Bernard’s credit, he and Nell, during the 6-8 months they
were together, came fourth in the Australian Supreme at
Cobar in N.S.W. and won the Tasmanian Championships.
Nell returned to Malcolm once he regained his health and
went on to win numerous trials around Tasmania and the
mainland. In 2016 and despite Malcolm’s once again failing
health, she achieved the result of Dog of the Year in Tasmania.
It was around September 2017 that Malcolm made the decision,
due to his cancer battle, to give Nell to Bernard permanently.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make, not just because she’d
been with Malcolm her whole life and taken him on so
many successful journeys, but also because he’d had of-
fers of large amounts of money for her sale. However be-
ing the loyal man that Malcolm is, he chose to honour his
promise to Bernard that she would go to him if he could no
longer continue working his dogs. For this Bernard is ex-
tremely grateful and holds Malcolm in the highest respect.
When Bernard took Nell permanently it was only one month
before the 2017 Australian Supreme in Seymour. He began
getting her used to his many whistle commands, however
at Seymour, he used a combination of Malcolm’s voice com-
mands and his whistle. By February 2018 she was completely
working to Bernard’s whistles and the pair put up some of the
best runs ever witnessed at the Commonwealth Champion-
ships in Port Fairy, Victoria. his resulted in them winning the
Open event and was the irst time either Bernard or Nell had
ever won the Commonwealth Championships.“I felt our irst
run in the Open was our best run as the sheep lowed around
the course better. When we got to the pen unfortunately one
sheep poked his nose just past the line of the pen which lost
us one point. Our inal score was 99 out of 100,” said Bernard.In their Top 20 run, the sheep were stopping to graze a few
times, however not enough to cause any loss of points and
they inished the run with a perfect score of 100 out of 100.
A perfect score is a very rare thing in a 3 sheep trial with only a
handful of triallers ever having the chance to achieve it.It was the irst time in either Bernard or Nell’s careers they
had reached this achievement. he pair went out in the
Final and secured 1st place which is a monumental re-
sult with only a small handful of points lost over 3 runs.
Since the Commonwealth Championships Bernard and Nell
have continued to have success. hey won Bothwell trial in
March 2018 and Pyengana trial over Easter 2018. hey are
State Representatives for Tasmania in the Australian Su-
preme to be held in Hawkesbury N.S.W. in October 2018.“My goal is to get Nell into the Australian team to compete
against N.Z. in 2019. She actually qualiied to compete in 2017
with Malcolm, however due to Malcolm’s failing health, he
was forced to with draw” Bernard said.Nell is currently seven years old. She’s a very natu-
ral and strong bitch which she needs to be due to the
fact she is all white. Oen a light coloured dog without
strength will have more diiculty moving some sheep.“She’s loyal and eager to please and just wants to be with you.18 AWSDM http://www.stockdogs.com.au