Muster Dogs
by Aticia Grey
ABC Books
Aticia (Teech) Grey grew up on her family’s half a million acre cattle station in Western Australia’s south-west Pilbara. A fourth generation farmer on her mother’s side, she writes that she can’t recall a time in her life when she didn’t have dogs.
After stints at boarding school and Narrogin and Muresk Agriculture Colleges, she returned home to work on the land with her mother and her brother. On a trip to New Zealand she witnessed the skill of working dogs and began training her Kelpie pup Zen.
Now she manages the family cattle station; owns a stable of Kelpies to muster the cattle as well as Maremma guard dogs; has showcased her work with farm dogs on a four-part documentary series (premiering on ABC TV and ABC iview in January 2022) and has written this book.
Far from being a dream run, she has had to deal with dangerous situations, dingo attacks and four years of soul-destroying drought. Questioning everything she thought she knew about farming on fragile land, her heart-breaking journey has taught her different ways to secure her property’s future, and her loyal canine companions are an essential part of that.
In 2020, she was selected as one of five people on working farms across Australia to be given a Kelpie pup from the same litter. Teesh was given a 10 week old black and tan bundle of energy and filmed over the space of a year to show how she trained and integrated Gossip Girl into her farm work.
Teesh dedicates her tale of love, laughter, loss and hope to the amazing working dogs that have helped shape Australia – “Giving their all and asking nothing in return except a feed, a pet and a chance to do it all again tomorrow.”
Lezly Herbert
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