Dogpro Tarwonga Yard & Utility 2026

Report by Nan Lloyd
Photos by Karyn Buller

The Mayanup Sheepdog club hosted the first yard and Utility trial of the year at Yallambee, Ken and jenny Atherton’s property, near Arthur River.

The weather was a little warm for the first day, then cooled down reasonably well for the rest of the trial.

After early rain last month, a dry spell has persisted, and paddocks were looking dry again.

The arena sheep were white tag ewes, and they worked very well, with most people managing to complete obstacles and gain a score.

The first obstacle was a gap, followed by a trap and a pen. The trap is similar to a race but with a gate at one end.

The dog must work the sheep into one end and then hold the sheep while the handler walks to the front and opens the gate to let them out.

The sheep were generally quite good here; however, there were not many pens, as the pen proved to be the most difficult obstacle, and usually time was running low at this point for most people.

The yard sheep were weaners that were tricky to work in the big gathers, constantly splitting and breaking at the gates and testing the dogs.

For the rest of the course they generally flowed reasonably well, and there were some high yard scores.

Novice yard and utility was judged by Rod Forsyth .
The Open/Imp yard by Allan Dunn and Open Utility by Gordon Curtis.

Thanks to Richard McGuire, who didn’t run a dog but came up to judge both open utility and open/improver yard finals.

Yard and utility trialling is very labour intensive, with let-outs at both ends of the ground and mobs of sheep needing to be moved in and out of the yards for each event.

Everyone pitches in and helps, which makes for a friendly social event.

As usual, the highlight of the event was the fantastic BBQs at Ken and Jenny’s home each evening, with lots of laughs and a few drinks.

After the presentations, everyone reminisced a little about the loss of a stalwart of yard trialling, Rex Hocking. Rex was a well-known and respected yard and utility trialler from South Australia, who recently passed a short time after the loss of his lovely wife Kay.

Kay and Rex had been to WA many times competing in the National Yard Dog Championships and the NKFTC. He was a true gentleman and Kay a lovely lady who had struggled with many health problems without complaint.

Both will be sadly missed.

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Novice Utility
Judged by Rod Forsyth
Final Judged by  Richard McGuire

Place	Worker	Dog	Reg #	Round 1	Run Off	Total
1	Neil Kristiansen	Badgingarra Maggie (BC)	2054-19	75	82	157
2	Hayden Harries	Marionvale Penny (BC)	2210-22	75	62	137
=3	Fraser Gordon	Thorpe		73	–	73
=3	Karyn Buller	Boonining Turbo	2065-19	73	–	73
5	Hayden Harries	Just Coke (BC)	2208-22	72	–	72
6	Karyn Buller	Taworri Clancy	2174-22	71	–	71
7	Gordon Curtis	Binnaburra Chloe	2206-21	70	–	70
8	Jason Crockford	Buntal Bull		67	–	67
9	Shelby Harries	Claire (BC)	2340-21	66	–	66
10	Nan Lloyd	Kumbark Pocket	2262-23	65	–	65

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Novice Yard
Judged by Rod Forsyth

Place	Worker	Dog	Reg #	Round 1	Run Off	Total
1	Fraser Gordon	Thorpe		34	22	56
2	Shelby Harries	Claire (BC)	2340-21	34	RT	34
3	Neil Kristiansen	Badgingarra Maggie (BC)	2054-19	33	–	33
=4	Hayden Harries	Marionvale Penny (BC)	2210-22	31	–	31
=4	Neil Kristiansen	Badgingarra Oscar (BC)	2053-18	31	–	31
=4	Shelby Harries	Just Ali (BC)	2214-23	31	–	31
=7	Nan Lloyd	Kumbark Pocket	2262-23	29	–	29
=7	Gordon Curtis	Binnaburra Chloe	2206-21	29	–	29
9	Peter Roberts	Jindi Macca	2277-19	27	–	27
=10	Peter Roberts	Badgingarrra Dave	2298	26	–	26
=10	Shelby Harries	Riche Dig (BC)	2329-24	26	–	26

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Improver Yard
Judged by Allan Dunn
Final Judged by Richard McGuire

Place	Worker	Dog	Reg #	Round 1	Round 2	Total
1	Shelby Harries	Just Ali (BC)	2214-23	87	94	181
2	Karyn Buller	Boonining Turbo	2065-19	84	86	170
3	Neil Kristiansen	Badgingarra Wilson	2172	80	86	166
4	Fraser Gordon	Reiny	2359-24	76	79	155
5	Lee Crockford	Drycreek Zarin	2149	78	62	140
6	Peter Roberts	Jindi Macca	2217-19	71	–	71
7	Hayden Harries	Marionvale Penny (BC)	2210-22	70	–	70
8	Neil Kristiansen	Badgingarra Maggie (BC)	2054-19	69	–	69
9	Nan Lloyd	Binnaburra Ruffy	2120-21	67	–	67
10	Fraser Gordon	Jyp	2241-22	51	–	51

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Open Yard
Judged by Allan Dunn
Final Judged by Richard McGuire

Place	Worker	Dog	Reg #	Round 1	Round 2	Total
1	Hayden Harries	Just Buster (BC)	2209-22	98	90	188
2	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Charlie	2020-18	87	98	185
3	Jason Crockford	Buntall Bull	2151	85	92	177
=4	Hayden Harries	Just Coke (BC)	2208-22	79	91	170
=4	Karyn Buller	Boonining Turbo	2065-19	84	86	170
6	Allan Dunn	Dunn’s Chopper	2066-19	79.5	88	167.5
7	Allan Dunn	Barkervale Mate	2175	73	92	165
8	Nan Lloyd	Binnaburra Ruffy	2120-21	67	90	157
9	Rod Forsyth	Kumbark Tod	1947	67	86	153
10	Karyn Buller	Boco Louie	1866-16	76	74	150
11	Rod Forsyth	Yarralonga Forrest	2171-21	74	74	148
12	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Fella	1957-18	90	RT	90

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Open Utility
Judged by Gordon Curtis
Final Judged by Richard McGuire

Place	Worker	Dog	Reg #	Round 1	Round 2	Total
1	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Charlie	2020	80	93	173
2	Ken Atherton	Ramulam Fella	1957	78	85	163
3	Nan Lloyd	Kumbark Lexie	1982-17	85	72	157
4	Shelby Harries	Just Ali (BC)	2214-23	81	70	151
5	Gordon Curtis	Binnaburra Marvin	2153-21	75.5	73	148.5
6	Neil Kristiansen	Badgingarra Wilson	2170	72	72	144
7	Rod Forsyth	Kumbark Tod	1947	71	70	141
8	Karyn Buller	Taworri Clancy	2174-22	72	58	130
9	Hayden Harries	Just Coke (BC)	2208-22	73	54	127
10	Karyn Buller	Boonining Turbo	2065-19	75	49	124
11	Shelby Harries	Claire (BC)	2340-21	67	41	108
12	Hayden Harries	Just Buster (BC)	2209-22	74	RTD	74

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