Camera loves them: Rob Tuncks and Lucifer represented Victoria in the popular ABC TV series, Muster Dogs.
Rob Tuncks was so pleased with Country News’ insightful coverage of hit ABC TV show Muster Dogs that he offered us an interview.
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Known around the traps as ‘Lucifer’s dad’ and ‘the Victorian one’, Rob starred in Muster Dogs as the only southern sheep grazier in a line-up of northern cattle farmers.
How do you feel about the show?
I think it’s going to be the biggest show of the year. Definitely for the ABC. The first episode had something like 10 million views.
How did you get selected for the show?
I’m part of the (working dog trainer) Neil McDonald network and they (ABC) were looking for different kinds of people to get a real mix, which they achieved.
Boof-head: The devil dog himself, Lucifer, was far and away the fan favourite on Muster Dogs. In viewers’ eyes, every mistake was adorable.
Photo by
Rob Tuncks
How was the filming process?
Filming started in 2020. I was filmed two months before the puppy was brought out, just doing stock handling stuff. We had the puppy filming and then they came out two more times before we went up to the Northern Territory.
It was mainly Brad and Jerry from Melbourne who I worked with. It was one sound guy and one cameraman. It’s probably the cheapest show the ABC has put together. Originally they wanted to film it all with Sydney people who could create a really polished product but COVID happened and the borders all shut down. It ended up looking really nice anyway.
Did you have a say in the pup you got?
No say at all. I knew it was going to be a kelpie and a Joe Spicer pup, but that was it.
A good experience overall?
I would do it again in a heartbeat. To get one good dog out of a litter is great, but to get several is a real achievement. They didn’t really show this but Chet was very close to winning. He was pushing Frank and Annie. See, Chet was ready to work for Joni because she does more close-quarters stuff, whereas Annie wasn’t ready to work yet because Frank does work where the dog disappears from view, but Annie was the better dog on the day. It would’ve been really close between those two.
Did you get along with everyone?
I knew most of them already and we’re all actually great mates. The only one I didn’t know was CJ. The great thing about the show was that no-one really cared who won it.
Any hard moments?
My dog was very frustrating, as I’m sure people know. It was also difficult because I discovered I had a training defect. So they didn’t discuss it on the show, but this was the fourth dog I’d tried to start and failed. I thought it was because I kept going for the really soft dogs but with Lucifer I realised it was something I was doing, which ended up being that I over-controlled them. So I was really letting go of control with Lucifer intentionally.
On the show one of your oldest dogs, Jumpy, died. How was that experience?
I didn’t expect that, which made it really sad. She died in the kitchen after coming down for some treats and the vet said later she’d possibly had a heart murmur. She actually died while I was in the NT, the show moved the timeline around so there wasn’t two sad emotional impacts in the one episode.
Sad loss: The retired working dog, Jumpy, who died while Rob Tuncks was filming in the NT.
Photo by
Rob Tuncks
The reflections by the fire were a nice touch.
That fire was something we did because there was a pile of useless stringy bark there. Jumpy was still alive when we did that. If you watch carefully, she keeps showing up in the background after that.
Have you heard any news from Frank and Lucifer?
I’ve heard Lucifer has been de-sexed and is giving the bullocks a hard time, so it was definitely a good idea for me to let him go if he can tussle with bullocks. There was no way I could have kept him. Frank has been taking Lucifer and Annie to schools in Clermont. With these people, what you see is what you get — Frank is genuinely that nice. After the NT I had trouble with my alternator and he followed me all the way into Katherine to make sure I got there safely.
Muster Dogs has definitely struck a chord with people.
It’s shown that farmers do get really attached to their dogs, despite how tough they act. I’m not embarrassed to admit my older dogs come inside the house, but there are a lot of farmers out there who say their dogs are outside only, but you know those dogs are coming inside.
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