(Passages in italics are important clarifications or new items in the 1995 printing of this Rule Book.)
The NAHRA concept is based solely on simulating real hunting situations, both upland hunting and waterfowling. Tests are designed to simulate a day's hunting afield. Each test must be carefully thought out with a specific goal in mind, based upon a hunting scenario. It must be realized that some participants may not be experienced hunters; consequently, the judge shall explain in detail the hunting scenario, the object of each test and the expected performance of the dogs. NAHRA's purpose in establishing this concept is to discover and reward dogs that can fulfill the hunter's needs in the field by performing in a manner consistent with the demands of actual hunting conditions. The purpose is not to confront the dog with trick problems, but rather to test the dog's natural ability and acquired training. Under the NAHRA concept, the objective is to recover the bird as quickly and efficiently as possible, to create the least amount of disturbance in the marsh and upland and to give the hunter the maximum amount of time to actually take game.
Dogs are placed in four categories based on ability not age: Beginner, Started, Intermediate and Senior. Dogs do not compete against one another for placements, but rather their performances are judged individually against a "standard." Thus, the dog should be scored on its hunting Performance as stated for each category.
The Beginner category is for inexperienced dogs and/or inexperienced handlers. Tests should consist of straight forward, short single retrieves. Each club shall establish its own rules by which dogs shall be judged in this informal event. However, under no circumstances shall the rules be as restrictive as the requirements of the regulations governing the Started Hunting Retrievers, nor shall they exceed those requirements. Judges should be helpful, courteous and respectful of inexperienced handlers and dogs.
The purpose of the Started Hunting Retriever Field Test is to bring started dogs along as hunters. Desire and cooperation with the handler are important factors.
In the Started category, instinct is more in evidence than obedience. This is a chance for a dog to be evaluated without the high expectations of a finished retriever and it should be given a little leeway in obedience. By the same token, he should show signs of trying to behave, understanding basic commands, as well as the ability to perform basic marked retrieves.
There are many things to see in a single retrieve. "DOES HE WANT TO DO IT?" is one of the most important questions at this stage. Is he a "High Flying Go Getter" or does he mope around sniffing, urinating and eating the grass? Does he snatch up the bird, or does he nose it, mouth it, drop it and urinate on the next tree?
How is he marking? There are different meanings in missing a mark. If a dog hunts short of a fall it probably indicates lack of training as much as poor marking. Chances are, he is hunting where he thought he saw it fall, without knowledge of high cover or practice at depth perception. If a dog blows right through a mark and hunts high and wide leagues beyond the fall, his marking could be suspect. Or maybe he just did not see it. How is the line of sight at the dog's level? A judge who is setting up a marking test must make sure the dog viewing the scene can see the fall, and this includes working out problems with the background and the sun. A Started dog should hunt the area of the fall until he finds the bird. The area of the fall expands with the difficulty of the mark.
In evaluating Started dogs, a judge should start with a relatively simple mark and work towards increasing the difficulty with each series of tests. This is not to say the first test should be less than "the standard" or the last test harder than "the standard," but a dog and his handler should be given a chance to work into the academic situation of a Field Test. Even a good dog, cold out of a crate, will not perform up to his capabilities. Give him a chance to wake up and show his stuff.
In the Started event, look primarily for instinct, and enough obedience to get by in a hunting situation. Also look for courage but do not confuse desire or lack of training with lack of courage. If a dog runs around the edge of a cold water pond, he may be trying to get to the fall faster rather than avoiding the water.
Started dogs should be introduced to guns, boats, decoys and any equipment or situations they might encounter during a day afield.
The Started event ribbon (passing the standard) proves basic desire, tractability, instinct, control and marking ability in a hunting situation.
Intermediate dogs that pass the standard should be hunting dogs. They should be obedient and have a good knowledge of hunting situations. A good Intermediate dog will most likely have two or three seasons of hunting behind him and some good training on marks, doubles and basic retrieving problems. It is the Intermediate test that proves the dog has what it takes to become a proficient hunting dog, and from here it is up to the trainer. That is one reason why this is perhaps the most difficult test to judge. It is this test in which a judge decides whether or not this particular dog should be included in breeding programs by awarding it a Qualifying score.
