Dogpro Plus Stirling Yard & Utility 2023

Report by Jane Dorrell
Photos by Karyn Buller

New sheep, holding and let-out yards had been constructed just in time for the trial to proceed, a huge thank you needs to be given to our supporters of the yards: Kendenup Grounds Committee, Elders Mount Barker, Dorrell Enterprises/ Dorrell Contractors, 4 Steel Supplies Albany and an extra special thank you to West Australian Working Sheepdog Association member, Ken Atherton of Arthur River who travelled to Kendenup especially to help with the 2 day construction.

The Stirling Sheepdog Club members and competitors would also like to thank the various sponsors of our trial.

Despite the cold, wet weather, the trial was well attended by triallers from various regions around the state and strong competition was to be had with dog and handler teams doing their best to manoeuvre sheep around the challenging course. The sheep and the teams provided spectators with some wonderful entertainment.

The sheep were beautifully presented Merinos loaned to us by Beauvalley Farms of Kendenup. They were red tag ewes that were well grown and were great trial sheep, testing the skills of dogs and handlers alike, as they tried to outwit the teams at every opportunity.

The girls were quite happy (most of the time) to negotiate the outside obstacles in the utility section how the dog and handler teams wanted them to. However, the yard section was a different story though. The improver/ open yard event left many handlers scratching their heads and dogs looking bewildered as run after run was terminated due to the sheep deciding a game of ’jump the fence’ was definitely better than going through the yard course! Despite this, the sheep gave teams a chance at working them around both the utility and yard courses and an opportunity to get a score on the board.

The evenings were very social affairs with meals around the wood BBQ allowing everyone to relax and warm up, creating a beautiful atmosphere and feeling of comradeship, a wonderful way to finish each day.

Novice Yard
Judged by Rod Forsyth

	Handler	Dog	Score 1	Score 2	Total
1	Karyn Buller	Dunns Chopper	53	57	110
=2	P Barker	Barkervale Ringo	54	RTD	54
=2	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Charlie	54	LS	54
4	Tony Boyle	Boylee Pickles	53	LS	53

Novice Utility
Judged by Karyn Buller

	Handler	Dog	Score 1	Score 2	Total
1	Rod Forsyth	Barkervale Clark	65	83	148
2	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Fella	55	72	127
3	Karyn Buller	Boco Louie	64.5	61	125.5
4	Phil Dorrell	Jandoree Shrek	48	60	108

Improver Yard
Judged by Ken Atherton

	Handler	Dog	Score 1	Score 2	Total
1	Karyn Buller	Dunns Chopper	82	79	161
2	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Charlie	69	84	153
3	Blake Robinson	Wyndora Ruby	81	DQ	81

Open Yard
Judged by Ken Ahtherton

	Handler	Dog	Score 1	Score 2	Total
1	Nigel Armstrong	Yarralonga Scope	89	75	164
2	Rod Forsyth	Kumbark Todd	56	87	143
3	Nigel Armstrong	Tumut Valley Jude	66	76	142
4	Alan Dunn	Gogetta Thor	76	LS	76

Open Utility
Judged by Nigel Armstrong

	Handler	Dog	Score 1	Score 2	Total
1	Nigel Armstrong	Yarralonga Scope	61.5	94	155.5
2	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Charlie	70	80	150
3	Rod Forsyth	Barkervale Clark	70	53	123
4	Rod Forsyth	Kumbark Todd	57	61	118
5	Jane Dorrell	Cloverlea Dot	56	58	114
6	Karyn Buller	Boco Louie	57	52	109
7	Tony Boyle	Boylee Midget	51	–	51
8	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Fella	50	–	50
9	Blake Robinson	Wyndora Ruby	49	–	49
10	Rod Forsyth	Grassvalley Hazel	39	–	39
=11	Steve Wallace	Rocky Roxie	36	–	36
=11	Steve Wallace	Gibsons Sweep	36	–	36