Post
by Wagonmaster » Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:07 pm
NAVHDA is versatile dog testing. They are not field trials per se, a field trial being a competition. NAVHDA testing tests each dog to the same standard, and scores the dog. The dog is awarded a Prize I, II, or III or no Prize at all, depending on its scores on several complex tests. There is a fair amount of tracking and retrieving involved in the tests, as well as upland work.
American Field and AKC field trialing are mostly done off horseback. My personal favorite, they are looking for big running dogs with great manners on game birds. As original mngsp mentioned though, you would have to have an AKC registered dog to enter an AKC trial. In AF you could enter, but the win would not be recorded on a pedigree unless the dog is AF registered.
AKC clubs also do hunt tests, which are a test against a standard, not a field trial competition. They have three categories, from least to most difficult they are Junior Hunter, Senior Hunter and Master Hunter. All work is done in these tests by a walking handler (not horseback). AKC clubs also do walking field trials, but again, the dog would have to be AKC registered.
There are some AF subsidiary clubs such as NBHA and US Complete. Don't know much about those except you will find some foot handled trials there. Cover Dog trials, called Grouse Trials at an earlier time, are also all foot handled and are run on wild native ruffed grouse and woodcock (ugh!).
Last but not least, NSTRA is all foot handled. It is partly objective and partly subjective. "x" number of birds are planted in a field, each team gets 30 minutes, score is partly a judges score on quality of point and retrieve and partly objective (how many birds did the team get). All birds found are shot and reduced to bag (if the handler can hit it!).
There is also a Tournament Hunting Association in some areas (that is maybe not the exact name), similar to NSTRA.
original mngsp is right. with a bracque, since it is not an AKC recognized breed, AKC may not be open to you. I do think, if you look through the AKC Rulebook, though, you may find a rule allowing dogs of non-AKC registrable breeds to participate on some kind of basis. Not sure, never had the issue myself.
Probably NAVHDA is your best bet, they have their own registry and it does include bracques, or NSTRA or Tournament Hunters which do not have a registration requirement.
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