COMPETITORS making their way around this show course will be kept under the masterful eye of Victorian Yard Utility Farm Dog Association (VYUFDA) vice president and competition judge, Rod Cavill.
“I look for good stockmanship and good sheep flow around the course,” Mr Cavill said.
“The course sometimes has a drench race the dogs need to put the sheep through and a trailer. The competitors need to do each course in a clean, neat manner and preferably with no stress on the stock under my watchful eye.”
He said the timeframe to complete the course was about 10 minutes and points were lost for incomplete obstacles.
“Generally, before the start of the trial I'll give a talk to the competitors about my expectations.”
Mr Cavill said each competitor started with 100 points; missteps or incompletions reduced this perfect score.
“The top six go to the final, where all their points are then accumulated from two consistent runs to find out the winner.”