Now in it’s 19^th year, the annual trials test a sheep dog’s obedience, agility, timing and skills in working sheep through obstacles and finally rounding them up into a pen.

Around 60 dogs competed on the first day of competition on Thursday and Morongla Sheep Dog Trials Head Organiser Brett Smith said competitors had come far and wide. 

“It’s going pretty well actually. We’ve got 220 dogs here, that’s from the encourage, improver, novice and open sections,” he said. 

“They travel from as far as Sydney, Eumungerie, the other side of Cooma, got a few locals… it’s been a good trial, it’s going pretty well.”

He said numbers are down on last year and a number of trials have been cancelled across Australia due to the drought but it was great to see some newcomers compete for the first time. 

“We are down a little bit because last year, we had a lot of people from over west come over because they were doing a bit of a circuit,” he said. 

“There’s a lot of new handlers come through so the encourage and our novices are still pretty strong. 

“A lot of our encourage workers come out of the city, so they come and learn the sport.”

A number of dogs had already achieved high marks by judge Kenny Robinson on Thursday and Mr Smith believes it will only get better from today. 

“Today we’ve had an 89 and an 88 already,” he said.

“Usually on the first day we don’t get really get too many scores because at the start of your draw, you’ll get most of your younger dogs will come through first and everyone holds their good dogs back until the last on Sunday. 

“Always put your good dogs at the bottom of the round so then you get a fair crack at the cherry.”

The Morongla Sheep Dog Trails will run until Sunday, August 19. 

The finals for each of the sections will be held on Sunday. 

Everyone is welcome to come to Morongla to check out the competition.