A person judging any test, but most particularly Intermediate, is in a position to make serious mistakes. He can set up a test that is too hard for a good dog or a good dog that has not been trained well enough, or a test that is so simple that a completion, no matter how perfect, should not qualify a dog as a good hunting dog.
Intermediate dogs must have perseverance, ability, desire and a higher level of training. They should be steady and not be out of control. They should heel, sit, stay, come, mark and run basic water blind retrieves. They should go through cover and hazards and also display a good nose. They must show concentration and desire to locate and follow the trail of a crippled bird or hunt for upland game.
Judging here becomes an art. In the Intermediate test, the judge has to decide from his tests if the dog has the ability to become great or is mediocre.
Is the dog intense at this job or lethargic or careless? Is he full of retrieving desire or is he crazy? These are questions that must be answered.
At this point, he must deliver to hand. The marked retrieves should be done with precision. If the dog does miss a mark, he should hunt with confidence and perseverance or be handled crisply and cleanly to the bird.
The dog should not hunt the whole field on each bird. Look for memory and intelligence. The dog should prove its nose without a doubt and also its eyes. He should run his blinds extremely well displaying style and control.
The Senior test takes an Intermediate dog and adds a lot of training and experience. A Senior Dog by definition is a finished hunting retriever.
Senior dogs should be under complete control at all times and steady under all conditions. They should handle sharply and mark precisely. They should be able to ignore diversions while returning from marks and handle off "poison birds" on blinds. They are the elite of all hunting dogs and should show it. They are the dogs that any of us would be proud to own and hunt with anywhere in the country.
These dogs should be able to work cover and water, run multiple marked retrieves and blind retrieves on water and land and be steady to shot and fall. All that you have read about the Started and Intermediate dog is now carried on to the Senior dog. Here his work must be carried out with precision and control. You are looking for a finished dog. You must ask yourself while watching a Senior dog work, "Would I like this dog in the blind or field with me? Would I want to hunt with it?"
The General Procedures, Regulations and Field Procedures for NAHRA Field Tests have been formulated in such a manner that the Officials of a Field Test giving club and the judges have considerable latitude in the conduct of the Field Test. This is desirable, allowing for variations in conditions that are peculiar to various parts of the country, and to also grant judges unlimited opportunities for ingenuity in planning tests.
It is the purpose of this chapter to present guidance to judges in grading the hunting performance of the dogs so that there will be greater uniformity in the penalties assessed for various infractions. While "natural hunting conditions" are subject to great variations in different parts of North America, the work expected should not be subject to similar wide variations.
Judging can never be precise; it is not an exact science, merely an art, because there are so many shades of gray between black and white. At the risk of over-simplification, the primary purpose of a hunting retriever is to get birds to hand as quickly as possible in a pleasing, obedient manner and all faults or infractions are a result of deviation from this.
In most instances, there should be little doubt in anyone's mind as to the type of work which constitutes a perfect performance in a given test. However, there is unlimited opportunity for an honest difference of opinion on the severity of the penalty to assess for any given infraction or deviation from perfect work. The human element cannot be eliminated completely since each judge must determine the relative seriousness of individual infractions, repetition of infractions, or combinations of infractions which occur during the testing.
To reduce the possibility of owners and handlers being confused and dismayed because their dog is dropped from further testing or not included with the Qualifiers at the completion of the judging, we will discuss the abilities that are being judged at a Field Test. It is recommended that a judge should have clearly in mind, and for each test, precisely what type of performance he/she expects, since such work will merit high rating in his records. Then he/she should observe and record in what respects and to what degree the performance of each dog has either exceeded or fallen short of that previously established performance in each test. Hence, when the testing of a category is completed, the judges will arrive at their final decision of qualifying or not qualifying a dog.
