From: Eumungerie, NSW

Australia

Mick Hudson

Achievements

Mick Hudson has been around working dogs his whole life. He is one of seven children, born and raised on a 100,000 acre station in western NSW. Growing up, Mick spent a lot of time with his father mustering, marking lambs, draughting, crutching etc. which created the desire to have his own working dogs.

Just prior to leaving school Mick’s father, Pip Hudson, gave Mick a pup from a litter out of Windeyer Pippy joined to Morillo Nick Webb. Mick trained the bitch, that he named Hudsons Yhana, with the help of his father, he had placed second in the Supreme Australian Championships with her at 18 years of age.

After going shearing, Mick had to stop dog trialing for a while to make enough money for a deposit on a farm. That was his dream, to work dogs and livestock on his own property one day.

Mick then bred pups out of Yhana, trained them and on weekends and weeks off would muster feral goats for farmers. The extra income allowed him to finally purchase his first property. The wild goats were cunning and difficult to herd. Mick had to teach himself to be smarter than the goats and realised that timing, balance and distance were the three most crucial elements of yarding the feral goats.

Another crucial element was the natural ability of the dogs he had and set about breeding dogs that were trainable, took commands easily and did what they were told without being mechanical. He selects dogs with good natures, that are trainable and have clean strength. The clean strength was the most important as dogs that hung on and wouldn’t let go mean losing the whole mob. Mick also realised over the years that the animals, whether that would be cattle, sheep or goats could pick out a dog’s weakness, so he generally had different types of dogs in his pack to do a job.

After 18 years of not competing, Mick followed in his father and grandfather's footsteps and returned to the sport. He worked hard at educating his dogs and developed new methods of training. He realised that the dogs had to think for themselves but be under control, as commanding dogs to cover and read livestock was too slow. Mick developed a method of how educate dogs to do 80% of the work without being told. The dogs were only spoken to if in the wrong spot. He said he was very fortunate to learn from the greatest handlers in Australia.

After enjoying huge success at dog trials at a national and international level, Mick's methods became sought out. He started running clinics, which worked well. He also now offers virtual private lessons and video courses to help even more handlers. You can find more information here.