Tasmanian dominates at Australian Utility Championships

Connorville stockman Adrian Carpenter has shown the rest of the country how good Tasmanian working dogs are at the Australian Utility Championships in Nyngen, New South Wales.

By the time the competition had wrapped up on Sunday, Adrian had won the Interstate Challenge for the third consecutive year and thanks to his locked-in seven-year-old kelpie Tumutvalley Sue, won the Improver Championship and finished third in the Open Championship.

Adrian and Piper were second in the Open last year and Adrian was thrilled to be on the podium again, missing second place again by a single point, with 90 of the country’s best dogs entered and a tough lot of sheep to work.

New South Wales dog handlers Danny Kerr with Mingle and Gary White with Bindi were first and second respectively.

In the hotly contested Interstate Challenge, where two top reps from each state vie for the title, Adrian filled both spots for Tasmania with border collie Ally and kelpie Monster - their combined score of 77 blitzing nearest rival New South Wales 37, Victoria 34 and Queensland with no score.

In fact Tasmania was the only state to score from both runs.

The Tassie combination of Adrian and Ally also took out the South Australian Utility Championship.

“It really was a testing week and there was very strong competition,” Adrian said.

“The sheep were difficult to work and really, things have really got to go in your favour to win.”

“We were lucky to come away with a couple of ribbons and prizes - it was a great trip.”