I, too just took my Murphy to sheep herding class last week. As you said, it was a BLAST! Both Murphy and I had so much fun. He is not a vocal dog, but boy was he getting worked up prior to his time with the sheep. We were also afraid that we would be having mutton barbecue. When we went in he immediately started circling the sheep and kept them between myself and him. He definitely has a natural instinct. The fellow teaching the class is really amazing as well and was very impressed with Murphy. He said that Murphy is very obedient and listen to my commands very well. In the midst of the sheep I gave him the down command and he immediately went down, looked at me and waited for my next command. I was really impressed because he was all eager for the herding and yet still obeyed without any hesitation. I will say I thought I was going to have a stroke out there! It is very physical at first, you are always moving. But Murphy and I were able to keep the 12 oclock, 6 oclock positions. We are definitely going to keep this up. It is a beautiful thing to watch a dog and handler work in such harmony. We are very lucky. As long as there is demand they will be offering the class every second Friday night. There are going to be fun trials in late Fall and I am really looking forward to showing my boy off.
