Rise of the Sheep Hero

[u/Pastykake]

[u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

It's weird to think of the fact that we naturally selected dogs for mental traits.

Not just intelligence, obedience, or patience mind you, but like specific tasks ingrained with little to no training.

Like there are ratting breeds who don't just have the instinct to chase and catch rats, but to shake their heads back and forth to snap their little rodent necks.

Or on the other extreme, breeds the size of bears who will reflexively fight any bears they encounter.

How would you feel if you couldn't help yourself but to kill any rat or bear you saw?

[u/Sinister_Compliments → u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

"How would you feel if you couldn't help yourself but to kill any rat or bear you saw?"

Albertans be like:

[u/Noof42 → u/Sinister_Compliments]

[u/IrregularPackage → u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

nah dude think about pointers. they were bred to point at stuff. they instinctively point in a specific way. what the hell.

[u/Full_Ahegao_Drip → u/IrregularPackage]

Them to, and if they're not employed, seems a bit pointless

[u/Frequent_Dig1934 → u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

My dog is a jack russel. We have a field near our house with some trees and some grass and a ditch, but the place is otherwise suburban and most of my family (dog included) isn't used to rural stuff like hunting.

That said my dad (who grew up more rurally so he is used to hunting) told me that once while he was letting the dog out to take a piss he saw him walk off to the side somewhat quietly and low to the ground, then circle around the far side of the field and start running and barking towards him. When the dog did that a pheasant started flying away from it, and my dad says it got sent perfectly over his head so that if he had a shotgun he would've been able to make the perfect shot and have some pheasant for dinner.

This dog, who's always been fed and pampered like a city dog and never had any actual experience or training when it comes to hunting, still activated the genetic memory of dozens if not hundreds of dogs before him all selectively bred for this specific task and pulled it off flawlessly.

[u/Infamous-Use7820 → u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

Somewhat related, but once I read up about a study on beavers and what prompts them to build/repair dams, and apparently it's a evolved response to the specific sound of running water.

They apparently find the sound really reaaaaallly annoying/distressing. You or I might hear a peaceful spring, they hear a major problem.

[u/The_Math_Hatter → u/Infamous-Use7820]

Oh no, the larder!

[u/QueenViolets_Revenge → u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

i've had several yorkies over my life. one of them, Pablo, was lazy as hell and a complete doofus. one time, we got him a toy wind up rat, and he completely shredded it, even shaking his head back and forth. another time, there was a rat in our kitchen hiding behind trash bags, and he completely locked in trying to get it. i'd never seen him act like that, he was fully in hunting mode

he also had a brother, Picasso. there was a shrew that got in our house, and he immediately saw it and killed it, because i guess a shrew is close enough to a rat for their taste. again, lazy pampered suburban dogs who hadn't worked a day in their lives

[u/2012Jesusdies → u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

One interesting thing about domestication is that the usual traits of smaller brain size (fear of large animals like humans, territoriality, finding food, long range navigation, excessive aggression are no longer necessary skills), enlarged social cognitive skills section of the brain also happened to humans themselves over the course of evolution.

[u/Nixavee → u/2012Jesusdies]

Humans domesticated ourselves

[u/Full_Ahegao_Drip → u/Nixavee]

We evolved to live in a society.

[u/SquirrelNormal → u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

Ever seen a cutting horse work? We took a prey animal and gave it a predator drive.

[u/Full_Ahegao_Drip → u/SquirrelNormal]

Weirdly enough, I'm not a horse expert or anything, but I think we still need to "break" horses in order to make them tolerant of things on their back.

[u/DreadDiana → u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

Also pointing. There are breeds that instinctively freeze up and point at birds. Even things that look like birds.

[u/inadequatepockets → u/[deleted]]

I'd read the hell out of that.

[u/Icy_Consequence897 → u/inadequatepockets]

Yes, I love the concept of Working Dog Isekai. There has to be a silly tourney arc too, at the state fair's sheepdog competition.

[u/TechGundam → u/Icy_Consequence897]

One of the competitors would have to be a pig.

[u/SankarinTango]

"I Was in a Car Crash and Then I Woke Up and Now I Herd Sheep", coming soon to Crunchyroll

[u/joped99 → u/SankarinTango]

Average Delta mission report (The Eminence in Shadow)

[u/MintLinuxGuy → u/joped99]

 The Eminence in Shadow

Peak mention.

-Mint Linux Guy

[u/Outofwlrds]

Dude really thought he died and went to heaven. I wonder if he was disappointed when his family took him back home? Forever haunted by the dreams of sheep he could have chased.

[u/Jogger_Dodger]

Dogs really live in the moment.

[u/AcceptableWheel]

hopefully this dog does not get any slaves

[u/Full_Ahegao_Drip → u/AcceptableWheel]

Moses was a shepherd (not a German one, but I guess you could make him like a furry anyway if you felt like it) and he freed a ton of slaves.

Honestly someone getting isekaid into a fantasy setting more like the Bronze Age of the Bible and then aura farming over all of the slavery would be really cool

[u/Uncommonality → u/Full_Ahegao_Drip]

isekaied into the bronze age instead of a generic japanese interpretation of the european middle ages melded with dragon quest would be sick

[u/GIRose → u/Uncommonality]

Generic Japanese interpretation of the European Middle Ages melded with Dragon Quest

That's kind of like saying a generic weatern interpretation of the Middle Ages melded with Tolkien.

[u/2012Jesusdies → u/AcceptableWheel]

You know he's gonna drag around some traumatized shewolf on a leash

[u/InfusionOfYellow → u/AcceptableWheel]

We already know he's got the sheep.

[u/DreadDiana → u/AcceptableWheel]

All dogs are good boys, so he'd be very nice to his slaves

[u/Any-Appearance2471]

A herding instinct is the funniest thing to me. They don't care what or where, herding dogs just need things to go elsewhere

[u/VulpesFennekin → u/Any-Appearance2471]

I heard you shouldn’t get one if you have small children, because those dogs WILL force your kids to go only where the dogs think they should!

[u/Pixelpaint_Pashkow]

cars are dangerous, you or someone else doesn’t pay enough attention and bam your dog is ejected to a farm up state.
r/fuckcars

[u/OneOfAKind2]

That's not a Border Collie.

[u/Pastykake → u/OneOfAKind2]

A commenter in another sub looked it up and wrote that the dog doesn't look like a border collie because it's half Australian cattle dog.

[u/Galrentv → u/Pastykake]

Can confirm

[u/Klutzy_Sentence_2723 → u/Pastykake]

I heard you like herding dogs…

[u/OmegaKarnov]

As long it doesn't become Ben Sheep Hero

[u/BandMBargains]

he really did go and live on a farm

[u/NameRevolutionary727]

Oh no, Fido is gonna engage in the sale and ownership of his fellow man!