Qualifications for NGSPA Regional and Specie Championships

[Wagonmaster]

I received a PM asking what the qualifications are for the NGSPA Regional and Specie hour championships, as a follow up to the thread on the qualifications for the Nationals.

The dog and the handler must be qualified for the Regional and Specie Championships.

The rule on qualification of dogs is: "A dog shall have previously won a placement in an All Age or Shooting Dog stake duly held by an active member club of the NGSPA in accordance with its field trial regulations. For qualification requirements, gun dog and shooting dog stakes will be considered one and the same. There is no placement requirement to enter a dog in a derby classic."

The rule on handlers is: "In order to compete in regional and national championships, a handler must have, at some time, qualified a dog by winning a NGSPA win certificate."

To translate a little, the way a dog is qualified is to run the dog in one of the dual sanctioned, half hour, weekend trials and get a "win." Those trials are typically run under AKC rules (4 placements), but for purposes of getting win certificates, the AF rule is three placements. So the dog would need to get a first, second or third in one of the weekend dual sanctioned trials. Not all AKC weekend trials are dual sanctioned, so ask the host club to make sure it is a dual sanctioned trial.

The handler rule says "in order to compete in a regional and national ..." but in this instance the term "regional" is being used to refer to both the regionals and the specie championships in my view. In short, for a handler to compete in an hour championship, the handler must at some time have won a first, second or third in a dual sanctioned weekend half hour at some point in their life.

[original mngsp]

isnt there also an unwritten rule , something to this effect "if it looks like a GSP and you pay the entry fee."