Running sheep in Victoria's picturesque high country is in the blood for fourth-generation farmer Simon Turner.
The family farm shares a boundary with the state forest, meaning wild dogs have direct access to his paddocks.
In the worst years, Mr Turner has counted stock losses to dogs in the hundreds, and he says the impact extends far beyond the financial aspect.
"Then it's the emotional bit. They've got the upper hand over you. You're finding half-live, mauled animals that you've spent a lifetime breeding and so forth, and to see them in pain and agony, just trailing their internal organs behind them, doing that for hours before they actually finally die."
Mr Turner has spent tens of thousands of dollars installing what are known as "dog-proof" fences to combat the domestic and dingo hybrid.
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The fences are one of several measures employed to control the dogs.
Others include a bounty, aerial and ground baiting programs and trapping in the state forest within three kilometres from private property.
Anthony Websdale is one of 18 wild-dog trappers operating in Victoria and says his is a job with a difference.
"There is a lot of work, and you've got to put a lot of thought into it. And you could say, 'Eh, to catch a dog, you've got to think like a dog.'"
Simon Turner says the trappers play a key role in what sometimes seems an impossible task.
"Out there on the crown, there's a huge population of wild dogs that has no top-order predator, no management, no control. We're only managing the dogs that are within three kilometres of our freehold boundary."
Barry Davies manages Victoria's wild-dog program and says summer is an especially busy period for the dogs and the trappers.
"The biggest challenge is possibly around this time of year, when bitches are training their young pups. Like any prey species, they're training their young how to kill, because, if they don't know how to kill, they won't survive."
At any time, Anthony Websdale has about 25 traps set, and, by law, each one is checked every 72 hours.
The success of the program is not measured in the number of dogs killed but the limit on stock losses.
Simon Turner says the baiting and trapping must be maintained to keep farming effectively
"We don't want to eradicate them. We just want to get them under control, get the population to a reasonably acceptable level, so that they're not destroying the native wildlife and the farmer's livelihood."
