photo Charles MacKinnon
This is where I humbly confess that I have been ‘sheep dogging’ for longer than I care to admit. Not that I did it consciously mind you, I would have been surprised and likely offended if anyone suggested I attempted to “force or nudge someone off their intended path”.
I stand here, hand raised, yes I am guilty.
This revelation came to me at a retreat I attended recently where one of the facilitators Dan Hines described part of his upbringing. His childhood included time spent on his grandfather’s sheep ranch observing sheep dogs doing their job by forcing and nudging reluctant sheep to their intended destination. Dan then described the perfect metaphor of how as humans we also tend to want to ‘sheep dog’ others in the direction that we see as right for them.
We are all probably guilty of ‘sheep dogging’ on some level or another, especially if we have raised children. Young children are easy to ‘nudge’ without them being aware of what is being done. Teenagers will see you crouched to the ground in herding position, call you on it, bolt off and break away before you have a chance to rise to your feet.
I am very aware of my need to be ‘right’ and the great difficulty I have in changing even the smallest imperfections in myself. Why would I want to take on the impossible job of trying to convince someone else to change direction?
This Hindu proverb states it perfectly:
There are hundreds of paths up the mountain, all leading to the same place, so it doesn’t matter which path you take. The only person wasting time is the one who runs around the mountain, telling everybody that his or her path is wrong.
And so, it is with great relief I will attempt to give up ‘sheep dogging’ completely, both in written and spoken word.
There, done, everyone on their own………:)
Wildly and Dangerously Free 
‘sheep dogging’ — great way to put it!
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yes, sometimes when I am in conversation with someone I actually can feel when I am being sheepdogged. It is a great way to describe it.
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So perfectly describes many of us!
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“We are all probably guilty of ‘sheep dogging’ on some level or another, especially if we have raised children. ” – so true.
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It is easier to catch yourself doing it with children, sometimes with friends it comes clothed in ‘helpful advice’
but now that I have a name for it I can catch myself before I lower to herding position.:)
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Many a times our intentions may be good but unwanted or unsolicited.
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Wow… I love when a thought shared by someone else hits home with perfect clarity. I am going to add ‘sheep dogging’ to my personal lexicon, and I am going to post that amazing quote on my bulletin board. Thank you so much…
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Yes, since hearing this wonderful metaphor not only do I know when I am “being sheepdogged’, I can catch myself doing it. Hard to stop a lifetime habit though, will do my best, you need to identify a problem before you can fix it.:)
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Like Patti, this resonated with me. While a more aggressive form of “sheep dogging”, I try to steer clear of giving “advice” (my mother warned me early on it’s not wise to “give advice”), but have to admit to the occasional “suggestion” lol. Enlightening piece.
Great pictures 🙂
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Sometimes hard to keep that inner sheep dog at bay:)
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This is awesome.
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another layer removed or at the very least observed. back to ” woof, woof, wanna play?”
Thanks for reading.
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I liked that woof.
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Thank you for sharing this post made me smile. 🙂
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Glad you liked it….
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I just re-read this one and it really hit home as I spent the entire Christmas period trying to corral people into one place while at the same time wanting one on one time the most. “Sheep dogging” as a term makes so much sense to me. Naming something helps makes sense of it.
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and ‘sheep dogging” sounds so much softer and better than “trying to manipulate”:)
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