It’s a Dog’s Life

The Great Western Railway of Great Britain has 25 sheepdogs on its payroll in Wales, where sheep often break through the right-ofway, endangering their own lives and delaying trains. The dogs, working without orders, find obscure openings in fences and hedges through which to herd the sheep back.

They must also develop ‘track sense’: if caught between trains on adjacent tracks they lie down until both have passed. If maintenance men, working on the tracks, do not heed the whistle of an approaching train, the dogs bark at them and refuse to leave until all are out of the way.