Post
by chiendog » Tue Apr 08, 2014 4:21 pm
This is a very interesting topic and one that I will do my best to explore (and hopefully untangle a bit) in my next book.
But for now, I'll just make the following observations: What Ray and others wrote is spot on. Field trials are not hunting and they are not only about bird finding. If a breed is running in an all age trial, it should run like an all age dog and be judged as an all age dog (same thing for just about any other test or venue... to earn a VC, a dog should put in a VC level performance, end of story).
But if we want to look at the larger picture and consider the two main centres of pointing dog activity in the world: North America and Western Europe, we can see there are some pretty interesting nuances. First off, judges everywhere want to see good dogs doing good work no matter what the breed, no matter what the format, no matter what the country. But European judges should (at least in theory ... more on that later) consider breed specific working styles and judge dogs accordingly, even if they are running in a all breed trial.
In order to keep things under book-length, I will just give a couple real obvious examples. The first one is the fact even at a structural level, field trials in Europe are organized to help breeds (or at least groups of breeds) maintain a breed-specific way of working. So British breeds (pointers and setters) never run against continental breeds in field trials. And that is because no one there expects British breeds and continental breeds to work in exactly the same way (and, everyone wants to avoid a 'melting pot' of styles...which is happening anyway...I'll get to that later).
But even within those two main divisions (British and continentals) judges should look for breed-specific styles..and one of the clearest differences is in the way they want to see Pointers run and work birds versus the way they want to see Setters run and work birds (and they even hope to see subtle differences between the various setter breeds). It would take me way too long to describe those differences, but I will say that they include everything from how the dog holds its head as it runs to how it gathers up its legs then thrusts them forward/backward with each stride to how it enters the scent cone, how it points and how it does the 'coulé' (a way of working the bird with the handler..something we don't do here. I will be explaining that on my blog soon).
Now, before you get to thinking that field trials in Europe are all about those seemingly minor details, they aren't. As mentioned, judges want to see good dogs doing good work. But they will give dogs a few more brownie points as it were for showing really strong indications of breed specific style. So, all things being equal between two dogs that put on a superb performance, the one that had just a wee bit more style...breed specific style... will probably get the nod.
I guess it is sort of like it is over here: all things being equal between two dogs that put on a superb performance, the one that had just a wee bit more style...maybe a higher or straighter tail or a higher, prouder head on point or something almost intangible... will probably get the nod. Its just that in Europe, the 'style' thing is more linked to the individual breeds and has a few more details to it than over here.
Bottom line: there are some pretty awesome dogs on both sides of the ocean and I've seen breathtaking performances in trials whereever serious dog men and women show up to get r done!
I will try to post some videos that illustrate what I mean in breed-specific working styles.