Therefore, much of a judge's responsibility is to determine how much weight he/she shall give to certain types of exceptional performance and how much penalty to assess because of various infractions, or repetitions of the same infraction or combinations of various infractions. Some infractions in and of themselves are sufficiently serious to justify elimination from further testing. e.g., failure to find the bird, breaking, failure to deliver the bird, etc. Other infractions may justify a moderate penalty, e.g., failing to accurately mark, lack of desire or interest, lack of obedience, etc. Minor infractions, some of which are so minor that, on occasion, they are relatively so unimportant that, for practical purposes, they can be ignored. On the other hand, minor infractions can escalate into moderate or even serious infractions, and moderate into serious, through repetition or through combinations of several types of infractions; such multiplicity of various infractions frequently indicates a failing or habitual tendency and results in a performance that is neither pleasing to the eye nor "passing." The NAHRA concept evaluates dogs on their ability to perform four hunting skills; the marked retrieve, blind retrieve, upland hunting and trailing.
"Marking" or memory of fallen birds is of paramount importance. However, this does not imply that dogs which excel in marking shall not be severely penalized or even eliminated for deficiencies in, or lack of the other required hunting "abilities." All tests are scored on a 0-10 point basis.
The ability to "mark" does not necessarily imply "pin-pointing the fall." A dog that does not pin-point the "fall" but recognizes the depth of the "area of the fall," hunts tight, then quickly and systematically locates the bird, has done both a credible and an intelligent job of marking. Such work should not be appreciably out-scored by the dog that "pin-points" the marked bird.
Often a dog gives definite indication of "memory," and of his marking ability, at or after delivery of a bird, by aligning himself toward, or by looking eagerly in the exact direction of an unretrieved "fall." That is not to imply that a handler shouldn't give his dog a line to the fall (help his dog by indicating the direction the fall), however, excessive "lining" by the handler may be a sign that the dog does not remember where the bird has fallen.
What precisely constitutes the "area of the fall" defies uniformity of definition from test to test, yet, at the outset of each test, each judge must arbitrarily define its hypothetical boundaries for himself, and for each bird in that test, so that he can judge whether dogs have remained within his own concept of the "area of the fall," as well as how far the dog has wandered away from "the area" and how much cover has been disturbed unnecessarily. In determining these arbitrary and hypothetical boundaries of the "area of the fall," due consideration must be given to various factors: (1) the type, height and uniformity of the cover, (2) lighting conditions, (3) direction of the prevailing wind and its intensity, (4) distance to the "mark," (S) the speed of the individual dogs, (6) whether there is a change of cover (as from stubble to plowed ground, or to ripe alfalfa, or to machine picked corn, etc.) or whether the "fall" is beyond a hedge, across a road, or over a ditch, etc., and, finally, and the most important, (7) whether one is establishing the "area of the fall" for a single retrieve, or for the first bird a dog goes for, in multiple marks or for the second or third bird since each of these should differ from the others. In general, the "area of the fall" for a first retrieve in a "double" should be smaller than for the second bird, and both of these should be larger in a "triple," and larger still for the third bird in it. Also, "the area" for short retrieves should certainly be smaller than for longer retrieves. Since there are many conditions and variables to be taken into consideration, it is obvious that each judge, and for every test, must attempt to define for himself a hypothetical "area of the fall" for each bird, and then judge the dogs accordingly. However, the penalties inflicted should vary in their severity, depending on the distance which individual dogs wander out of the area, the frequency of such wanderings, the number of birds mismarked in a given test, and by the amount of cover disturbed in these meanderings.
Dogs which disturb cover unnecessarily, clearly well out of the "area of the fall," either by not going directly to that area, or by leaving it, even though they eventually find the bird without being handled, should be penalized more severely than those dogs that are handled quickly and obediently to the "fall." However, once a handler attempts to handle on a marked retrieve, the dog must respond by stopping and casting with precision and accuracy.
Hunting and locating birds for the gun requires a dog that will search a field aggressively, leaving little unsearched and all the while staying within gun range. A dog should neither run out of gun range nor hunt underfoot of his handler. To be effective in putting birds up for the gun, a dog must stay under control and cover a lot of ground. (Things to ask yourself in determining ground race are: Is the dog actively trying to find game, out for a run or wandering about without any real intent or purpose?)
