Alstonville Plateau Working Cattle Dog Trials

The Alstonville Agricultural Society Inc will be hosting this event at the Alstonville Showground on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th June 2012.

Saturday’s program gets under way at 6.30am, with Sunday’s events starting at 7am, with completion sometime Sunday afternoon.

The first event will get under way in main ring which will be maiden/novice classes.

All finals will be held on the Sunday in main ring.

Admission for spectators is free, with food and refreshments available at the showground.

Competitors will travel from all parts of Australia and there will be a large number of dogs competing over the two-day event.

Cattle dog trialling is similar to sheep dog trialling and was actually “born” at Bonalbo NSW about 55 years ago. Since then the “sport” has spread across Australia, although it is strongest in NSW and Queensland.

It aims to show off the skills of the highly-trained working cattle dogs as well as those of the handlers.

The handler and the dog must guide three head of cattle through a series of three obstacles in a five-minute period.

The handler must stand still at each obstacle and, using only hand signals, voice commands or whistles to instruct the dog to guide the cattle through a gate, a race and into a holding pen.

The pointscore is out of 100.

The Alstonville Plateau Working Cattle Dog Trial will be run under the rules and regulations of the North Coast.

Anyone wanting further information about the Alstonville Plateau Working Cattle Dog Trials can contact Noel Bryant on 02 6629 5001 mobile 0429 425 198/0428 295 001 or Hilton Murphy on 02 6662 7843 mobile 0428 844 095 or Rebecca Lock on 02 6683 4446 mobile 0416 144 086.

 

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