As a 14 year old living on a farm around Neville Josh Marshall's life could have taken any direction, but once he had a taste of sheep dog training and trialling, he was hooked.
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Now 23, Josh spends his time travelling around the countryside working on farms and coaching his border collies in the fine art of three sheep trialling.
"There's a big circuit that we have in New South Wales and around Australia and this one here in Neville is my last trial for the year and is probably the 14th trial I've done this year,' he said.
The Neville Working Dog Trials are only in their third year and for Josh this year's hasn't been the best.
"My dog she's just been weaned off her pups so we got the sheep through the race but then she just ran out of puff and we had to pull out," he said.
His favourite dog though is his old stalwart River, who has taken him into six finals so far this year.
"The best time so far happened this year actually in Delegate where we scored 5:45 minutes," he said.
Like all the other participants in the trials, it's the social contact and the competition that keeps them coming back time and time again.
Sitting under a tree calmly watching one of the female handlers coaxing her dog through the course, organiser Peter Oxley said that the appeal was widespread across the state from country to city.
"This lady here is from Sydney and she doesn't have property which is something that people seem to think that they need," he said.
"Some of the people here train their dogs in cul-de-sacs and parks."
With only small amounts on offer as prize money, the draw card is all about the dogs and how they perform.
"You're not playing for sheep stations, it's all about the best dog really and having the bragging rights at the end of it," he laughed.
"You meet a lot of good friends and we've known a lot of the people here for over twenty years."
Training a dog up begins when they're about six months old Peter said, but the results take some time.
'It can take a couple of years just to see if he's going to be any good or not, it's certainly not an overnight thing," he said.