Lisa Miller: What city viewers struggle with watching Muster Dogs
Not everybody likes to see loveable pups in cages, but there are good reasons says Lisa Millar.
- Published by David Knox
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It’s a hit show for ABC but there are some aspects of Muster Dogs that cameras try not linger on for fear of turning viewers off.
They centre around the caging of the loveable puppies, narrator Lisa Millar reveals.
“There are a few elements that people in the city look at and go, ‘I don’t want to see a dog in a cage,” she tells TV Tonight.
Both seasons have also required transportation of the pups across states, on long road trips for hundreds of kms, in the back of vehicles by professional animal transporters.
“There’s certainly no suggestion that dogs weren’t (looked after),” she assures.
“I hear what you’re saying. I think the thing though, has been the education for city viewers who have gone ‘My dog’s allowed on my couch and sleeps with me at night.’
“What I’ve learned a lot more about, even though I come from the country… is that this keeps them safe from snakes.
“They are so dedicated to the task of working, that if they are let out of those cages, they will just take off until they find cattle to round up. They’ll get hit by cars and get lost. So it’s all about their own safety.”
Muster Dogs continues 7:30 Sundays on ABC.
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3 Responses
I am a city person and a long time ago we adopted a small stray dog. I got an American book from the library on helping “Second-Hand Dogs” and it suggested a “Crate” as a place where our dog would feel safe in the house with children around etc. I created one and we especially used it when we were going to go in the car. If we didn’t, the little dog would jump all over us and her claws would scratch our legs and generally be a problem. After we got the crate, and used it in the car, she couldn’t wait to go in it because she knew that we were going somewhere – actually out to the country and the drive was for about an hour. Later we got a Jack Russell and he loved his crate too.
I agree that some dogs are caged for the wrong reasons (eg., by unscrupulos breeders) but a muster dog probably doesn’t view the cage the way some city people might!
I walk 100m down to my letterbox every day and dogs in 4 nearby houses bark at me, they’re alone, bored out of their minds and trapped in a house. They probably dream of working on a farm. If city people fancy a pet, get a pet rock!
Cafe-latte set in the eastern burbs, take note. What Lisa said is totally correct. They’re safer traveling in the caged back of the ute rather than on the back, and front, seats. They have regular stops and runarounds, on leashes. These are working dogs who love rounding up cattle, otherwise they wouldn’t do it. They are very different to the trophy dogs seen walking on hot concrete around town.