The Tasmanian working sheep dog state championships are currently underway in Campbell Town, with about 90 dogs showing their wares in the quest to be crowned top dog.
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While the championships started on Friday, the main open dog event starts on Saturday and runs for two days.
Tasmanian Working Sheep Dog Association president Lee Jamieson said the championships had already attracted a number of spectators, and they were expecting more over the weekend.
There are four different events at the championships and they suit new dogs, new handlers, and seasoned veterans of the four and two-legged varieties.
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Mr Jamieson said he was most impressed by Max Rainsford's performance on Friday.
Mr Rainsford and his dog won two of the events despite both being relatively new to the sheep dog scene.
Mr Jamieson said he was happy to have seen a few new handlers get along to the championships.
Mark Douglas, a stockman formerly from Queensland and new to Tasmania took his dog Sassy along to the novice event.
Mr Douglas said Sassy was a cattle dog, but since coming to Tasmania he had taught her to muster sheep.
"To train them you have to spend extra time with them. It's about five minutes per day, per dog of extra quality training," he said.
Mr Douglas has a team of cattle dogs that he uses for work but said the extra training is needed ahead of a competition to make them "highly tuned".
The competition sees owners cast their dogs out to round up three sheep from one end of Campbell Town football oval to the other.
The dog is tasked with bringing the sheep up the oval in as straight of a line as possible.
With 100 points to work with, the handler has to help his dog guide the sheep of the field without being deducted any points.
Along the way there are obstacles for the dog to manoeuvre the sheep through in the shortest amount of time.
The dog needs to get the three sheep through a gap, down a race, over a bridge and then into a pen in under 15 minutes.
Although, it is not all about the dogs. Mr Jamieson said about 300 sheep are part of the show and they are rotated each time in order to keep the dogs on their paws.
Tasmanians from all over the state, furry and otherwise, make the trek to Campbell Town for the event.
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