I. SERIOUS FAULTS. (Serious faults listed cover all those instances where the Standard describes conduct of the dog which in and of itself justifies elimination from the stake. There are in the Standard three descriptions of handler misconduct justifying elimination from the stake i.e., blocking a dog’s view of a mark, throwing objects to encourage water entry and carrying exposed training equipment and other excessive restraint of the dog. While these are certainly to be enforced, they are not listed here under serious faults demonstrated by retrievers. The failure to list handler misconduct under serious faults in no way means that such misconduct is less serious or does not justify elimination from the stake.)
1. Repeated evidence of “poor nose.’’
2. Failure to enter either rough cover, water, ice, mud, or any other situation involving unpleasant or difficult “going’’ for the dog, after having been ordered to do so several times.
3. Returning to the handler without the bird where not called in, except on a marked retrieve where the dog was confused as to whether it was sent.
4. Stopping the hunt or ignoring a bird when found and leaving it.
5. “Switching birds,’’ i.e., giving up after a hunt in the area of the fall for one bird and going to and hunting “the area’’ of another “fall,’’ or dropping the bird being retrieved, and picking up another.
6. “Out-of-control,’’ i.e., paying no attention to many whistles and directions by the handler.
7. Extreme “freezing,’’ i.e., refusal to release a bird on delivery for an unreasonable period of time or until com- pelled to do so by severe methods.
8. Retrieving a decoy, i.e., returning to land with it — mandatory elimination under the “STANDARD.’’
9. Breaking mandatory elimination under the “STANDARD.’’
10. “Hard-mouth,’’ or badly damaging a bird, which, in the opinion of the Judges, was caused solely by the dog without justification — mandatory elimination under the “STANDARD.’’
11. Loud and prolonged whining or barking.
12. Unauthorized watching of the location of a fall for another dog or the planting or retrieve of a blind — manda- tory elimination of the dog under the “STANDARD’’ and possible elimination of the handler from the stake or trial.
13. Failure to find a dead bird which the dog should have found.
14. Breaking for a fall for a dog under judgment by a dog still in the stake but not on line under judgment where, in the opinion of the Judges, the breaking dog or its handler interferes with the normal conduct of the stake.
15. Returning to the area of an old marked fall and hunting.
16. Failure to go when sent on a blind retrieve. 17. Handling on a mark in the Derby Stake.
II. MODERATE FAULTS. (Infractions in this
category may actually be so slight as to warrant their consideration as only a “minor’’ fault, or they may be so severe as to warrant their consideration as a “serious fault”; also, repetitions of a “moderate’’ fault or combination of several of these faults may readily convert the total infractions into a “serious’’ fault.)
1. Failure to mark the “area of the ‘fall,’ ’’ requiring that the dog be handled to the bird; worse on the first bird retrieved than on subsequent birds.
2. Disturbing too much cover either by not going to the area or by leaving it.
3. Reluctance to enter rough cover, water, ice, mud or other situations involving unpleasant “going’’ for the dog.
4. Hunting in a slow and disinterested manner.
5. Poor style, including a disinterested attitude, a slow
or reluctant departure, quest for game, or return with it.
6. “Popping,’’ i.e., stopping and looking back for
7. Not stopping for directions, after two or three whistles
which the dog should have heard.
8. Failure to take lines and directions or to hold lines
and directions more than a short distance.
9. Moderate whining of short duration.
10. Going out of the way by land to a “fall,’’ to an excessive degree to avoid going into the water on a water
retrieve.
11. In any stake other than an All-Age stake, a slight
break after which the dog is brought immediately under control.
III. MINOR FAULTS. (Either severe, or repeated, or combinations of these “minor’’ infractions may summate into a “moderate,’’ or even a “serious’’ fault. Also, they may be so slight as not to warrant any penalty at all.)
1. Going out of its way by land, to an excessive degree, on the return from a water retrieve.
2. Lack of attention.
