Thread: Crossing show lines

Originally Posted by el borracho

Mediocre dogs do plenty wrong and don't often get through due to manners . Part of a "finished" dogs make up should be their good manners both in trial and field especially when you hunt with other dogs --backing - obeying whistle commands consistently -retrieving game - utilizing the ground to best effect - finding finding finding ,hopefully holding

One could be critical of the type of ranging a dog does in the trials compared to the reality of cover we actually have on a whole in NZ but I haven't been to the live game trials for years and haven't seen the current crop of dogs work that cover -Ryan has .


I haven't been around the current trial people long enough at all to know if they hunt their dogs or not but from my past years we were all hard out upland game hunters and for some with continentals both duck and upland game hunters .

My thoughts and experiences come from 10 years ago

It makes absolute sense and has been a problem with our pigeon trial negative judging system for a long time... Pigeon trials rewardthe training more than the dog. A dynamic with great pace style and finding ability can be penalised on a minor handling issue where as a mediocre dog, of less natural ability but with either better training, or by virtue of its mediocrity doesn;t put a foot wrong and wins... this is fine, but it does nothing for the future of the breeds.