Cobber challenge winner border collie Duke with his boss Beck.
After a gruelling 21-day competition that saw working dogs battle it out on farms across Australia, the winner of the 2025 Cobber Challenge has been crowned.
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The challenge honours the unsung heroes who keep Australia’s 90 billion agricultural sector moving: the ‘paws-itive’ champions of the industry — the working dog.
Taking out the highly coveted title of Australia’s hardest working dog was Duke, a tall leggy collie, and his owner Beck Smith, based in Stonehenge, a remote town in Central Queensland with a population of 58.
Queensland farmer Beck is also only the third woman to win this competition, which celebrates its milestone tenth anniversary this year.
Duke is only the second collie to win this prestigious competition, and the second winner from Queensland.
The duo outclassed the field to take home the title, the trophy, a $3000 cash prize and 12 bags of Cobber Working Dog feed.
Contestants were tested on speed, distance and duration over 21 days of activity, resulting in a composite score to find the top dog from the rest of the pack.
Beck and Duke covered a staggering 556km across the three-week campaign, the equivalent of travelling from Sydney to Coffs Harbour, Melbourne to Dubbo or London to Amsterdam.
Beck said she was rapt to take home the win and she couldn’t be prouder of her best mate Duke.
“We’re over the moon that we’ve taken top spot in this year’s challenge.
“It’s been an absolutely fantastic experience being a part of the challenge, and I’ve been receiving messages from friends and family from across the country checking in to see how we’ve been doing,” Beck said.
Based out in Queensland’s Channel Country, Beck runs a resilient operation across 52,610 hectares, supported by a hardworking team of five dogs, with Duke as her lead in handling most of the mustering across the property, a farmstead that was heavily impacted by floods earlier this year.
Cobber brand manager Lucy Marshall said the recognition was a poignant reminder of the thankless work that working dogs and regional farmers do, day after day.
“Our farmers and working dogs play such an important and often unrecognised role in putting food on tables up and down the country,” Lucy said.
“We’re so proud of Beck, not only for her efforts in the competition, but as a strong woman who has shown incredible resilience to bounce back from the flooding that impacted her property and farming operations in Stonehenge.”
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