Ben Millar and King competing in the transtasman sheep dog trial test series for the Wayleggo Cup. Photo / Megan Ellis
By Mark Leishman of RNZ
It is spelt “Wayleggo” but pronounced “Wal-a-go”, and in dog trialling and shepherding, it is an age-old New Zealand call for a sheep dog to leave the sheep and come back to its master.
“Wayleggo” originated in New Zealand and is short for “come away and let go”, the phrase used by shepherds and musterers to call their dogs back from working stock, according to the New Zealand Sheep Dog Trial Association.
The Wayleggo Cup is the dog trialling equivalent of the Bledisloe in rugby.
It’s been competed for since 1985, and just like the All Blacks, the New Zealand dog trials team has dominated the competition, winning 21 of 37 competitions over the past 40 years.
Last year, however, the Aussies won on home soil, so this year it was their turn to cross the Tasman and try and retain the Cup on Kiwi soil.
In October, the event was part of the Ashburton A&P Show, with four handlers and dogs from each country and two days of competition.
The love for the sport can be seen in the efforts competitors go to just to compete.
Queenslander Barry Knight drove from Toowoomba to Perth to compete and be selected for the Australian test team, a journey not for the faint-hearted.
“We travelled to Western Australia,” Knight said.
“The round trip was about 10,000km, driving the ute all the way with a trailer and driving all the way back – five days each way and three days there.”
So, with a potential commitment of two weeks for one event, young shepherds don’t often compete because they can’t afford the time off.
Barry and his 26-year-old son Bailey are the first father and son to compete for the Australian test team.
Barry has a small farm, and Bailey is a plumber, which highlights the fact that most competitors in dog trialling across the Tasman are not farmers.
The Knight family has a love of characterful names for their dogs.
Barry’s heading dog is 6-year-old Mavis, and Bailey’s is 8-year-old Duncan, named after the Slim Dusty song I Love To Have A Beer with Duncan.
Another first for the Australian team is the presence of Jessica Kimpton, who is the only woman in this year’s competition.
She is one quarter of the Aussie team, matching the proportion of women on the Australian dog trialling circuit.
Kimpton said she seldom had any pushback from the male competitors.
“They’re good, and even if they weren’t, they’d just have to suck it up,” she laughed.
“We actually see a lot more women in Australia being out there on the trial course.
“While it’s still male-dominated, about 25% of triallists now would be women.”
She is an animal trainer for movies, and while training her dogs, she discovered dog trialling as a sport and loves it.
She said the bond between handler and dog is vital to being a top competitor.
“Some dogs just have ‘it’,” she said.
“We don’t know how to describe what ‘it’ is, but some dogs are just so talented, and you get this relationship with them where it’s almost like you’re reading each other’s minds and when you are out in the trial field, the rest of the world, just melts away, and it’s just you and your dog, and every now and then you’ll glance at each other and you just know what the other one needs.”
Commentator Tony Jackson farms 101,000ha in Queensland.
He musters his 23,000 sheep and 3000 cattle using helicopters covering more than 30,000ha a day.
He said the land is not as productive as that which New Zealand farmers enjoy, and the pests are next level, including kangaroos and dingoes.
“Every town has roo shooters who make a living out of harvesting kangaroos for the pet food market and for human consumption.
“They go out shooting and are shooting 50 kangaroos per night. That’s a Toyota load. And you’re looking at around about $25 a roo, and if you shoot 50 of them, you make a good living.”
It is the 10th year in the New Zealand team for captain Mark Copeland, and he is excited about the future of dog trialling.
“There is a lot of good young talent, and particularly good talented women coming through.
“They’re putting the men to the sword, as it were, running very, very good, well-trained dogs.”
“We’ve been trialling since, what, 1860 or something, and you’re trying to get better and develop a better dog, and it doesn’t always happen, so you go again, and you go again and again.
“There’s no other sport that I can think of that involves three mammals. Some you can teach … others you can’t.”
As for the result of the test?
After leading the first day by just 10 points, the Australians made no match of it, retaining the Wayleggo Cup by 60 points and taking the Cup back with them to Australia.
So next year will be a big one for the Kiwi test team as they try and stop the Australians from winning a three-peat on their own turf.
– RNZ