs and owners. During trial season, which runs fall through spring, she takes the dogs to competitions nearly every weekend.

Nationally, Apogee said, there are three competition levels: novice, pro-novice and open, progressing from least to most skilled. At the open, or professional, level, cash prizes are available for dogs that can negotiate a difficult course, splitting up a group of sheep and bringing them back together to a designated location.

Arnold competes with her dogs in the pro-novice class. So far, Malley, a 5-year-old with three years of training, is her best performer, having taken some firsts. Baccia, Malley’s sister, has had two years of training but lacks her sister’s discipline. Cliff, a 4-year-old Arnold bought a year ago, is just beginning.

At trials, Arnold said, judges base their scores solely on the line of the sheep; that is, how precisely they are herded. Success with sheep depends on how skillful the dogs are and how sure their owners are in giving commands.

“It’s not easy at trials,” Arnold said. “Since I never grew up around sheep, it’s taken me awhile to get to know their reactions. Now I watch which direction their heads point and know that’s the direction they’ll turn. I have to make sure my whistles and commands come right to the dogs. If I’m nervous, so are they.”

Even so, the lure of competition and hobby is strong.

WHERE TO GO

* What: San Joaquin Border Collie Assn.

* Dues: $20 annually for a single membership; $30 for a family.

* Call: (818) 880-1908.