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After more than a century of existence, it takes a lot to unsettle the Rodney Sheep Dog Trial Club, but the combined force of last year’s Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle managed to do just that.
Following many years of the club using Danny and Charmaine Lewis’ property in the hills between Kaipara Flats and Tauhoa for its annual shepherding trial, major slips washed out the two established courses and the 2023 event had to be cancelled.
It was a big blow for the club, which is part of the Northland Sheep Dog Trial Association that stages a dozen trials on farms between Helensville and Kaitaia on most weekends every late summer and autumn.
However, shepherds are nothing if not stoic and resourceful, so Rodney regrouped, reconsidered things and are back this year with new grounds at Kaipara Flats and two days marked in the diary for their 2024 trial – Friday, March 29 and Saturday, March 30.
Club president Josh Jackson is more familiar than most with the new courses, since they are situated on, or within sight of, where he lives and works as farm manager, on the Withers Trust Farm at 324 Old Woodcocks Road.
There will be two courses for heading dogs, which herd the sheep back to the farmer, on a low hill just behind the Withers Farm buildings, while the huntaway course will have dogs driving sheep up the side of a steep, conical hill opposite the property, just across Old Woodcocks Road.
“You always have a huntaway course on the side of a steep hill, because going up slows the sheep down and lets the dog handle the sheep,” Jackson explains.
“On the heading courses, the sheep start on the side of a lower hill and you pull them back down to the flat.”
He says that while there are challenges in setting up a new venue after so many years in the same spot, he is already seeing some advantages.
“At the last grounds, the courses were really far apart and people had to hop in their cars and drive down the road to get from one to the other,” he says. “Here, they’re really close and it should be much easier for people.”
He says the farm’s proximity to the new motorway extension will also be a bonus – “we’ll get people coming up from Waikato”.
The trial usually attracts around 50 competitors and well over 100 dogs, and the public is more than welcome to come and watch the magical relationship between shepherds and their dogs.
“It’s going to be our first trial here, thanks to the grace of Simon Withers, so it’s all a bit new to us and how it’s going to work, but we’re feeling really positive about it,” Jackson says.
“Everyone has that feeling of excitement that we’re on new grounds – it’s a new opportunity.”
He will use around 350 sheep from his 2500-strong flock for the Rodney club trial – lambs for the heading dogs and two-year ewes for the huntaways.
Jackson has been president of the club for around four years, after moving to Kaipara Flats from Helensville. He says while the group is going well, with a few younger farm folk coming in, they are always looking for new members keen to develop their dogs and trialling skills.
Info: Contact Josh Jackson on 027 203 2062
Local trials
where to see working dogs in action
Otamatea Dog Trial Club
March 22 & 23, 104 Marohemo Road, Marohemo
Rodney Sheep Dog Trial Club
March 29 & 30, 324 Old Woodcocks Road, Kaipara Flats, Warkworth
Molesworth Sheep Dog Trial Club
April 12 & 13, 616 Oneriri Road, Kaiwaka
