He may be partially blind, but Cobber Challenge Champion Earl is proof that you can’t keep a good dog down.
Three-year-old Earl is owned by Tasmanian Alex Johns and together the pair beat dog and handler competitors from across the country and New Zealand to take out the prestigious Cobber Challenge.
Bred by Mr Johns out of two of his best dogs, Earl is a perfect example of how important working dogs are in many livestock operations.
The pair work on Fingal property Malahide, where stock work is a part of their everyday activities.
Mr Johns said Earl is a true all rounder and tries his hardest whether he is working sheep or cattle.
During the Cobber Challenge Earl and the other competing dogs from across the country were fitted with GPS tracking collars each day to record how fast and how far they travelled.
Throughout the 21 day competition, Earl travelled an amazing 1343 kilometres.
However, it was Earl’s speed which helped him end up at the top of the leader board.
Earl had an average speed of 14.1 kmh, making him the fastest ever Cobber Challenge competitor.
Mr Johns said it was surprising to look at the end results.
“The amount of kilometres probably wasn’t as surprising because we do a lot of work with the dogs, but the speed is what surprised me. I knew he was quick, but I didn’t realise he was that fast and he kept it up for so long.”
Mr Johns said he was surprised to win, even though they have had a very busy period on the farm.
“We’ve shorn all the ewes then the lambs, then we’ve been splitting ewes up for lambing as well as weighing and moving cows,” he said.
Mr Johns said working on a large property like Malahide, which has about 48,000 sheep and about 4500 cattle, means there was always plenty of stock work to be done.
While he may not show it, Earl is partially blind after an accident last year when he ran into a piece of wire which damaged one of his eyes.
This year’s Cobber Challenge competitors covered more than 6,000 kilometres across sprawling mountain ranges, lush green paddocks and red-dirt desert.
The shortlisted 11 dogs were assessed on speed, duration and distance covered over the competition period.
As part of the prize for winning, Mr Johns has received a new Kelpie puppy from Matthew and Margie Johnson’s well-known Pandara Kelpie Stud.
Mr Johns said he was looking forward to seeing how the new puppy, called Joey, performs.
Former Cobber Challenge Champion, Brad McDonald, was working on the same farm as Mr Johns when he took out the title and says he’s proud to see another winner from Tasmania.
“When I won the Cobber Challenge in 2017 with my dog Flo, Alex was working alongside us so to see him and Earl bring it home this year is a really special moment,” Mr McDonald said.
“Alex has done a great job with Earl and it’s a credit to him. Earl is a great working dog and he got some great numbers this year.”
Cobber marketing manager Kellie Savage said she was blown away by the speed and tenacity of this year’s competitors.
“In the eight years the challenge has been running, I’ve not seen a field of competitors this impressive,” she said. “These dogs are lightning fast.
“All of our competitors reached average top speeds of around 60 kmh.
“We are constantly in awe of these dogs. Some of our 2023 Cobber competitors covered more than 80 km in a single day. They are the backbone of working farms everywhere.
“It’s hard to imagine what agriculture in Australia and New Zealand would be like without them.”
Taking out second place was Dan and Jack from Victoria who covered a total distance of 1,263.4km and third place went to Jackson and Rose from the Northern Territory, who covered 822 kilometres.
While the competition may be over, Mr Johns said with lamb marking about to get under way there is still plenty of work for Earl to do.
Mr Johns also plans to breed a litter of pups by Earl soon and hopes he passes on his fantastic working genetics.