APPLICATIONS are open for a new scholarship that will give young people with a passion for working dogs the opportunity to undertake a tour of America, aiming to improve their skills.

The Herding of the Future scholarship is broken up into three sections – ranch tours, working dog competitions and one-on-one training with some working dog experts.

The scholarship has been put together by the National Stock Dog Association, a reasonably new organisation that has been set up by working dog breeders to connect with industry.

President Gavin Carr (pictured above) recently called into The Week in Beef podcast (see the below episode) to talk about the scholarship. He toured the US last year to put the scholarship program together.

“We have a board of seven amazing people who will go through all the applications and pick a worthy person out to travel to the states, they will both learn from America and fly our flag and represent what we do here,” he said.

Mr Carr said NSDA has been set up to bring working dog breeders closer to the livestock industry.

“One of the big things I have noticed selling dogs is the transition to other people, getting them go across to the next person because they might not be the best trainer,” he said.

“You just want to make sure other people get the best bang for their buck, that is through training and education. It goes though to improving business, helping with labour shortages and the dogs are a good mate too.”

The scholarship is open to people aged between 21-31 and closes on October 31.

• Head to the National Stock Association website or Facebook page to find out more about the application.