Unfair trial???

12 Volt Man · Post by **12 Volt Man** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 1:22 pm

Unfair trial???

I ran Cooper in a trial Saturday which was put on by a local hunt club. They want to start putting them on from time to time. This trial was not sanctioned by NSTRA or anyone. They just came up with their own rules. They had some fairly nice prizes. I actually won a $20.00 gift certificate to Wal-Mart just for showing up. There was also a drawing for a Tuff Shed Dog House. Plus the top three dogs get a trophy and cash.

They had opened the trial to flushers and pointers. In the end I found out that the rules were actually slanted to help the flushers. The format was 8 birds planted in the field, two hunters/dogs at a time; as soon as you get 4 birds and your dog is leashed you call time. There were points awarded for finds, retrieves, and also for every shell you didn’t use (started with 8 shells). There were also points awarded for every minute that was left under 20 minutes.

Two labs went out before Cooper and me. They didn’t end up bagging a single bird. They scored 80 and 95 points. Then Cooper and I went out. He bumped two birds (which counted as two of my 4). He pointed the next one, it didn’t flush very well, and I went a few steps to flush it again. This time it flew and I missed the shot (doh!). Then a couple of minutes later, he pointed the last one which I shot and he retrieved to hand. In the end Cooper scored 45 points for his efforts. I can’t believe I missed that one bird. I feel bad when the dog does his job and I blow it for him by missing the shot. He did fairly well for a 14 month old dog. I just need to do my part next time.

The problem I had with the format was the following…….. I asked the judge why the Labs scored higher than me and never even bagged a bird. Apparently the way they scored the flushing dogs was different. If a Lab was running through the field and bumped a bird, they called that a flush and a find points were awarded. If a pointing dog bumped a bird it was not scored as a find because he was supposed to point it. I have no problem with them not scoring a find for my dog if he bumps a bird. I feel like the flushing dogs had a huge advantage with the scoring done this way. A lab could have scored more points than my dog did just by running amuck in the field and bumping 4 birds. I asked them to look at the rules for the next one and separate the flushers and pointers so that they don’t compete against each other.

It was still fun. I will probably run in the next one. I just wanted to vent about the rules and see what you guys thought.

Post by **Ayres** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:04 pm

Sounds like the people who run the trial own labs.

Seriously, though, I do hope that they shore up that flaw. It's alright that each dog was doing what it was bred to do (flush vs. point), but the scoring should be adjusted to accomodate that.

I sure wouldn't want to have the trialers go on purporting that flushers are better than all the pointing breeds because they get more points in such a trial.

snips · Post by **snips** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 4:19 pm

Ughhh. Don`t think your doing your nice poiner you have all that work into, any justice. I would get a Lab or Boykin if I wanted to compete there!

Country-Side Breeders · Post by **Country-Side Breeders** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:59 am

They should definately have seperate trials for flushing and pointing. I think most other trials are run that way.