Thread: What's needed for a trial?

Maybe a bit short for this year, but Queens would be ideal for most of us up here...cos you are not going to have a quail trial without us!!!!

Ok, but opening? Really? Can dogs be run concurrently on these trials? As in two judges, two spots but the same area?

the dogs are braced on live game -fastest and best finder that points a bird and manages it after that point proceeds forward -the other is out burger ................

If you are hosting a Wild Game Trial the dogs are braced and each handler has their respective judge so you and your dog will work the left side and your brace partner will work the right side with his dog...everyone else is standing by waiting for their runs...so say you had an entry of 16 dogs, the first round of braces would be obviously eight, then second round, four brace, third round two brace and lastly the shoot out between the best of the last two braces...so each brace has fifteen minutes to run...so you are looking at land that could accommodate 15 brace if all goes well i.e dogs are not eliminated etc. Depends very much on the locale, cover how long the runs can last...at Taupo on that amazing ground 15 minutes went very quickly indeed.

ZHow much ground do they cover in that 15 minutes? Between the two dogs.

teFerrarri, Petros_mk and El B would know, I cannot gestimate that at all...

length wise it depends on the cover as they go sideways most of the time -one hopes .But I would say about 1/2 km forward by 1/4 wide or so

So once they have contacted a bird that run is done?

no they carry on for the allocated time....... too much game can be as bad as not enough

Exactly kawhia. This IS NOT A PROBLEM YET but may become so as we progress our live game trials....

When I started live game trialling with springers in about 1989 we ran in the forests where we hunted, no released birds, just went hunting... the best hunting dogs won.

I worry, in live game, principally for spaniels, but may apply to pointing dogs too, that we are now heading down the road of finding the best preserve dog, high game, liberated game dog... are we finding the dog that hunts for an hour without finding game? The thing the average hunter needs...

I'm not saying we are, but we are in danger of separating trials from being relevant to the hunter... we may jusdge the best high game dog, instead of producing better dogs for hunters... the basic role identified as the role of trails.

I do love the SI rabbit trails for this though....

In my ever so humble opinion, the ideal trial trail ground is just simply the type of place the average Kiwi woulod go and hunt, with enough ground for 15 or so dogs to have a fair go.

Well that's easy enough. So long as people hunt the animals presented.

yes they will as long as it has feathers lol

If you guys are really serious about live game trials in the South Island, there is a great opportunity in October this year.

The beginning of October the North Otago Gundog are running their Jubilee Trial (All Breeds, Pointer and Setter, Spaniel and Retriever), a week later the Central Otago club are hosting the South Island Championships,the following week the Canterbury Gun Dog Club are hosting the NZ Championships.
Between the South Island and the New Zealand the Canterbury Gundog Club are running 2 braced Pointer and Setter trials. So with NI competitors/judges possibily already in the South Island it would not take much organizing to run a couple of live game trials in Central Otago.