He's the familiar face, and voice, on the ABC TV show Muster Dogs, calmly showing the world how to work successfully with dogs, and livestock. Now the master trainer Neil McDonald is back in Western Australia, bringing his decades of experience to teach sheep and cattle farmers the secrets of communication.
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00:00 You let them stop talking, you're sort of behaving a bit better.
00:05 Whatever you do, don't call Neil MacDonald a dog whisperer.
00:08 Who's the next lucky victim?
00:10 Because Neil's message is always loud and clear.
00:14 It's the dog owners who need teaching.
00:17 And then I've watched Gerry leading that dog.
00:19 No, no, I didn't.
00:20 I saw the dog leading Gerry.
00:22 Holy moly.
00:24 At a workshop for stock handlers on a farm in the Great Southern.
00:27 Talk a lot because I know everyone can.
00:29 The master trainer teaches his students to read the body language of their dogs and stock.
00:36 Beautiful.
00:37 Let him tuck them in there.
00:38 You want him there.
00:39 A dozen farmers from around the state are learning how to slow down to reduce stress
00:44 on their animals and themselves.
00:46 Because most of our dogs are pushing and shoving too much.
00:49 So we get the dog to work, but we make it get off its mob.
00:53 Sit down.
00:54 Years ago, it wasn't cool to go to any sort of training course.
00:59 It was hard to get people to understand that they needed some extra instruction.
01:04 And to do a course in front of other people was a little bit daunting for them.
01:07 So that awkwardness is gone now and people are readily coming.
01:12 These producers are some of the increasing numbers of women in WA who are responsible
01:18 for farm animal management.
01:20 The men are very busy doing their cropping and other things.
01:23 And yeah, and the women are taking over the livestock enterprises.
01:27 Very good change of pace.
01:28 This is next level as far as keeping your sheep calm.
01:33 Calmer the better.
01:34 They work.
01:35 The sheep don't stress.
01:36 Yeah, that's great.
01:38 What we've got to do is get people to drop their revs.
01:42 And that just nearly always, a lot of people like a wound up toy, they're going too hard.
01:46 If we can get people just to back off their intensity, then stock and dogs respond accordingly.
01:52 A message in there for all of us.
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]