Episode 1
Sunday 14 January 7.30pm; Stream all episodes on ABC iview
Five adorable Australian Border Collie puppies set out into the world to meet their new owners, establishing a lifelong bond as they take their first steps to becoming a Champion Muster Dog.
In Goondy Creek NSW, we meet Debbie and Snip, the mother and father of the brand-new litter of Muster Dog pups. After fourteen long hours Debbie delivers ten gorgeous Australian Border Collies. Five of these pups will steal our hearts as we watch them grow in the twelve-month experiment.
These pups were bred by dog trialling champion and dog educator, Mick Hudson, and their bloodlines come from more than one hundred years of Australian dog trial champions. Will this litter be as good as their ancestors and become Champion Muster Dogs?
Neil McDonald returns as our training expert with an updated experiment to cater to the training style of Border Collies. The key milestones for this season are set at five, seven, ten, and twelve months. Can this litter of pups be trained in twelve months to be quality working dogs and what will we learn about their natural instincts along the way?
After thirteen weeks the dogs are delivered to our five excited graziers who are eager to take on the challenge to train a muster dog. Spread across Australia, they welcome us into their lives and their new pups into their families.
There’s Zoe, a contract weaner tailer in the Northern Territory, Steve, a grazier from Winton, Queensland, Lily who runs sheep and goats with her mother in Wilcannia, NSW, Cilla who is juggling her farm work with three young children in Ban Ban Springs, Queensland, and Russ, a seventh-generation grazier in Bothwell, Tasmania.
The cute new puppies instantly wriggle their way into the hearts of our new owners and training begins for the first five-month milestone assessment. Through the mischief and chaos our puppies are named: Buddy, Indi, Snow, Ash and Molly, and the lives of our trainers are changed forever.