The dog should naturally put the wind to his advantage by "quartering" into it primarily and to his handler secondarily, unless it is a bird driving scenario. (The most effective way to drive birds is with the windshield wiper pattern through the field.) He should demonstrate his "bird sense" by approaching most of the birdy objectives (clumps of cover and brush thickets) from the downwind side, putting the wind to his advantage.
Does the dog know what it's supposed to be doing or does it have to be constantly moved throughout the field with whistle, hand and voice signals?
In setting up the upland hunting tests in the Intermediate and Senior events, a small to medium sized bird field with knee-high cover with intermittent bushes or swales approximately 60 yards by 100 yards in size works well but the field and cover should fit the game to be hunted and the judges' scenario. Scent stations (wiping the ground with dead birds) or planted dead birds may be located at several points to demonstrate a dog's nose and its ability to hunt.
An electronic trap or traps can be used and should be located near the end of the bird field. It should be screened from the dog's view by low bushes or other cover and should be well scented. Ideally, a dog should find and flush its own game.
When the dog makes game and begins to rush the bird, the judges should release the trap as the dog approaches. (Be very careful not to release a bird in a dog's face and to be as uniform as possible with all dogs.) If a dog is out of control and approaches the trap out of range of the gunners and handler, the trap should still be released. At times a dog may approach the trap from the upwind side; to avoid accidents, even though it may not have scented the bird, the trap should be released as the dog approaches. The use of bird boys or hand thrown birds in upland hunting is acceptable but it should be treated in as natural a manner as possible to simulate a natural hunting situation.
Gunners should be very experienced shots who are dog-wise. Some dogs are very aggressive (as well they should be) and the gunners should beware of a low flying bird or leaping dogs. It is better to have a fly-away than an accident. If a fly-away occurs at the flush in a licensed Field Test, the gunners should be instructed to fire a shot, in a safe direction, at the time the first shot should have or would have been fired under normal circumstances. If the safety shot is fired, a rerun should not be necessary.
If the birds used are poor flyers, the trap may be elevated a few feet for optimum results or the use of a hand thrown bird may by utilized. However, bird boys acting as throwers should be properly instructed to simulate a true upland flush.
It is natural for a dog to want to grab at the bird when flushed. Proper consideration must be given to the dog in the event of a poor flush, low flyer or short fall. A dog should be given another opportunity to flush a bird in a different location if, in the opinion of the judges, the dog has been caused to be unfairly evaluated.
A proper upland hunting test does take time. Be certain to allow enough time to adequately test all dogs. To help alleviate the time factor, two dogs may be run in a brace in either the Senior or the Intermediate tests (scented areas only, no birds for Intermediate braces).
"Trailing" is perhaps the most independent function of the hunting retriever. Trailing is an area of hunting that cannot be accomplished without the use of a well trained dog. Locating cripples or providing game for the gun requires a dog that not only has a good nose but knows how to use it to follow scent and find game. A good hunting retriever is a valuable game conservation tool and should bring to the bag all downed birds. Human beings simply do not have the sensory ability to evaluate scent trails on the level of a good dog; this makes trained dogs especially valuable and presents challenges to human judges.
Dogs will usually follow a scent trail in three different manners: I) Nose down on the trail and methodically following it to the bird. 2) Head up using a short quartering pattern across the trail until the bird is found or 3) Head high following the scent on the downwind side of the trail. (A dog can do this at quite a distance from the trail if the wind is right.) Any of the three or a combination of these methods are correct when a dog is following a scent trail and, if done with accuracy, he deserves the highest possible score.
It is important to not over scent the trail. If the trail is too heavily scented, it can confuse the dog. If the same trail is to be used for a number of dogs, it should be dragged again, but usually not more than once for every three or four dogs. Even such trails may "wear out" from over-scenting after a number of uses. (Inexperienced judges may feel that dragging a trail for every dog helps the dogs, but experience shows that this practice eliminates excellent trailing dogs in unpredictable ways.)
It is best to use a live bird or a bird killed at the beginning of the trail and then dragged off. (A dead duck can be left at the end of the drag. If conditions are dry, wet the duck before you drag it. Cold dead birds or a number of dead birds tied together are not recommended for the drag as they do not provide the best scent.)
