Intro to Field Judging

By Chris Robinson

Back when I was a university student, sometime around the end of the second ice age, every major in the college of liberal arts began with a required introductory course– Journalism 1, Introduction to the Theater, Freshman English, French 1, History 1–now called “survey courses” and judging by what’s happening on college campuses these days, there must be a survey course titled “Introduction to Protesting and Rioting When Your Feelings are Hurt.” So, perhaps it’s time for someone to put an introductory course together for fledgling field judges; not so much the nuts and bolts of field judging such as when do you dump a dog and when do you give them a pass, but rather as an intro to the basic “Things You Need to Keep in Mind or Do as a Judge.”

I’m willing to undertake that task as I certainly had my share of experiences, good and bad, during the fifteen years I judged all three types of hunt tests–retriever, pointing breed and spaniel plus a few assignments judging Airedales, Poodles and Ameri- can Water Spaniels before these breeds became eligible for AKC events. So, here goes: “An Introduction to Field Judging,” and you’ll find that some of the points covered in this “course” also apply to all dog judging.

RULE #1 – BE FAIR AND CONSISTENT

It is important to always be fair and also to be consistent in your judging. Like it or not, people are keeping a “book” on you as a judge and nothing drives them batty quicker than if you are Santa Claus at one test and Ebenezer Scrooge at the next one. If you like handing out gifts, make sure you give the dogs the benefit of the doubt every time. If you are stingy to the point of being miserly about award- ing ribbons, it’s equally im- portant to always be close-fisted. Keep in mind that you are never going to be loved by everyone who runs their dog in a test. There are going to be times when you have to make a judgment call and if that call goes against the dog, its owner or handler is not going to be happy. If you want to be everyone’s friend, don’t judge their dogs or criticize their kids. Actually, they’d probably agree with you more often if you did criticize their kids than if you write judg- mental words about their dog on a score sheet.

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=118025

Posted by Alex on Jan 19 2017. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.