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.