Several Far North shepherds are heading for the finals of the Tux Yarding Challenge and Handy Dog series - the two divisions attracting 204 and 53 entries respectively - in the King Country at the end of the month.
The event will take place from Friday to Sunday, January 27-29,and will see the seventh and final leg in the Tux 2016/17 series held in conjunction with the North Island and national finals.
The top two placegetters in each section will join a field made up of the winners from the six other North Island legs to compete for the North Island title in heading and huntaway this Sunday.
The top three qualifiers from that - along with the best maiden heading dogs - will progress to run off for the respective national titles against their South Island counterparts afterwards.
Event spokeman Robyn Stephens noted it will be a long day for all involved, especially Okaihau's Pete Campbell who has been assigned to judging the heading section with over 200 dogs to get through over the first two days.
"There are a lot of runs to go through in one day, he's a pretty decent judge but he'll have his work cut out," she said.
Interestingly one of the first men out of the starting blocks is Merv Cameron who gets the King Country leg of the Tux Yarding Challenge series underway by running Roy at 6.15am on Saturday.
Cameron couldn't resist adding he hoped that wouldn't prove too early for Far North stablemate, Campbell.
