TARZANA : Lessons Help Dogs Renew Herding Instinct

No, it’s not some kind of twisted leadership seminar.

But on any given Tuesday or Saturday, a casual traveler along Reseda Boulevard in the Tarzana hills might notice teachers, entertainment executives or other professionals running around a dirt pen by the side of the road, barking orders at their dogs and learning to herd sheep.

“Get back, get back!” Anne Siphron, 26, shouted as Tucker, her border collie, dashed around several peevish-looking sheep. “Steady on.”

Armed with a shepherd’s crook and commands developed over several centuries in Scotland, Siphron and about two dozen other clients of the San Fernando Valley Herding Assn. spend several hours a week learning one of the world’s oldest professions.

For most participants, though, it’s a hobby that costs $25 per day.

“I come out to give Tucker some exercise,” said Siphron, who took the morning off from her teaching job at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica. “Actually, I find it relaxing. This is a nice break from the classroom.”

More and more, said Ken Dugan, who teaches herding at the Tarzana pen, owners of collies, bouviers, German shepherds and other breeds are turning to the ancient trade for recreation.

A decade ago, only three competitions in the sport were held in California, Dugan said, compared to about 15 now.

The small herding pens next to El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana--the only such operation in the city of Los Angeles--were set up last fall by Ted and Janna Ondrak, who took up herding with their border collie three years ago.

“For us, it was amazing to watch the instinct of the dogs kick in,” said Ted Ondrak, a 37-year-old carpenter. “All of a sudden your pet changes, and you realize there’s nothing in the world he’d rather do than be out there herding sheep.”

Some of the Ondraks’ clients enter their dogs in competitions, in which sheep--or sometimes ducks--are ferried through elaborate obstacle courses.

But many others--including lawyers, teachers and several clients from the movie business--seem to come “because they like to put on their jeans and get dirty,” said Janna Ondrak, a legal secretary.

Screenwriter Harris Goldberg found himself doing most of the herding his first time out.

His 3-year-old border collie, also named Tucker, made a sluggish run at three sheep, then became distracted by one of the other dogs.

“He usually just sits at my feet under the computer,” Goldberg said. “So I guess this is an improvement.”