Since you are going to mainly be hunting upland, you might want to switch to AKC pointing dog hunting tests. They are broken into 3
levels -- junior hunter, senior hunter, and master hunter. If you go to AKC's web site and google their search engine for qualifications for each level it will give you the criteria for each level. I'll describe master level -- that level is the top level and includes: Hunting, bird finding ability, pointing, trainability, honoring, & retreiving. A master dog must point it's bird, let you flush it, shoot it. It has to stay put thru wing, shot, and fall. It has to wait for you to send it for the retreive. It then must return the bird back to your hand in good condition (no chewing it up). It must back it's bracemate
(with out being whoa'd into it) when on point and stay backed while that bird is shot and retreived back to it's handler. If it encounters a wild flushing bird it must stop to flush on it's own without being whoa'd into it(has to stay put thru a blank round). It must handle easily and not be hacked all the time. It must search likely objectives and point staunchly and intensely. It must handle EVERY bird it encounters properly--if it messes up on 1 bird it flunks the test. It gets graded on the 6 catagories mentioned earlier on a 1-10 scale. It must average a 7 or above on the total score of the 6 catagories
--it can NOT have a score lower than 5 on any of the 6 items or it flunks the test. It needs 6 qualifing scores to get a Master title (5 qualifing scores if
it has a Seniot title already). In hunting tests you are judged against a standard and not judged against the other dogs. Hunt tests are usually run in Spring & early Fall, so you still can hunt your dog during hunting season.
I don't compete in shoot to retreive events so someone else can describe those to you.
Good luck in what ever you try with you dog
