By day, Ian Worley is the Quirindi High School principal. Outside of school hours he’s been back in the classroom, joining the cast of ABC TV’s Muster Dogs.
Ian is one of six first-time trainers featured in the new season, which returned to our TV screens last night (Sunday, 1 February), following everyday Australians as they learn how to raise and train a working dog from scratch. He is one of two participants from the New England region, alongside Walcha farmer Sam Mackaway.
Ian, and young Muster Dog Buruma the kelpie, live on 1800 acres near Nundle where his family has run predominantly sheep, but issues with wild dogs meant they diversified into cattle, running about 40 head of sheep now.
The transition from sheep to cattle happened around the same time as filming, so it was challenging to train a young working dog on sheep who were already scared of dogs.
“The sheep were all completely flighty because they’re being chased, so we had to try to get them settled down to train Buruma.”
Ian named his young kelpie Buruma as it’s a Kamilaroi word meaning “tame dog”, a name he said was aspirational in the beginning.
“He had to grow into his name,” Ian said.
The experience, Ian said, reinforced why he wanted to be part of the program in the first place.
“It was a big transition, but I needed a new working dog and I needed some solid skills in dog training,” he said.
“So it was like, ‘yeah, I’ll give that a crack’.”
Season four of the hit ABC TV show deliberately cast beginners rather than experienced handlers, following their progress over 12 months as they learn how to train a working dog properly, under expert guidance.
Ian said the experience forced him to rethink how he approached training altogether.
“Main things I’ve learned? Patience, patience, patience,” he said.
“Train for the sake of training. You can’t just take a dog out on the job and expect it’s going to do what it needs to do.”
Buruma has since become part of Ian’s everyday life, even making appearances at school, and Ian hopes the series shows a realistic picture of regional life and the willingness of people in the bush to keep learning, regardless of age or job title.
“It really was trying to teach an old dog (me) new tricks,” he said.
“And the biggest trick was trying to teach me something new.”
Ian said he hoped Muster Dogs showed people in the cities that you can have a great lifestyle beyond the Great Dividing Range and attracted more professionals to regional Australia.
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