Dromore livestock farmer Mark Copland with his dogs Skip, left, and Zoe.
The competitors in next month's transtasman dog trial test will be approaching it like any battle between the All Blacks and the Wallabies. With passion, determination and fight.
The Tux-sponsored test is the main attraction at the Ashburton A&P Show on November 1 and 2, and a good old arm wrestle is expected.
The eight dog triallists will be working their superbly trained dogs on a mob of Romney hoggets provided by Dromore livestock farmer Mark Copland, who knows a thing or two about trialling himself.
Copland has represented New Zealand in dog trial tests eight times, both here and in Australia. He is a reserve for next month's test at the Ashburton show. He would love a chance to battle the Aussies, but his champion dog, Skip, was injured by a cattlebeast last month and would only just be back to health if called upon at the last minute.
The New Zealand team has plenty of firepower anyway, he says. The team includes Stuart Millar (captain), from the Rakaia Gorge, with his dog Rose; Graeme Dickie from Lawrence with Tweed, Murray Child from Whangarei with Dice and Steve Murphy from Taranaki with Kahu.
The four were at Copland's Somerton Road farm a fortnight ago, training as a group and going over subtle rule changes or interpretations that could affect their performances. Sometimes there is a change in the rules, just like a netball or rugby game.
He said the training session exposed a few areas the triallists needed to work on. "It also gives us a month to get the sheep in order."
From about 800 hoggets on farm at the moment, he will pick a mob of 150 that could end up in the arena. He and son Todd will work them a bit, "to weed out the rogues", and whittle numbers down to around 70 for the tests.
The New Zealand team will be back at Copland's farm the day before the show for more practice and then head up to Stuart Miller's Peak Hill station with the Australian triallists for some sightseeing.
Copland has been dog trialling for 30 years after giving up rugby. He has accumulated 35 island and national placings in championships, and captained the New Zealand team five times.
"My father had pretty good working dogs and it was a natural transition."
His desire to compete well and win has never dropped off. That competitiveness is seen in he and Robyn's sons, Hugh, Todd, and Kent, who have played top level hockey - Hugh for New Zealand.
Over the years, he says three or four dogs have stood out for him, having the close-to-perfect mix of ability to work hard and ability to be trained.
"The good ones you remember . . . and some of the bad ones. Some dogs don't take 'no' for an answer very well.
"You see it early on in the pup pen when you are feeding them but it is in the first six to eight months that you know which ones might be good."
Copland's dogs are bred to work on the farm and they do, every day. He selects two for extra work at trials. These dogs are pleased to work hard, do as they are told and are rewarded with a pat or kind words.
There is plenty of work to do on the farm. Copland has 670ha of irrigated and dryland paddocks. He runs 3000 commercial ewes and 200 Border Leicester stud ewes. From July to October the property finishes 600 to 700 bullocks for Silver Fern Farms.
The farming property, Westmere, also grows winter feed and cereals.
The sheep stud is one of just 37 Border Leicester flocks in the country and Copland says dwindling numbers means fewer opportunities to source stock. It is a good dual-purpose breed, for both meat and wool, and Westmere usually competes successfully at the Ashburton and Christchurch A&P shows, and others around the region.
He takes the same competitive nature into growing his winter feed - his crops have won competitions and he relishes the chance to learn more and improve what he is growing.
"When we first started entering the A&P winter feed competition, we were growing swedes at 14.5 tonne per hectare. With trial and experiment, we are now growing upwards of 23 tonne per hectare."
He grows swede and fodder beet and says he has learned to make good use of science to grow better crops.
Westmere has been in the care of both his father and grandfather and despite being surrounded by dairy farmers he has no desire to milk cows.
He sees more of a future in growing other crops.
Right now the focus on the farm is tidying up after the storm and working the test hoggets.
Dogs are a main feature at this year's Ashburton A&P Show. The official theme is Farming Friends: Family, Community and Business, but man's best friend, the dog, has pride of place. The transtasman test between New Zealand and Australian dog triallists will be held in a special arena at the western end of the showgrounds, near Drummond and Etheridge.