Winchelsea working dog team takes victory

WINCHELSEA local Henry Lawrence and his loyal dog Boof, a six-year-old Kelpie, outclassed their competition to claim the title of Cobber Champion.

Living on the cusp of Lake Mardeduke in Winchelsea, Victoria, Boof is one of 12 working dogs around the nation that competed in the 2018 Cobber Challenge.

This three-week competition saw two dogs from each state wear GPS collars to track their daily work and score points.

Boof trailed in his first two weeks before clocking up the mileage in a final dash that put him neck-and-neck with runner-up Jess from NSW.

The competition’s dark horse ran an average of 51 km per day in the final week – the equivalent of seven consecutive marathons – and seized a narrow victory on the last day of the competition.

During the Cobber Challenge, Boof ran over 630km at 10.62km/h, even astounding owner Henry Lawrence.

“I found out that Boof covers a lot more ground than I thought he would,” Henry said.

“One morning when we were shifting a mob he covered around 40km, and then another time he clocked almost 70km for the day, so he really surprised me.

“Boof’s a pretty great dog – he can work a mob of sheep through a mob of cattle or vice versa, or go round them both if I want, he just seems to know what I’m after so it’s pretty special.”

The Victorian dog’s last-leg performance was one of many surprises in this year’s competition which featured a last-minute dog substitution and daily leaderboard shuffles.

“I didn’t think we’d get the win because the first couple of weeks of the Challenge coincided with the quietest time on the farm for us.” Henry explained.

“Then everything picked up and we were calving and moving them back and lamb marking, so it turned out okay.

“The great thing about this year’s competition was just how close it was, we never knew who was going to win it, even until the last day.

Cobber Brand Manager Marika O’Leary said that even though this was the third year of the Cobber Challenge, we are still astounded by how much these dogs put in.

“By the end of the competition the 12 dogs had run over 3,600km, the distance of Perth to Brisbane.”