Recording working dog oral history

Prepare the interview

Agree the purpose, recording method, intended audience and how the recording may be used. Ask open questions about places, dogs, people and changes in work rather than only requesting a list of wins.

Preserve the speaker’s account

Keep the original recording and document edits or transcripts. Distinguish the speaker’s recollection from facts independently checked in programmes, results or contemporary reports.

Plan future access

Agree any access restrictions and retain participant details appropriately. The National Library’s oral-history collection demonstrates the value of preserving individual voices alongside documentary history.

Create a short index of topics and time references to help future listeners find material. Check name spellings with the speaker while preserving the recording as the primary record of what was said.

Invite the speaker to distinguish events they witnessed from stories passed down by others. Both can be valuable, but a future researcher needs to know which kind of account is preserved.

Ask about ordinary work

An interview about famous dogs can overlook the daily decisions that explain the industry. Ask how a workday was organised, how stock and terrain affected choices, what a young handler had to learn and how equipment or expectations changed. Invite examples rather than only opinions. When a name or date is uncertain, let the speaker describe the uncertainty instead of supplying a preferred answer. Add later factual checks in notes without altering the preserved recording to make a recollection sound more precise than it was.

Common questions

Sources & further reading

References for this guide. Rules and services can change; check the responsible organisation for current details.

• National Library of Australia: Oral history and folklore (opens in a new tab)

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