I suspect for dogs they'll go for something generalist to start with, rather than a specialized herding dog - maybe something resembling a pariah dog or a rat terrier or just a mix of dogs from all over the gene pool, so they can get hardy dogs that will do whatever is necessary! The neatest thing about dogs is just how easy they are to breed into whatever you need.
(Most of the farms in my part of the US don't need herding dogs, so for working farm dogs they tend to go for something like a rat terrier or a Carolina yaller dog, often not anything even vaguely like purebred. Or hunting dogs that only do farm-work as a hobby. In the cattle-ranching areas of the West and Southwest, it's usually the Australian breeds, collies, or Australian/collie mixes, depending on how far north you go. ETA: And I have just discovered that the dog Americans call an Aussie dog is not actually an Australian breed. Oh, America. So, Blue Heelers, Aussie dogs which aren't actually Australian, and border collies, then.)
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Date: 2010-10-20 05:05 am (UTC)(Most of the farms in my part of the US don't need herding dogs, so for working farm dogs they tend to go for something like a rat terrier or a Carolina yaller dog, often not anything even vaguely like purebred. Or hunting dogs that only do farm-work as a hobby. In the cattle-ranching areas of the West and Southwest, it's usually the Australian breeds, collies, or Australian/collie mixes, depending on how far north you go. ETA: And I have just discovered that the dog Americans call an Aussie dog is not actually an Australian breed. Oh, America. So, Blue Heelers, Aussie dogs which aren't actually Australian, and border collies, then.)