Fresh ground should be utilized, when possible, to achieve optimum results and give dogs a fair opportunity. Every dog could thus receive its own fresh trail. However, this method requires a large amount of land with similar cover in order to set trails in non-overlapping areas. A compromise that still avoids over scented trails is to carefully mark several non-overlapping trails. First drag one trail and run three dogs. Next drag the second trail and run three more dogs. Continue with new trails until you run out of space and then return and re-drag the first trail for three more dogs and continue to the second, etc. The additional time between uses helps to prevent over scenting the trails.
The "drag" should be set up so that the dog does not accidentally locate the bird while just running about and not actually following the trail. The initial direction of the drag should have a long leg with the wind so that the dog cannot possibly "wind" the bird prior to reaching the end of the trail. (About 30 to 50 yards for the initial leg in "typical" conditions. It is often easier to evaluate a long trail than a short one. A dog actually working air scent off a short initial cross wind leg may wind the bird before you determine whether or not it is really trailing, so don't start with a cross wind leg.) After the initial down wind leg, there should be at least one cross wind leg.
Have the dragger exit away from the trail. Drag the duck in your footsteps to avoid laying two trails, a bird trail and a foot trail.
Released live bird trails with ducks and pheasants can work well, but only if the birds are good runners and you have the ample amount of ground needed to release new birds in fresh areas.
The trailing test is best run when there is moisture. (Early morning or late afternoon is the best time. Slough areas or damp grass provide the best locations. Shaded woods often works well.) Keep in mind the conditions at hand when evaluating each dog.
A trail should only be dragged in one direction, NOT OUT AND BACK! ! (One of the things a dog calculates, when on a trail, is the direction of the hottest scent. That is the dog's most accurate means of determining which way the bird went!!) Turns should be put into the drag trail to see how the dog will recover and follow the scent. (Don't expect a dog to make the precise turns in the trail that were put into the drag. It will take a dog some time to realize that it has lost the trail and correct itself back into the location of the scent.)
Remember, in all of our tests, marking, blinds, upland hunting or trailing, we are evaluating recovery of a dog and how it gets out of trouble rather than if he fell prey to it. Give a dog the opportunity to display his overall ability as a conservation tool.
The only time it is appropriate to use hand signals is to place the dog on the beginning of the trail, if the dog has worked its way out of the area. (Usually, the judge will instruct the handler to put the dog back on the beginning of the trail.)
When performing a blind retrieve a dog should take the original cast given to him by his handler and continue on it until he either makes the find or is stopped by the handler and given a new directional cast when commanded. The dog should then continue in this new direction until he finds the bird or is given further directions, etc. We are looking for cooperation with the handler, but not rigid straight lines; we want a dog that is kept in a good general corridor and is making improved progress toward the bird with each additional command.
When commanded, the dog should stop promptly and look to the handler for direction.
"Handling" should be a demonstration of obedience and scored on the crispness of response. However, before inflicting a severe penalty for the dog's failure to respond precisely or crisply, due consideration must be given for the conditions at hand. Judges should determine if the wind, the cover, or the distance seriously interfered with the dog's ability to hear the handler. In general, the performance in the test should be considered in its entirety: an occasional failure to stop or take or hold a direction may be considered a minor fault, if offset by several other good responses. A considerable penalty should be imposed for repeated, willful disobedience and less penalty when, after taking the proper direction, the dog does not continue as far as the handler desired. Stopping voluntarily, to look back for directions, in an isolated instance, is not a fault, but frequent repetition may convert into a serious penalty.
A judge should instinctively, through his experience with dogs, know what excellent dog work looks like. Recognizing excellent dog work is the easier part and should need no description here. It is the same with exceedingly poor work. It is the "in between" work that requires a judge at all.
There are two levels of scoring. First the dog is judged as to whether it passed or failed the particular judging area. (e.g., the Senior has six distinctly different judging areas; upland hunting, land marks, water marks, land blind, water blind and trailing; and each area shall receive a 0-10 score.) Just picking up all of the birds is not enough to be considered passing. You must ask yourself, "Did the dog perform the test well enough to be considered a quality hunting retriever?" If it is determined that the dog didn't, then it fails and it cannot qualify. If the dog passes, it shall then be scored on a one to ten basis (1-10) for each hunting skill.
