Working cattle dog trained by a woman takes top prize

Eight-year-old border collie, Kasajoca King, owned and trained by Sam Connolly of Koumala, took out the coveted titles of Australian Open Dog of the Year and Queensland Open Dog of the Year for 2022/23.

The competition winner is decided on a point system accumulated from trials throughout the year which are run by the Queensland Working Cattle Dog Trial Association.

Sam said King may not have had the most wins, but he had accumulated the most points from the 16 trials he competed in.

The win is not only a first for a woman, but it breaks the 10-year winning streak of a number of different dogs trained by Paul Wroe.

Sam said the win was pretty good as she only started trialling about four years ago.

She said she bought King as an eight-week-old puppy through an advertisement in the Queensland Country LIfe.

"I started trialling him when he was about four and half years old and the first event we went in was the Bush Handler which is an event for beginners - and then four years later he's been able to win the Australian and Queensland titles," she said.

Sam said she was working on a cattle property at Blue Mountain when she first got King and credits Bo Hatfield with teaching her how to train dogs.

She said she was boarding with Bo and his wife and spent most afternoons after work training King from when he was a puppy.

"When he was a little tiny pup we started him on sheep so you almost just train their instincts (to herd)," she said.

"It's not like you're specifically training the dog, you're just putting a command to their instinct (behaviours)."

Sam said King was the best dog she had by a long way.

"He has a natural instinct. He can rate stock and work out what distance he needs to be from them to shift them and what amount of pressure to apply," she said.

"He has a natural ability to shift animals which doesn't come in all dogs. I haven't got another one as good as him.

"Paul Wroe and them have been doing it for years, but Bo always said 'your first dog is your best dog' as you get a natural bond with them and I think that's a bit what happened with King.

"But I also think he's an exceptional dog."

Sam said she had breed some pups from King and he had produced a couple of daughters that had won Open trials.

"So I guess it's in the breeding a bit, like you want that instinct they produce to breed on," she said.

As to the future, Sam said she would like to continue producing a line of dogs like she had from King and continue being competitive at trials.

"King will continue to trial for another couple of years and then be a porch dog I suppose," she said.