FROM the moment you see them, you realise Sian Murphy has a very special bond with her dogs. They don’t take their eyes off her, always looking to see what comes next.

This 19-year-old from Cwmcarn has three rescue dogs – Storm, Ellie and Jetstream – who travel around the country performing tricks.

Ms Murphy said they have only been performing shows this past year, but have been training for two years.

She said: “Storm is a funny, loving dog - he is very honest and genuine.

“He was easy to train once I got his trust. He can do 600 tricks – I know how many because I write them down once I have taught them.

“When we first started, he was learning three to four tricks a week. Now, we are mainly revisiting what he knows already.”

Ms Murphy said she got Storm from the Dogs Trust in Bridgend four years ago and that she has had Ellie – who “failed as a sheep dog, so she is now a stunt dog” – for a year.

“Ellie is a border collie cross with whippet,” she continued. “She is mostly blind.

“She can do a few tricks, but most of her work is with frisbees.”

The dog owner said the most impressive trick Ellie can do is a walking handstand on her front legs.

“She is fearless, she is brilliant,” she added. “Jetstream, on the other hand, is a lovely dog – he is a cuddle monster.

“However, he comes from an abusive home so he is scared of people – he is a miracle puppy.

“He is hard-working and enthusiastic.”

Ms Murphy has had Jetstream for about a year as well and is currently building his confidence to perform. At the moment, they are focused on learning tricks and familiarising him with the show environment.

The 19-year-old said she gets people asking her whether learning all these tricks is good for the dogs.

She said: “We don’t do training every day and all we do is positive reinforcement training, so everything is fun.

“If they do something right, they get a treat. If they do something wrong, they don’t get a treat but they don’t get punished.

“They are very intelligent dogs so they need something to do. They can’t work as sheep dogs, so I have found something else to do with them. It is about working to their strengths.”

Ms Murphy said that the more tricks they learn, the quicker they are at picking them up.

It never takes them longer than three days to learn a trick, but it depends on the difficulty of it, she said.

“The only one that look longer than three days was Ellie learning the handstand as she had to build strength,” the dog trainer said. “When doing tricks, Ellie is mostly verbal as she struggles to see what I am doing.

“Storm, on the other hand, relies mostly on hands. With Jetstream, it is a mixture of both.”

Ms Murphy said it all started two years ago when she wanted Storm to do agility and, while he was recovering from an injury, she started to teach him tricks.

“Then I wanted to teach him more,” she continued. “They enjoy learning the tricks as much as I do.

“They don’t always work, they also get muddy and have fun. They don’t go to shows every weekend either – in fact, they don’t have another one until May.”

Ms Murphy doesn’t have any qualifications on dog training and said she learns with them as she goes along.

She said: “We learn everything together.

“I would like to turn it into a full-time job, hopefully. I would like to train other people’s dogs in the future but I don’t feel ready to do so yet.”

The Wonder Collies are on social media and have 5,000 followers on Instagram.

They are very popular and have been recognised on the street, Ms Murphy added.

She said: “We have been picked up for some shows through social media.

“A lot of it is word of mouth or people seeing us at a show and asking us if we can go to theirs.

“Through the performances, we get to go to some fantastic places and meet interesting people while being with the dogs.”

The Wonder Collies have performed in The National Pet Show, Just Dogs Live and DogFest, among others. They were also at Bark in the Parc, in Belle Vue Parc, Newport.

They collies have even taken part in some modelling – including for Chuckit, a dog toy company.

She said: “We have always had dogs in my family and we had one collie when I was younger.

“I love everything about collies – their intelligence and their willingness to work especially.

“I enjoy the loyalty and companionship you get from having a dog, as well as the satisfaction and partnership I have with them.

“I love the fact they all have different personalities.”

To find out more, visit their Instagram page.