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Left: Justin Pinner with his dog Lisa, scored 92/100 on the first run.

Right: James Carnis from Winkleigh, Mary Sotheran of Glengarry, Luke Sotheran and Mary’s dog That’ll Do Petal.

Photos by Darren Harris

Darren Harris

PATIENCE, SKILL, luck and weather were necessary ingredients at the recent Westbury working sheep dog trials.

About 75 dogs and their owners put their dogs to test over the weekend of 27–28 of March at the Westbury Showgrounds, hosted by the Tassie Sheep Dog Club.

Justin Pinner, vice president of the club, said all dogs doing the time trials are working dogs and training a dog can start at about 6 months of age.

‘It can take two years to break in a dog before they are ready to round up sheep’, he said.

‘About 75 dogs have come to the sheep trials today, including one owner and his dog from Victoria. Each owner starts with a score of 100 and points are deducted for errors. The owner has to get the dog to take the sheep through the obstacles, the gap, the race, the bridge, and the pen, within 15 minutes, while keeping the sheep in the corridor all the way.’

Justin said it is all about efficiency.

Mary Sotheran of Glengarry, trialled her dog That’ll Do Petal, who was ‘retired’ in the improver category as Petal would not go over the bridge with the sheep.

Mary’s second run with her dog That’ll Do Zero went better, where the dog had one sheep fail to go over the bridge.

Mary managed to rally Zero and the sheep back to the pen just as the 15 minute siren sounded, to get a score of 79.

Mary said she was pleased with both dogs’ results. She finished in second overall place the next day in the open category with her dog That’ll Do Micro.

Justin had a good first run, achieving a score of 92/100, but in the next day’s run, he said the sheep were more restless and he ended up finishing fifth place in the open category.

The weekend was sponsored by IGA Express Hadspen, CopRice, Jamieson’s Statewide Rural, RJ’s Westbury Hotel and many more. Sheep were provided by Steven Tyson of ‘Fairfield’.

Justin said different clubs in the area and across Tasmania run trials throughout the year and are members of the Tasmanian Working Sheepdog Association. For more information, see www.twsda.org.