By Carolyn Webb
The Melbourne Royal Show was dogged by rain on Sunday, but it was water off a dog’s back for “Farmer Dave” Graham and his performing hounds.
The reality TV star and his pooch posse have been lapping up the attention in their first year at the show’s Superdog Spectacular event.
“Farmer Dave” Graham and some of his Superdog Spectacular performers.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Graham said it made him happy seeing audience members’ smiles, because dogs could give joy to others “just by existing”.
The Superdog Spectacular is proving to be as popular as the Dagwood dogs. It involves canines leaping into a pool, climbing walls, racing each other and zipping around obstacles. They do it four times a day at the town square at the Showgrounds in Ascot Vale.
Graham takes dozens of dogs – ranging from a 40-kilogram German shepherd to a 15-centimetre-tall Yorkshire terrier – to shows around Australia and overseas.
Many of his troupe are rescue animals, including his “best friend” Matilda – believed to be a fox terrier and Cavalier King Charles spaniel cross – who was abandoned as a puppy at a Sydney pound.
We can stand the rain: Visitors to the Melbourne Royal Show on Sunday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Graham said he wanted to show that with kindness, compassion and reinforcement training, “you can get any dog to be a superstar”.
Originally from a huge cattle and sheep station near Goondiwindi in outback Queensland, Graham has starred on TV’s Big Brother and Dancing With the Stars and worked with disadvantaged youth in western Sydney.
He said life on the road as “a canine carnie” – as he termed it – was great.
“I camp wherever I want and I’ve always got my dogs with me. And I spread joy and laughter wherever I go.”
Jumping for joy: “Farmer Dave” Graham takes his canine performers through their paces, including Matilda, who he’s holding.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“”You can never have a bad day, because you’ve got your dogs, you’ve got an audience and everyone loves it when the dogs come out.”
Graham said Melbourne’s rain was nothing to stress over.
“I do have a strong odour of ‘wet dog’ about me, so the public should probably stay on their side of the fence,” he warned.
He recalls it snowing during one show in the United States, in Medina, Ohio. In Rankins Springs in outback NSW, it was so hot that the dogs sheltered under audience members’ chairs – so he made it part of the act.
Good day out: Danae Hartigan and son Lyndon with their haul of showbags.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“The dogs went, ‘It’s way too hot, bugger this.’ And it was a great show,” he said.
Lyndon Hartigan, 9, of Werribee, was among those who braved the rain at the Melbourne Royal Show on Sunday.
Wearing a plastic poncho, he was lugging six showbags — an Aero chocolate bag, one called All American and four Pokemon-themed bags due to his love of the trading cards.
Lyndon’s mother, Danae Hartigan, spent about $300 buying 15 showbags for relatives. Added to entry fees and ride costs, it wasn’t a cheap day out, Hartigan said. But she said it was OK because it was a once-a-year thing.
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