New Zealanders began this unusual sport at Hakataramea, South Canterbury, in 1889, only 13 years after the first recorded public sheep-dog trials at Bala, Wales. The first trials in the North Island were at Porangahau in 1892. A national controlling organisation, the New Zealand Sheep-dog Trials Association (Inc.), was formed in 1957 when the North Island Association (founded 1910) and the South Island body (1932) were amalgamated. By 1965 there were 187 affiliated clubs, 107 in the North Island and 80 in the South, with about 9,000 members. Clubs are grouped into 13 centres, each with from 11 to 20 clubs. Each centre appoints two delegates to the national body, which is the sole authority for rules and bylaws governing all sheep-dog trials. One delegate also represents his centre on the association council, which is responsible for finance, arranging championships, appointing judges, and general administration.
National championships, of which the first was at Hawera, have been held every year (except during the war) since 1936, an unincorporated association having been formed in 1935 to run them. England, Scotland, Wales, Australia, and New Zealand are the only countries following the sport, and there has been little international competition because of quarantine regulations which restrict overseas movement of dogs, and because of differing standards. Individual New Zealanders have, however, done well in Australia.
New Zealand trials have kept their original character as tests of practical shepherding, the task set shepherd and dog being similar to those they meet in every-day work. Since ability to work at a distance and over difficult terrain is of prime importance, trial grounds are usually located where steep hillfaces meet convenient flat land. As these are usually far from towns and cities, many New Zealanders know very little about a sport which has become a distinctive and valuable part of their country's life.
There are four standard competition classes—two heading (long head and short head), and two hunt-away (zig-zag hunt and straight hunt).
Heading. In the long head the competitor stands with his dog in a ring (1 chain in diameter) facing a hillside near the top of which three sheep are set loose. When time is called the dog is dispatched, either on a left-hand or a right-hand cast, up the hill for some 800 yards to a point behind the sheep. On command the dog “lifts” the sheep and, keeping them together, “pulls” them in a direct line back to his master in the ring. To allow the dog to show complete control over the sheep, the run ends with a “hold in the ring”. This involves stopping the sheep in the ring and holding them there. The first stages of the short head are much the same, but over half the distance, 400 yards. At the point where the sheep reach the shepherd, man and dog must drive them ahead down a “drive” which is 60 yards long and I chain wide and defined by short poles, to a set of hurdles which are 9 ft apart and parallel with the line of the drive. The sheep are driven between the hurdles and then down a second drive, similar to the first, to the pen or yard, which is 6 ft square. After opening one side, the competitor must stand by the pen gate until the sheep are yarded. The dog must do virtually all the work and his master's right of movement and intervention are strictly limited.
Huntaway. In both huntaway classes three sheep are set loose at the foot of the hill. While the shepherd remains at the bottom, his dog, working and barking to command, hunts the sheep upwards on a defined line away from his master. In the zig-zag hunt, the sheep are directed through three sets of flags 1 chain apart and spaced equally up the hill on a zig-zag course of approximately 440 yards. The course for the straight hunt is about the same length, from the foot of the hill up to and through a set of flags 1 chain apart.
The huntaway sheep dog is a New Zealand development. Original imported strains were all heading dogs whose instinctive method was to head the sheep and, working silently, to pull them back to their masters. Early New Zealand shepherds, however, needed the occasional noisy dog which could flush sheep from cover on rough country. They therefore watched for, and specially trained and bred, a dog which could do this kind of work. R.F.-R.