Rodeo Dog

The Durfey family – and their dog Jake – are the heart and muscle of small-town rodeo in the Pacific Northwest. Three generations of this Oregon family, along with the Bain family, comprise the B-Bar-D Rodeo Company, a traveling operation that produces small-town rodeos featuring cowboys risking everything to ride massive bulls and bucking broncs.

Audiences flock to their rodeos not only for the sports spectacle but also for a view into a disappearing way of life. But nothing steals the show and the crowd’s heart more than the family dog Jake, the only known Australian Shepherd to work in the live arena corralling bulls that outweigh him by thousands of pounds. This short documentary film is a striking view about what tradition, livelihood and family means in the modern American West.

Directed & Produced by Rebecca Hynes