New podcast celebrates the working dogs

 

For millennia, humans have leveraged relationships with canine partners to make a living from the land with greater efficiency, safety and productivity. Whether herding livestock, guarding flocks, or eliminating pests and warning of unseen dangers, these unsung heroes of agriculture have been critical to our survival and success.

Now, a new podcast gives working farm dogs the credit they deserve.

Farm Dog explores the fascinating history and current practice of humans working with dogs to make a living from the land. Its biweekly interview format lets the audience listen in to chats with experts covering individual breed descriptions, dog training advice, real world farm and ranch experiences, and more. Herding dogs and livestock guardian dogs (LGD's) are frequent topics, but terriers, hunting dogs, and good ol' all-around farm dogs are up for discussion, too. “If it’s a dog, and it produces, protects, or provides for our rural lives, we'll talk about it!” says Aaron Steele, the creator and host of Farm Dog.

Steele, who is also the founder of Goats On The Go®, a national brand of targeted goat grazing (AKA “goat rental” or “goatscaping”) operations, says the motivation for creating the podcast was a bit self-serving. “As the number of livestock on our farm has kept growing, and my three sons have kept getting older, I’ve come to realize that I’m going to need some canine help when the boys are all out of the house. I was considering getting my first herding dog puppy and realized I didn’t know anything about how to find a good one, much less train it. Off I went to do the research, which was eventually going to lead to phone calls and conversations with experts anyway, so I thought, ‘Why not bring an audience along for the ride?’”

So why not a podcast exclusively about herding dogs? “Because the rest of the working farm dog world is just too fascinating to ignore!” Steele points to the ancient history of livestock guardian breeds and the practical virtues of terriers and “earthdogs” as reasons to broaden the show’s scope. “These dogs are nearly as old as agriculture itself in some cases, and it’s impossible to untangle their traits and heritage from history and culture. There’s just so much good stuff to talk about,” says Steele.

Listeners can find Farm Dog at anchor.fm/farmdog or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and most other podcast apps.

For more information, contact: Aaron Steele, Goats On The Go, LC 515-257-6846, aaron@GoatsOnTheGo.com