Shepherding
Artwork by Tracy May Fouts

The dog shepherding sheep shows that the sheep have hope of a leader, 

only if the dog first leads them.

A shepherd dog is there to guide the sheep.  Actually, farmers may have a dog to help keep many different kind of animals in the pen.  So when the animal strays, the dog helps to guide them home.  Home leads to a comfortable place providing security.

In researching “shepard dogs”, I found some fascinating definitions in Wikipedia:
Christine Hartnagle Renna, in Herding Dogs: Selection and Training the Working Farm Dog, says" All herding behavior is modified predatory behavior.  Through selective breeding, man has been able to minimize the dog's natural inclination to treat cattle and sheep as prey while simultaneously maintaining the dog'a hunting skills, thereby creating an effective herding dog.

However, Wikipedia also points out:
Unlike herding dogs (also often called sheepdogs") such as the Border Collie, a Lifestock Guarding Dog (LGD) does not control the movement of the flock with predatory actions causing bunching. Instead, LGD's tend to blend into the flock and generally ignore the individual animals in favor of keeping an eye out for potential threats.  While bunching behavior is observed, it is the livestock that tend to bunch around the guarding dogs, especially on open range when predators are near.

Sometimes we look to our friends, co workers, or a good therapist to help guide us.  Man was not created to live in isolation, but to connect with others.  We do not look to others to control us, but to guide us. Having others to share our good times with as well as our tough times leads to security and comfort.  As the dog shepherds the animals home, we turn to our friends for comfort in tough times.  Sometimes it may seem that others are giving us guidance.  Yet there are times that we ourselves take action to move closer to another for protection.  It is through relationships that we ourselves can have hope of protection that we sometime need. Another may lead us home.