Nominations open for Cobber Challenge 2025 to find Australia’s hardest working farm dogs
Australia’s most dedicated agriculture workers are going head to head in a competition to find the best in the industry. This is your chance to nominate your loyal four-legged farmhand
Pets and Wildlife
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Working canines across Australia will be competing against each other to find out who is top dog for the 10th Cobber Challenge.
Contestants will be fitted with a GPS tracker to log how far and fast they run over a three-week period on the job, to highlight their incredible contributions to the agriculture industry.
Last year’s Cobber Challenge winner was Bear, a seven-year-old Kelpie from Dirranbandi.
Bear averaged close to 40km a day over the three weeks of the competition racking up hundreds of kilometres.
Owner Tom Perkins who runs about 20,000 acres of his family property said the competition showed him what his dogs were capable of.
“I think the working dog is making a bit of a comeback in grazing operations,” he said.
“People are realising their value.
“Skilled staff are hard to find and no one’s got any time anymore.”
Mr Perkins said he has seen a recent interest in working dogs, particularly with the popularity of shows like Muster Dogs.
“We know how good they are and how important they are but if their urban cousins can get a bit of an idea of what they do and how they work I think that’s good,” he said.
“It’s a bit of an idea of the workload they can churn through.
“They work hard for you so it’s important that you look after them too.”
The lucky winner of this years challenge will get $3000, a year’s supply of Cobber Working Dog feed, and a trophy.
Nominate your dog at cobberdogfood.com.au.
Nominations are open until June 22.
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