Sheepdogs

How to play

1. Your mouse is a sheepdog. Move it across the grass, and your dog runs after it. On a phone, drag your finger.
2. Walk up behind some sheep. They walk away from your dog, and soon they take on your colour. Then they’re yours.
3. Bring them home. Steer them through a gate into the round pen in the middle. Go gently: calm sheep score the most.
4. Click or tap to bark. A bark gets stubborn sheep moving, but it frightens them. Use it now and then.

Everyone online plays in the same valley. Each sheep you bring home is counted in the old Cumbrian shepherds’ numbers, from yan, tyan, tethera up to jiggit for twenty. A day lasts about ten minutes, and at nightfall the day’s three best dogs are named. Free to play: no download, no sign-up.