2025 Dogpro Supreme Australian Sheepdog Championships Northam

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report by Nan Lloyd

The 2025 Hypro Australian Supreme was held in Western Australia at the Northam Recreation Centre.

It was also held at the same ground in 2016.

It was fabulous to see so many Eastern States competitors who made the trip from all over Australia.

There were 210 entries in the Improver/ Open event, and 120 in the Novice event.

Competitors in the Ted Gaby Interstate Challenge worked Aussie Whites sheep for the first two rounds.

These were supplied by the Knipe family, Leonie, David, Sandon, and Jordan.

They worked quite well but were a little stubborn to move at times and some dogs battled with them.

In the last round they had black Tag Merino Wethers.

These wethers were also used in the novice event, and in the Supreme finals.

For the rest of the Supreme they worked black tag ewes.

The Ted Gaby Interstate Challenge was hotly contested, with some handlers missing out on a spot in the Aussie team, thanks to one difficult sheep.

Congratulations to the Aussies who qualified to compete in New Zealand in the Wayleggo Cup.

The two-test series is being held in Ashburton on Friday 31 October & Saturday 01 November 2025.

We should have live streaming links listed on our WAWSDA Facebook page.

This is always an exciting event. The Merinos were supplied by Grant and Linda Cooke and family.

They proved rather challenging. It was quite a task to prevent them from racing back down the ground. In their effort to get back to the let-outs they could put a fair bit of pressure on the dogs and split, causing a few headaches.

Many people had just one sheep that was troublesome. Some of the scores were quite low, but it created entertaining action for the spectators, though not quite as enjoyable for the handlers and dogs.

If the dogs could hold them and settle them then progress was made.

There were a fair number of pens obtained throughout the trial, but the sheep were good at pinging off points.

There were a number of hard luck stories, but as we all know, that is trialling, we take the good with the bad.

WA did quite well, with Steve Wallace second in the novice and Rose Cassidy just missing out on the novice final.

The Improver was won by Grant Cook, from Simon Leaning, with Nan Lloyd third.

In the top ten, Simon Leaning managed third and seventh.

Gordon Curtis, Grant Cooke, Nan Lloyd and Jess King all made the top twenty.

Jess also won the Greg Prince award for good work, for her run with Risemore Buck.

The weather made things more interesting, with heavy rain and cold for the first 3 days or so of the event.

Parts of the trial ground were very muddy, as was the surrounding areas. Local farmers were happy, as the year has been very dry in parts.

Once the rain disappeared and the sun came out it was much more pleasant, and everyone enjoyed the rest of the trial, despite the challenging sheep.

The Supreme was won in the last run of the day by Mick Hudson and the amazing dog Rabbit. It was a lovely run. Mick is well known through the Muster dog series.

WA does not have a very big club, so it was a huge effort on the part of those involved to pull it together. The committee was led by Grant and Linda Cooke and many others too numerous to name who all did their part in making the trial a success.

Huge thanks to our major sponsors Hypro Dog Food, and the Northam Shire.

There were many other sponsors and contributors to the event, all these are listed on our Facebook pages, programs and website.

Please support them as much as possible, without them we cannot run our trials.

The Supreme in 2026 will be held at Stanthorpe in QLD, for anyone who wants to make the trip.

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Top 10 Open Final
Judged by Garry Barker and Kyleigh Victory

Place	Worker	Dog	Reg	2nd Round Score	3rd Round Judge A	3rd Round Judge B	Round 3 Total	Run-off	Total
1	Mick Hudson	MGH Rabbit	7789	163	89	88	88.5		251.5
2	Lee Jamieson	Riverbourne Fran	N8379	171.5	66	71	68.5		240
3	Simon Leaning	Marionvale Woody	2157	152.5	77	76	76.5		229
4	Bailey Knight	Flowers Sweeney	Q5429	156	66	70	68		224
5	Jessica Kimpton	Quickstep Muppet	9283	160	61	61	61		221
6	Barry Knight	Knights Bridie	Q5127	157.5	55	60	57.5		215
7	Simon Leaning	Marionvale Di	2046	161	45	53	49		210
8	Barry Paton	Marong Murphy	N8597	160.5	40	46	43		203.5
9	Stefan Cross	EchoPark Uno	5816	161	30	38	34		195
10	Bailey Knight	Knights Ron	Q5288	158.5	18	16	17		175.5

Novice Final
Judged by Tara Herbert & Peter Doherty

Place	Worker	Dog	Reg	1st Round Score	2nd Round Judge A	2nd Round Judge B	Round 2 Total	Run-off	Total
1	Bailey Knight	MGH Lucy	N8474	94.0	63	64	63.5		157.5
2	Steve Wallace	Floroy Jess	W2162-22	82.5	64	65	64.5		147.0
3	Eileen Moriaty	Riverbourne Spot	N8380	90.5	44	44	44		134.5
4	Anthony Ireland	Yilgangie Lenny	SA5940	83.5	36	32	34		117.5
5	Michael Rigby	Barcoo Moon	Q5951-22	82.5	30	37	33.5		116.0
6	Rose Cassidy	Badgingarra Zoe	W2089-20	81	–	–			81
=7	Barry Knight	Gundagai Dugan	Q6055	80	–	–			80
=7	Doug Taylor	Borrona Shine	N9671-22	80	–	–			80
9	Doug Taylor	Borrona Dallas	N9668-22	76	–	–			76
10	Sarah Sydrych	Windeyer Eliza		73	–	–			73

Improver Final
Judged by Garry Barker and Kyleigh Victory

Place	Worker	Dog	Reg	1st Round Score	2nd Round Judge A	2nd Round Judge B	Round 2 Total	Run-off	GrandTotal
1	Grant Cooke	Grassvalley Grace	2259	75.5	62	63	62.5		138
2	Simon Leaning	Marionvale Pete	2223	73	46	45	45.5		118.5
3	Nan Lloyd	Binnaburra Ruffy	2120	75	20	24	22		97
4	Jessica Kimpton	Quickstep Muppet	9283	77.5	NPA	NPA			77.5
5	Jean Hydleman	Rocky Djinda	W1849	66	X	X			66
6	Anthony Ireland	Belmonte Lacey	5907	62.5	–	–			62.5
7	Rhonda O’Connell	Ramulam Kalgoorlie	Q6042	62	–	–			62
8	Paul Darmody	Wynela Gristle	N9566	60.5	–	–			60.5
9	Doug Taylor	MGH Bindi	N9791	60	–	–			60
10	Mick Hudson	Borrona Maise	9667	58.5	–	–			58.5

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