A dog's life

They work harder than any employee, never ask for a pay rise and – along with a positive environmental impact – help family businesses stay afloat. Now a new documentary explores the effects working dogs have on the farming industry.

- TIFFANY DUNK

In February 2021 residents in the Pilbara in WA heaved a collective sigh of relief: The drought that had gripped the region for four long years had finally broken. The unceasing lack of rain had been devastating, as Aticia Grey – a fourth-generation grazier who recently inherited Glenforrie Station – can personally attest to.

So, as those first drops fell, she knew that her primary focus needed to be on regenerating the country the station sits upon while ensuring they were better set up to react when drought hits again. While other owners in the area rely upon bikes, diesel-run trucks, helicopters and other machinery, she wants to find a way that is kinder on both the environment and the cattle. And that’s where her four-legged workers are helping to shift the dial.

“The dogs were a big part in helping to manage our mob of cattle and going forward that is one of the biggest things,” the 33-year-old explains to The Weekly, having just returned from a last-minute mustering with her canine teams. “We’re having to shift one mob of cattle every month [to let the land regenerate] and I can do that with just the dogs. It’s not the big deal it would have been without them. Now we’ve got the option to shift our cattle more often and utilise and look after our feed better. As long as the dogs have water and shade and I look after them in the heat then we can do all these things that wouldn’t have been a possibility previously.”

This is just one of the many unsung benefits of enlisting working dogs that a new ABC documentary, Muster Dogs, is hoping to reveal.