The 23-year-old shepherd placed first, second and third with his huntaways Base, Kaha and Pitch in the straight hunt event, and second and third with Pitch and Kaha in the zigzag hunt.
He was "pretty happy about the placings" as these were his most successful results to date.
In the two days before the Omarama trials, he was also please to get five open placings in the Mackenzie dog trials.
In the Mackenzie zigzag hunt, he and Base placed first and his other huntaway, Sprocket, came third. He was first intermediate with Sprocket, receiving 93.5 points.
In the straight hunt, Pitch placed first and Sprocket was second and Base was fourth.
Mr George has four huntaways that have qualified for the South Island and New Zealand Championships.
He has competed in two previous New Zealand championships.
He did not often get nervous before a run, "but during a good run I start to feel the pressure that I’ll make a wrong move".
Growing up, he worked for his grandfather who was also a dog triallist, which had made him interested in the sport since he was 16.
For the past six months, he has worked casually as a shepherd at The Doone, a 3500ha sheep and beef property in North Canterbury.
He was moving back to the North Island to work fulltime on a Pukemokihi farm where he previously worked for five years.
He had set himself a goal of winning a New Zealand championship.
The secret to doing a good run — and achieving that goal — was the combination of both the huntaway and its owner doing their job correctly.
"It’s when a dog handles its stock well and a good man is good at reading his stock," he said.
Mr George bred one of his dogs. Two of his huntaways were from the North Island and another was bred in the South Island.
Top triallist Leo Edgington, who had great stock skills, particularly influenced his decision to get into competing huntaways.
Mr George said he had trained his dogs since they were pups. The oldest was 6 and the others were 3.
Most of the time he trained his four dogs three nights a week for an hour. However, he had to allow extra time to train his younger dogs.
- By Natasha Parrant
