THE youngest sheep dog trialler to compete in a world championship is all set for her second crack at winning the event this year.

Nineteen-year-old Chloe Cropper, of Clough Head Farm, Bacup, has qualified for the fourth World Sheep Dog Trials competition after making it through the national and international rounds.

This will be Chloe’s second world event, having made it through to the 2008 championship, aged just 16.

“It’s always good to get to the world championship. It’s a real buzz,” said Chloe.

“There are loads of good triallers who don’t manage to get through. It’s more about luck on the day.”

Chloe is the protege of her uncle Jim Cropper, 70, a renowned sheep dog trialler who gave Chloe her first dog, Rap, when she was 13 so he could teach her the basics of trialling.

He will also be competing at the championship, which is being held in England for the first time.

She said: “Uncle Jim taught me everything on his farm. We help each other and like to compete, but in a nice way.”

With her old dog, Roy, Chloe entered the 2008 World Trials Championship and also won the BBC’s One Man And His Dog young handler competition against a field of all male handlers in the same year.

Owners now bring their sheep dogs from all over the country for Chloe to train on the farm, where she keeps sheep and also trains her own dogs.

“I have about 20 dogs on the farm, which include other people’s. I have owners bringing them from everywhere to me.”

This year’s International Sheep Dog Society World Championship, at the Lowther Estate, near Penrith in Cumbria, will see Chloe enter her two-year-old dog, Ned.

The young trialler has trained Ned since he was a puppy, when he began to show a lot of talent.

A total of 240 dogs and handlers from 23 nations will compete in this year’s championship, some coming from as far away as Brazil and Japan.

Also competing from East Lancashire is Stephen Duckworth, 54, with his six-year-old dog, Spy.