Yes, every time I see one of their amazing new advances my first reaction is usually “cool!” and then my second reaction is “but can that thing actually perform any tasks that a 'bot equipped with treads couldn’t do more cheaply and efficiently?”
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I feel the same toward our Roomba as I would toward Baymax. I even named it. Zeroth. 
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Well yeah its the ideal life of a dog running around threatening things with violence and I will be happy to see it go.
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I’ve read too much Bradbury, Asimov, Heinlein and the rest to NOT be disturbed. So much of what the Golden Age of Sci Fi writers imagined has come true. I’m actually revisiting old Asimov digests and other stuff to study closer what I blew off 3.5 decades ago in my teens as escapist entertainment. It’s still escapism because reality is kinda worth frickin escapism and somehow I decided to get sober in 2018 so now there’s books n movies. I know: get involved. I am, i do. Sorry for the rant…a fucking robot shepherd…DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?!
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part of the ability of dogs to herd livestock is due to the fact that they are recognized as predators by the flock or herd. A moving fencepost? good luck with that
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to be clear, the robot itself is not “evil” – it’s our misuse, overuse and negligence in use of the machines. At least until the Uprising.
…at the wages offered. I don’t think it’s really any more complicated than that. (with the exception that another value migrant workers present an employer is their willingness to accept conditions that a citizen will not )
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Yes, having watched my wife try to determine urban tree health from aerial data, it really seems like better (or more frequently updates) ground truth would be really helpful.
In this case, the kiwis (?) in that video can’t even be seen from a plane!
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on the upshot there might be some unexpected employment opportunities in all this …
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Well the idea is that this is stepping stone technology on the way to actually useful applications. And even now, if you watch Adam savage’s videos with one of those you will see it climb rocky hills that a tracked robot would struggle with.
That said I infinitely prefer a sheep dog. If nothing else it provides companionship to the often very lonely professionals that are shepherds.
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Put a mowing deck/strimmer on its underbelly and it could mow very steep/uneven areas better than a tracked one, I guess. Rather a trivial use case for such an expensive toy.
There is a better, but less high-tech solution for that. Goats. 
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Goats need to be contained / fenced in. But as @David_Guilbeaul said, these things are just moving fence posts, so one of these to keep the goats herded/contained… ??
Nah - it’s all too complicated.
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Those professionals are who are expected to be replaced by this technology; the cost of a Border Collie is time and mutton. The cost of one of these robots is only justified by replacing the Shepherd’s cost 
Indeed. And in UK, I think employed shepherds are few and far between. Happy to be told I’m wrong but all the sheepdog people seen on TV are always farmers with their own farms/flocks. They won’t be buying these robotic dogs until hell freezes over, I’m pretty sure.
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Where I live, (western Canada) I think it’s much the same. There are cases where dogs are used to protect livestock from predators (bears, wolves, coyotes) but I think they are usually other breeds that don’t herd, they just hang around watching. I guess these robots could do that, but then they’d need to be armed… and we know what that leads to . Herding dogs seem to come by herding skills naturally. I’ve a friend who has horses that once all got out while the people were away; their GSD went to a lot of effort to round them up and return them to the barn. As they approached their place they encountered their very tired dog herding six horses along the road. If you’re interested, here’s a short video on the use of dogs in predator control. https://youtu.be/rQHZH-P-DWA
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Do firemen dream of electric Dalmations? When will 1st World cities, to reduce costs, mandate robo-dogs and ban live pooches? When will robo-cats be deployed as mousers that don’t slaughter zillions of innocent birds? (Or will they learn predation?)
In the area of Germany I’m from shepherds aren’t an uncommon sight and I am pretty sure they are employees (or maybe even freelancers?) for different farmers. That said I doubt they are paid well enough to be replaced with robots anytime soon. That might work in places where the sheep are basically roaming the wilderness but in Germany (and in the UK as well, I’m sure) most of the shepherd’s job is to open and close gates, build temporary enclosures and stop cars so their flock can cross the road. Plus dealing with the sheep’s injuries and illnesses, paperwork and all the rest. I’d like to see a robot try that. Or even try to manhandle a sheep into a trailer or a shearing position. It might just about be able to replace the basic function of the dogs (but not the secondary functions such as herd protection and companionship) but what’s the point of that if it was the labour costs of the human it is supposed to save?
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It would probably work to a certain degree because they’re unfamiliar. Also, people have been able to move sheep with drones. But the robot dog would have to move a lot faster than the one in the video, and might have to make some noise too. Otherwise the sheep would learn pretty quickly that it poses no threat and they can just move out of the way.
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Eagles prey on sheep, so there’s probably some “beware of the skies” response Ya, the more dog like these guys are, the more effective they will be. Neal Stephenson’s “Rat Things” maybe?
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