‘Righto’: one magic word gets Australia’s newly crowned top working dog to spring into action | Rural Australia

When something needs to be done on Beck Smith’s 53,000-hectare cattle farm, all he has to say is “you’re right.”

The farmer trained his pack of working dogs, including three-year-old border collie Duke, to spring into action upon hearing this simple command.

“It’s the magic word,” Smith said from his property near Stonehenge in Queensland’s channel country.

“If they hear that word, it means our pens are out, we’re allowed to get out of the car, go out into the yard and do some work.”

Duke completed a national working dog challenge, traveling 556 km during the three-week study.

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Duke was named the winner on Monday of the Cobber Challenge, which uses GPS collars to track the distance, speed and hours traveled by farm dogs across Australia while working on livestock.

New South Wales farmer Denzel Bambridge and his kelpie-collie crossbreed Buck took second place after covering 316 kilometers.

Tahlia Carroll and her kelpie Stan, also from NSW, came third after covering a distance of 184 kilometres.

Over the course of the challenge’s ten years, competitors have covered a total distance equivalent to two and a half laps around Australia, according to organisers.

Smith said he wasn’t surprised by the tremendous distance Duke had covered, considering he had to zigzag around mulga bushes across the vast expanses of the outback.

“I’m grateful it was him and not me,” he said. “I won’t be as happy at the end of this, that’s for sure.”

The long-legged black and white dog proved to be a once-in-a-lifetime dog for Smith; Smith went against his better judgment and purchased him while he had another litter in training.

After much of the area was flooded in early 2025, Duke assisted Smith on an eight-hour hike to carry a sick bull to safety.

“Every time I lost sight of the bull, Duke would show up and walk back to the bull, and eventually we got him home,” Smith said.

“Thanks to Duke, I got the bull where he needed to be.”

Duke is part of Smith’s beloved “zoo crew,” along with goats, poddy calves, ducks, geese and a pick-up cat named Mango, who keep him company while he runs the farm single-handedly.

“I’ve shed so many tears this year, but it would have been so much harder without my animals.

“They say a lot without saying anything.”