The 82nd national sheepdog trials are under way at Hall in the ACT. 80 competitors with more than 300 working dogs will compete in the event, which culminates in the national champion being crowned on Sunday.
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00:00I've got a farm, we're at Bungendore, and so we're there and we work stock all our life
00:10and that, so this is an excuse to get out of work and out of the farm, out of the butcher
00:14shop and come here.
00:21The disasters in dog trialling around, it looks like you've got a dog that you're hopefully
00:24trained, you've got three sheep you've never seen before and yourself and you think you
00:28know everything, so it's just a part of life, you draw the right sheep with the right dog
00:32you can have a good day.
00:34This dog worked sheep yesterday and cattle yesterday afternoon so he'll be fairly pushy
00:38today but that's alright, we've got other dogs to run and he's not a great trial dog
00:44but he's a good honest dog you know.
00:48Stop digger, stop.
00:49He's got to be right on the line, the sheep might travel so much distance and the dog
00:54will probably travel two thirds or three times the distance that those sheep will travel.
01:01We are looking at roughly 80 competitors, huge number of people from across Australia,
01:06very exciting and we have 300 dogs competing, so lots and lots of dogs across the week.
01:17You start with 15 minutes and 100 points and then you lose points for the sheep going off
01:22course or not getting an obstacle.
01:25When that sheep came out and saw that hole in the fence I thought this show's over,
01:28this is going to be the shortest show in Australia, not going to make mustard dogs.
01:34He found a bird, stop, stop, good dog, good boy.
01:39But the sheep pulled back off, saw him and then accepted him, he had to win the sheep
01:44over you know, otherwise they just think they've been chased by dingo or something like that
01:49and then it was up to him.
01:50When the only times that those sheep got off course was when he pulled them off course,
01:54he was just too far, too here, too there, but that's life, you live with all that.
02:00I employed 10 people at the butcher shop and you need some down time and these stresses,
02:05you sit down there and watch this dog swim all day.
02:07So it's a hobby, you've got to do something to be able to run the athletics and the Olympics
02:12but we can't so we go dog climbing.