Like Herding Cats: Driving Cattle

The ability to herd cattle seems like the type of skill that is more suited to the characters in a John Wayne movie than to someone just trying to navigate modern life, but the fact is that you never know what you may be called upon to do. Whether you are visiting friends in the country or helping your local zookeeper round up stray goats, cattle-herding prowess could come in handy at the most unlikely of time, so it's best to be prepared. As you read this article, you may also find that the principles involved can also be applied in the field of human relations, when you are trying to figure out how to get people to do what you want them to do.

So, the basic cattle-herding scenario is that you are faced with a group of cows or some other animals and you have to move them from point A to point B. Hopefully, you have some other people with you, but there is a chance that you will be on your own. In either case, you need to remember that cattle will tend to move away from you if you try to approach them, and that they are especially nervous around strangers. You can exploit this fact to your advantage, or you can disregard it entirely. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine which strategy tends to produce the best results.

Get behind the cattle, and if you have other people with you, then arrange them on the side of the cattle so that when you close in, they will have only one direction in which to go: the direction that you want them to go. Keep in mind, however, that cattle are not very good at discerning which way you are trying to get them to go, and that they will often ignore the obvious opening that you have left them and head off in the wrong direction. They will do this more often when excited and scared.

Because of this, you want to do your best to keep the cattle calm. Move slowly, and do not wave your hand or yell. As you approach them, they will move out of the way. You don't need to hurry the process along. If you break into a run in order to keep on their tail, they will likely break into a run as well, and once they have started running they are not likely to stop until they have reached a fence or other obstruction that forces them to stop.

If the cattle end up against a fence, don't move in on them directly. Get behind them and guide them along the fence to where you want them to go. If they start going to wrong way, try to head them off, but remember the cardinal rule: don't scare the cows. As long as you keep your cool, they'll keep theirs, and you will be able to easily lead them to where you want them to go.

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