How do you judge this?

3489 Views 22 Replies 15 Participants Last post by Debthomas, Apr 20, 2007

Debthomas

Discussion Starter · Apr 19, 2007

Master test. Triple on land. blind up the middle. Orange stake to give you point of reference. Handlers are told to handle to the orange stake. at that point there has been a trail dragged aprox 10-12 feet off to the left of the orange stake. Handlers are told that once you get to the orange stake to release your dog to trail the cripple. You can say fetch it up, hunt it up, ect.

My question as a judge. is say I handle to the stake great 2 cast and I am on it. I have a 8-9. I have sat my dog and said fetch it up. and the dog goes wild. does not pick up on the trail and is all over the place, now I have to handle back to the area, and to the actual bird.

I watched 40+ dogs run this blind. And I don't think 2 dogs did the same thing. There where handlers that handled directly to the bird. some dogs would not release on hunt it up and had to be casted over, ect.

So with out a standard to score by, how would you judge?

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Lady Duck Hunter

· #4 · Apr 19, 2007

I do think there is mention that a "trailing test" can be done in the regulation book.

I would like to know more about how this trailing test was set up. Like did they drag a fresh bird for each blind that was set? If not then the trail could lose some of its effectiveness after a period of time and after a few dogs travelled through the area with their scent. If they did, how did they insure that new new drag scents were not created as the blind planter did his job.? Also what if the dog picked up dragback scent from one or more of the previous retrieves?

I think one of the reasons we don't normally see trailing tests in our scenarios is that the scenting area can not be controlled enough to make it fair for everyone, thus making the job of judging each dog fairly more difficult.

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Lady Duck Hunter

· #6 · Apr 19, 2007

Does seem an odd way to run a blind....and if the judge dragged the bird didn't that take a lot of time to have him/her get out there and back?

Also was wind not a factor? because I can see the possibility of swirling scent coming in to play or a dog winding one of the other fall area or a bird boy bucket....just too many unforseen variables for me to be happy putting in it a test I was judging.

I don't know how it should be judged. I think I would tend to judge getting the dog to the blind stake as running the blind and give a score for that....trainability etc.... then have a separate score if the dog found the bird by following his nose - 10 if he did it with no handles, 5 if he had to have help, and 0 or 1 if he ran about wildly and stumbled on the bird, with no indication of winding it. If you have to handle all the way too the bird, then is that trailing? Probably not...so "0"?

My understanding of a good trailing test is that the scent line makes several sharp turns along the way and the dog is scored on how quickly he pickes up on the trail again once the direction has changed.

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