Nominations are now open for 2025 Cobber Challenge to find Australia’s best working dog

The call is out to find Australia’s toughest, stock-chasing, hard-running working dog to round up the title of the 2025 Cobber Challenge.

Nominations are now open for the challenge, now celebrating its 10th year.

The challenge is an annual showdown where the country’s best working dogs go paw-to-paw in a tribute to the unsung heroes of our farms — the four-legged legends behind Australia’s billion-dollar agriculture industry.

The past decade has seen challenge competitors clock up enough distance to lap Australia 2½ times, moving at a pace that would take a human nearly half a year to keep up with.

Farmers are urged to shine a spotlight on their favourite trusted companion to give them the recognition they deserve.

Video submissions for dogs are now being accepted for the first time.

Cobber marketing manager Kellie Savage is excited for the 10th edition of the challenge, which promises to be the best yet.

“Each year we’ve had a highly competitive field and we’re anticipating the same for our 10th year. We’re calling on Australia’s hardest working dogs to enter the field to make the 2025 Cobber Challenge to be our best yet,” she said.

Every year, Australia’s working dogs put in a massive 232 million hours on the job.

If selected as a competitor, each dog will be fitted with a GPS tracker to log how far, how fast, and how long they work each day over a three-week period. Points are scored based on distance, speed and duration.