Sit back and watch - how was the job? Was it good, very good, poor, fair or excellent? Try to think of it in terms of 1 through 10; i.e., failing 0, extremely poor 1-2, poor 34, fair 5-6, good 7-8, very good 8-9, excellent 9-10. A dog that passes the standard for any event should have averaged "very good." A dog needs a combined average of 80% or better to pass the NAHRA standard and achieve a qualifying score.
Started dogs are tested on five single marks, each carrying a possible 10 points for a perfect job. 50 points would be a perfect score, 40 points would be 80% or be the minimum acceptable to qualify.
The Intermediate category is similar to Started in that there are five separate testing areas. The maximum score would be 50 points and a minimum of 40 points is required to qualify.
The Senior has six different categories to be scored. A dog must be given a 1-10 score for each of the tests that it passes. If a dog has perfect work, he can earn 60 points. He must have a minimum 80% average throughout the testing to qualify. If a dog can earn 60 points in the Senior category, he must have at least 48 points to qualify (It is often easier to count deductions than to add scores, so a Started or Intermediate dog could lose 10 points from a perfect 50, while a Senior dog could lose 12 from a perfect 60.)
Each test in a NAHRA Field Test shall carry the same weight. A blind retrieve should be evaluated on a 0-10 basis as well as the marked retrieves, trailing and upland hunting. If a marking test consists of three birds, the overall performance shall be evaluated and scored on a 0-10 basis. (Some judges score each mark 1-10 and average, while others weight a more difficult mark more heavily. Either method is acceptable and often results in similar overall scores because of the difficulty.) The trailing and upland hunting tests also must be evaluated on a 0-10 basis and not solely as pass/fail. (Steadiness to flush and shot in the Senior upland test is required, but is not a major portion of the numerical score for upland hunting.) It is extremely important that each judge give equal consideration to all areas of testing and allot equal time to the testing of each hunting ability.
Once a dog either fails or can no longer numerically achieve a 80% or minimum qualifying score by further testing, the handler should be advised directly by the judge or through the marshal that the dog is no longer in contention. If the judge does not inform the handler and the dog is allowed to continue competing, the judge will have a difficult time explaining why the dog was not qualified. This is especially difficult if the dog has perfect work the remainder of the Field Test.
Draw your lines, make your notes and confer with your co-judge. Now you have an idea of the dog's performance and if you and your co-judge want to discuss it again later, you can refer to your notes. This may happen more than you might like and usually results in an average between the judges. Respect the other judge's views as he sees the work but don't be afraid to express your views as well.
In the Intermediate and Senior tests, try to let hunting dogs prove they are hunting dogs by how well they do tests; try not to set up next to impossible tests just to see which one, two or three dogs might do it. You can learn a lot about a dog in an average hunting situation. However, a judge must score a dog on his performance in handling the particular test. If, for instance, a trailing test is established and a dog fails to take the trail, but accidentally stumbles upon the bird, he has not completed the test.
Stay simple, average and straight forward in your tests; maintain true hunting situations and score your dogs as you see them run. Let them show you how good they are, and "let the cream come to the top." Don't let distance be your yardstick; keep retrieves to normal hunting distances.
Judges may weigh certain portions of a test more than others (e.g., a short "dump" bird may not be weighed the same as a difficult mark and need not be accorded the same number of points). Judges should agree on the number of points accorded each section or component of that test before each test is begun. In order for a dog to acquire points toward the title Master Hunting Retriever (MHR) in any licensed event, it must have passed all tests and its average score at the completion of the Field Test must be 80% or higher. Judges should evaluate dogs on nose, memory, intelligence, attention, courage, suitability as a hunting retriever, perseverance, style, accuracy and control during all available tests. Evaluating a dog's performance relative to the objectives of the test demands a judge with hunting experience and a thorough knowledge of the standards and procedures, as well as good dog sense.
We must always remember that hunters go afield to hunt, and their dogs are valuable conservation tools, NAHRA's purpose is to educate these hunters and reward dogs that fulfill these needs.