Dogs are man's best friend, but they are also a farmer's best employees — with no job too big, they can save thousands of dollars in wages.
Dave Steel manages a cattle property at Rhydding, 200 kilometres south-west of Rockhampton, and has been using working dogs for 20 years.
"From a mustering point of view, we wouldn't be able to do the job that we do here with quietening cattle and breaking weaners with just the two of us," Mr Steel said.
Mr Steel, his wife Kelly, and their pack of border collies manage up to 2,000 cattle — including 200 Brahman bulls — on the 4,000-hectare property.
"From an economical point of view you don't have to pay them wages," Mr Steel said.
"You just give them a bit of water and a few biscuits every night and look after them and they'll do the job.
"It takes a lot less to feed a dog than to feed a ringer, and you can open those cages at 3am if you want to and he's going to come to work and he's not going to whinge about it."
The couple currently has eight working dogs and a litter of puppies.
"I'm going through the breeding program where I like to breed a dog that's good to work here ,that can handle the training, and it's something I can breed later on," Mr Steel said.
'Eight hours to train a dog'
Mr Steel said his working dogs produced about three litters a year and that he kept one puppy from each litter.
"I'd like to keep them all, but with working full-time and trying to train dogs it can get a little hectic at times," he said.
Mr Steel said training a dog took a lot of patience, persistence and instinct.
He said a "great" dog trainer he knew once said that it took "eight hours to train a dog, but that's spread out over 18 months".
Mr Steel started training his dogs to herd sheep and then transitioned them to cattle once they were mature enough, to minimise the chance of them getting hurt.
A series of whistles and commands are used to instruct the dogs to stop, approach, and then herd clockwise and anticlockwise.
"When you first bring your pup over and drop it in the round pen, he might only be there for 15 seconds," Mr Steel said.
"Because you can't overload their brain."
Worth a pretty penny
Mr Steel is not the only one recognising a trained working dog's worth — in the past two decades he has seen dog prices more than quadruple.
"Back 20 years ago, if you paid $1,5000for a dog people would look at you like you were from a different planet," he said.
"But it's nothing to see a dog go for $10,000 these days.
"When we first started with a breeding program we were getting $150 a pup and now we get $650."
Last year, kelpie breeder Shane Maurer set a new Australian record price for a working kelpie at the Jerilderie Working Dog Auction, in southern NSW, when he sold his bitch Eveready Possum for $25,000.
Not your neighbour's best friend
Mr Steel said when his dogs were not working they made good pets, but that would not be the case for everyone.
"If I turn my back for five minutes and there's a horse around, they'll be around stalking a horse," he said.
"So, in a town situation, if you go to work and you've got a fairly high-drive type of dog, you're pretty much going to come home and find your washing all pulled off the line or there's a big hole in the yard.
"Obviously if you have the right amount of exercise for one, by all means get one.
"But if you want to stay friends with your neighbours, and you don't have the right amount [of exercise], it could become a situation."
An energy outlet
Queensland Working Cattle Dog Trial Association president Adam Sibson said more people from suburbia were becoming members of the club.
"Most dogs also work a day job working cattle on a station, but there are some dogs that just come for trials," he said.
"Their owners live in town and don't have access to cattle every day."
The association organises sporting events for owners to bring their dogs to compete.
Mr Sibson said the club had about 180 members and was becoming more popular every year.
"Most trials run over two days — there's an open, maiden and novice competition," he said.
"There can be as many as 80 dogs run in an open and 60–70 in the novice and maiden."
While trials have been cancelled due to COVID-19, the largest event of the year, the Queensland Championships, is still scheduled to go ahead at Wallumbilla on August 9.
