When dog trainer Patsy Galati says "come by," she's not necessarily inviting you to pay her a visit. She uses this traditional Scottish command to "turn left," at least, when she's talking to a border collie.

That's just one of the methods Galati uses to train herding dog breeds to reign in sheep at San Ramon's Forest Home Farms.

Galati is part of a five-member sheep herding co-op called "Sheep for Ewe" that trains dogs on the city-owned historic park on San Ramon Valley Boulevard.

Galati trains two-days a week and does sheep herding demonstrations at the farmer's market, also at Forest Home Farms, every second Saturday of the month until October.

The dog-training collective trains many breeds of herding dogs, such as Shetland sheepdogs, Australian shepherds, Australian cattle dogs,  kelpies and corgis.

Galati says sheep herding is a great way to give these intelligent dogs the "mental exercise" they were bred to do.

Many pet-owners bring in their dogs for this very reason, says Galati, to help them with agility and obedience. Other owners bring their dogs in to train for sheep dog competitions or to help them with livestock.

The length of time it takes to train a dog depends on the breed and the dog's talent. Each breed has different styles, says Galati. "Some of them are driving breeds and some of them are fetching breeds."

Galati grew up on a farm in Kentucky, where she was first inspired to train dogs to herd sheep. But she didn't formally learn to train dogs to herd sheep until she came to California 25 years ago. She's been training sheep since 1992.

Her co-op has been operating at Forest Home Farms since 2000. Co-op members takes turns with the chores, such as care of the animals, cleaning and feeding.

Besides training, it also has a field grazing contract with the city and offers animal tours, where children can meet sheep, chickens and horses.

"It's just fun to be part of educating people about something they're interested in and didn't know before," says Galati.

Each introduction and dog training session is $30. The co-op currently has its hands full for the summer, but you can find out more about future dog-training sessions by e-mailing Galati at patsy.galati@yahoo.com.