Held on the third Wednesday of each month at organiser Roland Pell’s Undera farm, the sessions are designed to be practical, accessible and relaxed.
“We’ll do that for the next couple of months and then see what people think of the format,” Mr Pell said.
“We’ll set it up for 10 or a dozen, and that way everyone gets a good chance to work their dogs.”
The sessions start at 5.30pm, with a barbecue dinner to follow.
Pell said the mix of training and socialising was deliberate.
“We’ll have the barbecue going, a couple of sausages, and try to make it as social as we can, but short and affordable.”
Each class is tailored to the needs of individual handlers and their dogs.
“It’s no good if I have an idea of what I want to do, but it doesn’t suit the dogs or handlers here,” he said.
“Most of them have similar problems — some are a bit over keen, some are a bit soft — but a lot of the same techniques work.”
Mr Pell, who was a dairy farmer for many years, said stepping back from milking gave him the time to give back to the working dog community.
“I wanted to do this to give back to the association, but also to utilise the facilities, we’ve got here.”
For many, Mr Pell said, the sessions are as much about community as training.
“They hang around, talk about dogs, stock, or even just the weather. It’s a day off the farm. It’s not the pub, but an alternative.
“I just want to make an ecosystem around working dogs ... they only add value if they’re doing good work, and hopefully, we can help them get there.”
To get in contact with Mr Pell, head to his Facebook page at tinyurl.com/2jt2ebsw
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