New dogs, new tricks
Muster Dogs is an adorable new series that follows five kelpies as they each get trained by different graziers to be muster dogs. Aticia Grey takes part in the documentary and tells Danielle McGrane how important these animals are to her.
There’s a new documentary series that seriously has the ‘aww’ factor. Muster Dogs follows five kelpie puppies from the same litter as they’re sent to different graziers around the country to learn how to become muster dogs. And the best part is, it’s all been captured on camera.
Aticia Grey, a grazier from Western Australia, has had working dogs on her property for nearly 10 years now and is one of the five graziers taking part in the series.
Grey grew up on the property she now works on, but growing up, the dogs were often more of a hindrance than a help.
“We just had the token heeler who’d be in the yard with us, but most of the time they’d cause more harm than good,” she said.
But on a trip to New Zealand she saw a dog helping out on the paddocks, and she realised their potential to help move the livestock.
“It wasn’t until 2013 that I really saw working dogs being used the way that we use them now so I’m relatively new to the game,” Grey said.
In Muster Dogs, dogs are sent to nearly every state to learn how to gather and move livestock across the properties – that is, to learn the job of mustering. And the graziers are given milestones for each puppy to reach by expert trainer Neil McDonald.
The graziers are Frank Finger in Qld, Rob Tuncks in Victoria, CJ (Catherine) Scotney in the NT,
Joni Hall who works across the
Top End, and Grey in WA.
At the end of the year, the dogs are pitted against each other for the ultimate working dog challenge.
“There were five of us involved, all from different areas of Australia, and we [each] received a pup who was about 10 weeks old, all from the same litter,” Grey said.
“Every three months or so we’d film a bit of an assessment to see how we got on reaching the milestones, but also everyone’s situation is different. So for me, over here in WA, we were still in a drought so we had actually de-stocked, so I had limited stock to actually train my pup on, which did set us back a bit.
“It’s not perfect and things go wrong, but that’s also life so we’re keeping it real.”
A lot of people might not know what mustering entails.
“Any kind of stock handling involves my dogs – whether we’re going out and mustering cattle into the yards, or trying to put them up onto the truck, my dogs are involved in any aspect of the stock,” Grey said.
The dogs also have the job of influencing the cattle, if they manage to catch them from a young age.
“The main role I got them for was for educating our younger cattle,” Grey said.
“We actually teach our young cattle how we want them to behave – show them how we want to flow through a cattle yard, how to load on a truck, how to stay together as a mob and not run away.”
Kelpies are Grey’s favourite breed for mustering, although there are so many factors that determine how a dog will turn out.
“They’re all different in their own right and they all progress at a different rate as well,” she said.
These dogs all had a very strong work instinct, but Grey says hers has already become part of the family.
“For all of us they’re more than just a tool, you see their personalities and characters,” Grey said.
“My girl, I just love her nature. Her personality is the most human. She’s really quirky and a lot of fun.”
Grey’s dog, Gossip, is now one of about 12 that she keeps on her property at any one time.
“It’s a good number for me,” she said.
“It gives me two teams of four dogs and then one or two that might be out for injury or maternity leave, and then two young ones coming in.”
There’s an art to training these dogs too, which is apparent in the documentary series.
What also comes across, is how much each person comes to rely on these dogs.
“Since the drought, we’re actually trying to change our focus and do a lot more with just the three of us – my partner Adam and my mum are here on the station with me,” she said.
“Instead of getting a chopper in and getting a big mustering crew and having people working with us throughout the year, we’re actually going to try and just manage the station with three of us for the most part.
“Every now and then we might need to get people in for a couple of weeks but for the most part the
dogs are going to be our crew and we’re going to try and handle our cattle a lot more with the dogs and a lot less with the machinery.”
These dogs truly have a purpose, and Grey says not many realise that the dogs thrive on that. She’s hoping that, through this series, people can see just how invaluable they are on these properties for mustering cattle.
“I’m really hoping people see just how vital a part these dogs are to what we do on properties,” she said.
“Not every property uses them but there are a lot that do and they’re invaluable.
“And I’d like this series to show just how much the dogs actually love what they do and they want to be out there and they live for that work. I really hope that the audience can see that – just how good at what they do they can be if they get the chance.”