Gary Wendt prepares for Rockhampton Dog Trial and Working Dog Sale at CQLX

As what is estimated to be one of the biggest working dog sales in the southern hemisphere, if not the world, ramps up in Central Queensland, a Gracemere grazier has revealed why man’s best friend is more important than ever.

Ray White Rural Gracemere livestock manager and auctioneer Gary Wendt with three of his working dogs.

As graziers and farmers struggle to find workers across Australia or feel the pressure of rising labour costs, many are turning to man’s best friend to get the job done.

As a long-term cattleman, Gary Wendt knows all too well the value a well-trained working dog brings to any farming operation.

Flanked by four Border Collies from his 18-strong canine crew, the Ray White Rural Gracemere livestock manager and auctioneer revealed the benefit of working dogs as he prepared for what is estimate to be one of the biggest working dog sale in the southern hemisphere, if not the world at the Central Queensland Livestock Exchange.

“They are just priceless to me. I don’t go mustering without them, you can do a lot with four dogs with a lot of cattle, that you wouldn’t be able to do with some cattle at all if you didn’t have dogs,” Mr Wendt said.

“You wouldn’t be able to work them properly, especially if they are a bit spoiled.

“They are all bred to go to work. You’ve got to work them every day in some sort of fashion otherwise if you don’t keep their minds active enough they just become rats.”

With cost of living and labour on the rise, and an inability to find reliable workers, Mr Wendt said property owners, especially those with livestock, were relying on the traditional working dogs to keep their operations running.

“I think that’s sort of the way they have to go, it’s pretty easy staff … if you look after these dogs you can get a lot of work done,” he said.

“It doesn’t cost you anywhere near as much as having staff – you can’t get them anyway.

“I think they are a valuable asset to any property, especially if you’ve got livestock.”

Buyers and sellers from as far as the Northern Territory, NSW and right across Queensland from the southeast to the north and west will converge on the CQLX just outside Rockhampton from Friday for the 2023 Ray White Livestock Rockhampton Dog Trial and Working Dog Sale.

Mr Wendt said the event, which has been running since the 2015 instalment of Beef Australia, had doubled in size compared to last year.

“They are getting bigger and bigger each year, this is our biggest year by far – we double to 119 sale lots,” he said.

“It’s a big thing for Queensland and it’s going to be good. This is our fifth or sixth sale now and we have a good catalogue of pups.”

The action starts at 6am Friday with dog trials until 9pm, which continue on Saturday from 5am – 9pm before the sale on Sunday from 11am-6pm.

As for his own dogs, Mr Wendt said he had one pup in the sale which he had been training one-on-one.

“ I try and work them one-on-one as pups, the older dogs can coach them a little bit in the right spot but I try not to lean on that too much otherwise the pups just start following them, you want them to think for themselves,” he said.

“He has been here on these weaners but mainly he has been on sheep. I won’t work them on weaners until they are sort of 12 months old and definitely wait until their teeth get set.

“You want to stay as calm as you can, your dogs will stay calm and your cattle will stay calm.”