A farm on a windswept moor above Bingley is not the first place you would expect to find people battling to overcome severe self-confidence issues.

But there, a team of dedicated sheepdogs is helping individuals ranging from bullied children to shy businessmen become more assertive.

And following the success of the work of the Mainline Border Collie Centre, based at Golcar Farm in Spring Lane near Eldwick, its owner is to parade her animals' sensitive skills on television.

Barbara Sykes is to feature with her trusty nine-year-old border collie Hope on an episode of Dogs with Jobs, a series which showcases a variety of canines helping to teach humans new skills.

The episode will feature bullied pupils from a Bradford school who are given lessons to build their confidence by learning to shepherd sheep into a pen at the farm by shouting commands to Hope. If the commands are not given assertively enough, the dog will not respond.

Mrs Sykes has written several books on dog training and is an advocate of teaching confident body language that people can apply to their daily lives.

She has run The Sheepdog Experience at the farm for several years.

The experience includes corporate training packages for managers looking at the way body language is used in leadership, courses for unconfident children and for people who just want to learn more about traditional shepherding skills.

She said Hope was ideal as one of her "corporate collies" because one of his front legs had been badly injured in an accident several years ago and although he was unfit to compete in sheepdog trials he could still respond to instructions.

Mrs Sykes said: "Canine behaviour, such as shepherding, can successfully help to build body language skills and build bridges.

"What a good corporate individual has to have is confidence and in this situation the dog has to have confidence in the person in order to do its job.

"We are teaching people so much and it can almost be a journey of self-discovery. You're learning how to be yourself and people are told to relax with the dogs and it really works."

Mrs Sykes added that, unlike a person, dogs cannot answer back to participants' commands and this helps individuals to grow in confidence when giving orders. "If you are confident the dog accepts you and that makes you start to accept yourself," she said.

Mrs Sykes's dogs are fully trained with the farm's flocks, and also provide ideal partners for visiting groups keen to learn the traditional shepherding techniques.

Mrs Sykes said: "Hope has fitted in unbelievably well and he is what I would call a body language expert!"

The TV appearance will not be the first time the centre has appeared on the small screen.

Mrs Sykes' training techniques and animals have featured in everything from Blind Date to Country File, as well as several programmes in the US.

The episode of Dogs With Jobs will be shown on the National Geographic Channel on Wednesday, February 16, at 7pm.