By DEBORAH BEHRENDS

Indiana Correspondent

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Alan Miller and his border collies have entertained crowds at the Kentucky State Fair for 49 years, and 2019 was no exception.

The show started with his father, Harold, who has since died. "Probably one of the first things I saw in this world, after my mother, father, and the doctor who delivered me, was a border collie when they set me down on the front porch," Miller said.

He continues the tradition of showing the intelligence and agility of border collies as they herd ducks around a small show ring and through several obstacles.

Yes – you heard “ducks,” and they herd ducks, and it’s as cute as it sounds. Miller uses ducks because they are slow-moving and he can carry five of them without owning a trailer.

One by one, he calls out to Johnny, Tip, Joe, and Roy to move the birds around the ring, up and over a small bridge, through a barrel, and up a ramp into a cage. Demonstrating that the dogs respond to both voice and whistled commands, he calls them bilingual.

A teacher, as well as livestock producer in Nelson County, Miller said he couldn't have done both without the help of his four-legged employees. He believes the border collie breed is one of the best for herding.

“A lot of dogs are smart, but they are not very cooperative. Without the cooperativeness, it doesn’t matter how smart the dog may be,” he explained.

He starts introducing the dogs to livestock when they are around 10-12 months of age, and he just retired four dogs that were between 13-15 years old. The particular breed was chosen to work on the family farm by Harold Miller in 1954.

“He happened to see two little black-and-white dogs bringing milk cows up a mountain while in eastern Kentucky. With curiosity, my father found the road that took him up to the milk parlor. He met and asked the owner what breed of dog he saw, to which the owner replied, those were border collies,” Miller recalled.

He is thrilled by the number of people that stop to watch his dogs work while at the fair: "We are maybe on our fifth or sixth generation of people that have stopped to watch.”