Thankfully the rain held off and they had a dry track to run the event.

Two classes were run – one for junior handlers (under 16 years old) and one for large dogs. 

No small dogs turned up for their class which was a bit of a shame – it would have been fun to see a Jack Russell, dachshund or Chihuahua having a go at the jump. 

Prizes included cash and pig’s ears chew treats from Cowra Veterinary Centre and 20kg bags of dog food from Elders.

In the junior handler class, 11 year old Jasper Freebairn encouraged and cajoled his 18 month old border collie Chloe to jump 80cm and win the class.

The large dog class drew four entrants – three kelpies and one red cattle dog. 

The bar started at 1.0 metre high and the dogs went jump for jump in a very close contest. 

Chris Miller’s 5 year old kelpie Red came in fourth place with a clearance of 1.5 metres.

Natasha Murphy’s 2 year old kelpie Kermit cleared 1.7 metres and came in third – he seemed to get distracted by the hay bales on the sides of the jump and just wanted to jump those!

Second place went to Emma Sutton’s 7 year old kelpie Penny who cleared 1.9 metres – she even showed off her balancing skills by perching on the top of the board on most of her jumps.

First place went to Melissa Jasprizza’s 6 year old red cattle dog Sam. 

Melissa was having a big day of jumping having just finished winning the showjumping (on a horse) before bringing Sam over for his turn.  There were unconfirmed reports that Sam had previously cleared 2.4 metres (or was it 2.8 metres?) at a previous dog jumping contest so he started as the favourite.  Sam ended up clearing 2.0 metres to just pip Penny.

Thanks to all the entrants for bringing their dogs along to compete and thanks to the big crowd of enthusiastic spectators for coming to support a new event at the Cowra Show. Also thank you to announcer Ross Chivers for keeping the crowd informed and entertained between jumps and to Simon Fazzari for building the jump – it looked great and everything went smoothly on the day. Organisers hope to have more entrants next year and hopefully go even higher – the world record is 2.9 metres!!