Top gun dogs from throughout the country and their owners went through their paces in Central Otago over Easter in the New Zealand Gun Dog Trial Association's 75th jubilee championships.
The event attracted 89 competitors with 132 dogs. The 11-event championship was hosted by the Central Otago Gun Dog Club.
"They were blown away by our scenery, the fabulous weather and all the autumn colours," trial secretary Esme MacDonald, of Galloway, said.
"The North Islanders all wanted to move here to paradise, they said. They just loved it."
The best dogs trialling on the national gun dog competitive circuit were on show.
Events were set up to test the teamwork of dogs and handlers in simulated hunting situations over land and water.
Many of the trials were staged near Alexandra.
"The feedback we had about the weekend was great.
"Although there was a year of planning that went into it, it was all worthwhile," Mrs MacDonald said.
It was the first time in New Zealand all of the breeds of trialling dog had been represented in one place at one time, she said.
The birds used for the simulated hunting events were pigeons, shot off pea paddocks in Canterbury and Southland.
In the water leg of the retriever event, dogs had to wait while the handler fired blank ammunition.
Then an electronic launcher threw two pigeons, one at a time, into the scrub beside the Manuherikia River.
The dogs had to swim across the river and retrieve the birds one at a time, returning them to the handler.
Judge Colin Evans, of Invercargill, said points were given for the dog "marking" visually where the pigeons landed, for the speed of the pursuit, the "line" the dog took, whether it returned directly with the bird, or stopped on the way, and for "style" - the way the dog worked.
