SHOULD YOU JUDGE?

By Julie Cairns

   For many people judging is a natural progression in one's involvement with the sport. You train, you run your dog, and the next step is judging. When hunting tests first began there was no judging pool. The sport  virtually had to start from scratch. Judges were initially drawn from persons who had field trial judging experience, or years of dog training and hunting backgrounds. Some great judges arose from this haphazard method of judge selection. Few people actually thought about whether or not they wanted to judge, or even if they should judge. It just seemed to happen.
     As our sport has grown an actual process for developing and selecting our judges has developed. Judging now requires actual running experience, apprenticeship and attendance of a seminar. A conscious decision is now necessary for one to even take the first steps towards becoming a hunting test judge. When we discuss many the reasons why one may want to judge we come up with lots of high- minded visionary concepts. The first of these is giving back to the sport. Certainly there are people who have a lot to give to the sport as judges, but there are many who are better off running their dogs and contributing as test marshals or throwers. Another reason is the improvement of the retriever breeds. The tests we set-up and the dogs that pass these tests often go on to become the breeding stock for their respective breeds. There is definitely some truth to this, but it is only a part of the story. Despite all of the idealistic notions about giving and helping it all really comes down to: Do you love to watch dogs run and evaluate their work? When you train do you set up your tests or do you run what others in your training group have designed?  Can you evaluate a dog's performance quickly and fairly?

      A good sign you were meant to judge is that you look for marks, blinds and tests in every vacant field or piece of water you pass. Test design needs to be in a prospective judge's heart and soul. Setting up marking and blind combinations in training sessions is the first step towards being able to set up a hunting test. It is important to know what you are setting up, why you are setting it up and the results you expect. This is learned not only from training sessions but also from observation of tests that other judges design. When you train do you constantly evaluate the work of other dogs in your mind? At tests do you draw diagrams and score the dogs that are running? If so, you are well on the way to being a judge!

       Good judges have an excellent understanding of all the components that go into a hunt test.
and experience begins in the field. That's right! Getting out there in the field and actually throwing birds, setting and releasing bird launchers, popping and planting blinds is some of the best experience there is for a future judge. For one thing it gives first-hand knowledge of what happens in the field, how the mechanics work and why things happen. If you pay attention to the dogs working you can learn a lot about how dogs respond. You can see up close how they hunt, what they do when they disappear and their body language when they run blinds. This is altogether different than what we see during training sessions and what we see when on the line itself. Gunning is another excellent way to learn about dog work and the testing process. Shooting live birds gives one experience with how birds fly, how the sun and wind affect tests and safety issues related to test set-up. A good starting point for what happens on the line begins with taking birds from the judges. This is a great way to learn how birds hold up in tests and the re-birding process. Marshaling on the line is probably the single best way to learn how a test and line are managed. Except for the fact that as a line marshal you are not signaling for, taking birds or scoring dogs, you are getting as much line experience as any judge, sometimes more.

The complete article can be found in the May-June 2003 issue.