Many of the herding venues include obstacles that simulate real life gates, alleys, chutes (which is one reason why finding a way to work chores with your Beardie is excellent)

Here Kiwi, at two, is learning to control the flow and pace around panels that imatate gates. Very similar to this visual is the AKC PT course where the dog manipulates the sheep past two panels placed at the bottom of a small field.

Below is a nicely paced fetch...