What you've got here is a guard dog and a herding dog. Dogs are a herder's life. You can make-do with poor equipment and circumstances but without good dogs herding just doesn't work. These fellas are your best friends and many times the only company you might have for days or weeks. When I herded I had a couple ranch dogs and a couple of my own. Mostly the dogs are owned by the ranch. I was lucky... I inherited my ranch dogs from a herder who spoke English, so the dogs did, too.
The herding dogs most used are either Australian breeds of working dogs or Border Collies. Good sheepdog pups have lots of herding instinct and train with the experienced dogs. The guard dog is raised with the sheep, thinks it's part of the band and does not herd the sheep. In fact some guard dogs have to be chained at camp when the herding dogs are working to keep them from being too protective of their band.
I've seen bands of sheep with 1000+ ewes and 4 or 5 dogs guarding them. When I was herding I usually had 3 or 4 herding dogs for 2000 sheep.
