MUSTER DOGS: THE NEW AUSTRALIAN REALITY SHOW SET TO CHARM THE WORLD

Muster Dogs begins as all TV shows should – with a basketful of wriggling, squirming, squeaking newborn puppies. This particular litter of kelpies has been bred by Joe Spicer, a champion breeder whose dogs are in high demand across the country – a testament to his skill, at a time when the traditional Australian working dog doesn’t occupy the place it once did.

Hence Muster Dogs, the ABC’s new reality miniseries where five stock handlers around the country attempt to turn Spicer’s pups into fully-fledged working dogs in just 12 months. The five farmers – West Pilbara cattle station owner Aticia Grey, Victorian tree-changer Rob Tuncks, Top End cattle musterer Joni Hall, Northern Territory horse trainer CJ Scotney and third-generation Queensland farmer Frank Finger – put the puppies through a series of trials and challenges designed to assess their progress as they work towards full working-dog status one year later.

When we meet Finger in Muster Dogs, he’s bonding with his pup, Annie, by holding her in front of his face and letting her lick his nose. Besides running his property – west of Clermont in central Queensland – Finger has decades of experience raising and training working dogs. He started a dog training school in 1995, which his sons and daughters now run.

“The bonding with your pup is the key to success,” he tells Guardian Australia. “Right from when I got her, she came everywhere with me. She sat in the passenger seat and if we saw cattle, I would just say ‘look!’ or ‘looky-look!’ to familiarise her with them. So now when she sees them, she knows what to do. It’s all about bonding and giving them a pat so they learn what to do and what not to do. It’s very much the same as raising a family.”

In recent decades, the image of the farmer or stockman with working dogs at their side has begun to fade as quad bikes, dirtbikes, old utes and even helicopters have taken the role that dogs once filled. Training a working dog typically takes up to three years, which is one reason many farmers now prefer vehicles for mustering; sinking so much time into training a dog that may get injured or turn out to be unsuited to the work is an investment many farmers just can’t afford. And as farming practices change, the knowledge required to breed working dogs is in danger of being lost with each generation.

But a good working dog is a valuable thing. Dogs can go many places wheeled vehicles can’t, and aren’t as hard on the land. Unlike noisy quad bikes and deafening helicopters, dogs can also keep cows and sheep calm; as Finger says: “Dogs take the rattle out of the cattle.”

While the pups are the real drawcard, the best moments in Muster Dogs involve their human trainers. Each farmer needs very different things from their dogs, and are paired with their pups based on environment and temperament. All face their own unique problems and setbacks, from long-term drought in the Pilbara to the solitude and loneliness on long muster routes in the Territory.

Watching their bonds take hold over the four episodes is fascinating. The way the trainers and dogs work together is almost symbiotic. It’s far more subtle than the human just telling the dog what to do and where to go – it’s about harnessing the dog’s bred instincts and intelligence to their best effect.

Some of the best scenes in Muster Dogs are drone’s-eye shots of a dog and trainer working a herd. Directed one way and another, the herd moves like water as the dog scoots around and behind it, stopping and starting at a whistle, a word or just a look from the trainer.

That kind of cohesiveness, Finger says, takes decades – or longer – to achieve.

“It takes a lifetime to learn about dogs, I think. You have to train about 100 pups to really have it down pat,” he says.

The opportunity to bond is one of the biggest appeals for the farmers. Besides having an endlessly eager and energetic work assistant, the love and loyalty the dogs give back is enormous. As they grow from chaotic bundles of fur and teeth into thriving working dogs, the kelpies of Muster Dogs effortlessly become media darlings. Expect large and active fan clubs for each of them.