Border Collies and Kelpies show their talents

LUKE Harris and his dogs make up one of the youngest teams on the sheep dog trial circuit.

Total devotion: Luke Harris from Dumbalk is one of youngest competitors going around the sheep dog trials. Pictures: ANDY ROGERS

THE Border Collie’s gaze is piercing.

Standing statue-still, right paw up and bent, the dog quickly drops to the ground, any moment set to spring. The mob of sheep return the gaze, disconcerted.

This is a scene played out across Australia every day on every farm that has stock and a working dog.

But today this is about competition, at November’s South Eastern Victorian Sheep Dog Trials at Korumburra, on the South Gippsland town’s showgrounds.

For three days, 125 dogs and their owners have competed on the sheep dog trial course, allowed 13 minutes (for the open and improver section) to navigate and herd three sheep through a series of obstacles.

Starting with a total of 100 points, the winner is the handler who finishes with the most points remaining.

Rules are strict. If the dog, for example, crosses between the sheep and the handler, it’s instant disqualification.

The quiet crowd is small, just a few dozen, and come from around Gippsland and Victoria, with a couple travelling from NSW’s Blue Mountains.

The human’s gaze is as intense as that of the dogs’, scrutinising the whistles, grunts, occasional swear words and instructions of every dog handler out on the field.

“Come over, come over. Stop there Bic,” shouts Jean Moir, instructing Biscuit, her five-year-old Border Collie, around a mob of sheep.

“Concentration, that is called,” explains Jean of Biscuit’s raised front paw and focused gaze.

“That is their jollies in life: working.”

Of all the competitors here today, Jean perhaps has a slight advantage.

Jean Moir.

The 72-year-old is the treasurer of the Victorian Working Sheep Dog Association, the umbrella organisation formed in 1927 — it celebrates its 80th birthday next year — to foster better sheep dogs.

Not only does Jean run her own sheep dog trials each November at her 50ha farm at nearby Berrys Creek, she has also supplied the sheep for today’s Korumburra competition — 150 Border Leicester-Merino cross ewes, with three of the sheep brought in for every new competitor.

“I’ve been competing for about 15 years but I never stop learning,” says Jean, also the president and founder of the South Gippsland Working Dog Group, which holds monthly working dog training days.

“All the competitors are like a big family. We get hints from each other and people see you do something wrong and tell you how to fix it.

“Generally the handler is the problem, not the dog. The dog has a natural instinct to bring stock and it’s about how best to harness that.

“It can be as simple as learning where the handler needs to stand.”

The association runs about 25 trials across Victoria each year, with Korumburra one of the oldest, running since 1955. Next October it will host the Supreme Australian Championship, whose winners compete against New Zealand.

There are about 120 members and most of the dogs are Border Collies, better suited to three-sheep trials than the iconic Australian Kelpies, which are suited to the yard and race trials run by the Victorian Yard Utility Farm Dog Association.

Also competing and watching intently from the Korumburra grandstands is 82-year-old John Macdonald, the president of the event and builder of the trial obstacles.

John has a 60ha beef farm at Leongatha South and has been competing in working dog trials every year since 1984.

His Border Collie, Heidi, won the event in 2010, but unfortunately wasn’t so successful today.

“It’s a challenge for me,” says John, who attends with his wife, Judy.

“Some dogs are easier to train than others. Some are too quick, they shift and jump too much. A calm approach is best.

“Soft dogs work well with women, because they speak to them softly.”

John Macdonald with his Border Collie, Heidi.

He says since he first started competing, numbers at the Korumburra event have dwindled.

“A lot of competitors here are retired and I’d say about 40 per cent are women,” John says.

“There’s not a lot of young ones coming in to it these days. Dairy farmers around here now use motorbikes and have lanes in paddocks so the cows just walk up to the dairy.

“But I think the sport will keep going because there are more hobby farmers coming into it these days.”

At18 years of age, Luke Harris is one of the youngest competitors on the Victorian working dog trials circuit.

Since he was 14 he has competed annually, in up to 14 trials in Victoria and as far north as Narrandera in NSW.

“I’m the youngest by a fair way. I like trying to keep up with the oldies,” says Luke, who works on a dairy farm at Dumbalk and runs a leased 70ha sheep and cattle farm.

“It can be a disadvantage because there are people here who have been doing it a long time. Some try and take me under their wing and are always offering me advice. I enjoy it.”

Luke Harris with Tina the Kelpie and Gypsy the Border Collie.

For Luke, this year’s competition is especially difficult with his father, Owen, passing away suddenly in February. Father and son used to attend events together.

“The first trial I did without Dad in Benalla this year I won, an open trial. I dedicated it to him ... it’s been hard for me.”

Luke competes with his four dogs, one of which is a Kelpie.

“Kelpies are normally seen as too pushy but Tina is a quiet sort of dog,” he says.

“No matter what the breed I think it’s important to have a good everyday connection with your dog. We always work together. They’re like a mate, a member of the family.

“Winning is also about being able to read the stock. A good operator can read where the sheep want to go. Everyone has their own commands. I tend to use ‘over’ and ‘back’.

“I try my best not to swear. Maybe at home, but not when trialling. Sometimes you swear more at the sheep than the dog.”

Without doubt one of the most unusual competitors at this year’s Korumburra Sheep Dog Trials is Peter Kerin and his Border Collie, Broke.

By day, Peter is a priest at the Don Bosco Youth Centre in Melbourne.

It is there the 70-year-old — who has been with the Catholic Church since 1977 — has two Border Collies, Broke and Keno, who work with the troubled youth.

“If there’s any kid new to the centre they put their arm around Keno and feel at home,” says Father Peter.

Peter Kerin with Broke and Keno.

When the dogs aren’t working in the centre, Peter takes them out to the Salesian Retreat Centre at Lysterfield.

At the foot of the Dandenong Ranges, the property doubles as a cattle farm and it’s here he trains the dogs for trials.

“My parents grew up on a farm in South Australia and I would go and help my uncles with their sheep and crops on the school holidays,” Peter recalls.

“I’d be given a Border Collie and a mob of sheep and told to take them up the road to the next paddock.

“That’s where my love of the Border Collie began.”

Peter competes in five Victorian trials each year, pitching his tent at the back of the showgrounds alongside his dog trailer and taking part as much for the social aspect as the joy of working his dogs.

He says other handlers don’t treat him any differently.

“Jokingly some of the trialers ask me to bless their dogs before they go out on to the ground. They stir me up, but it’s all good fun,” he says.

“I’m in heaven out there trialling. It’s so absorbing and enjoyable. I think there will be dog trials in heaven.”