I said that a judge's job was to put up the best dogs they saw...that day.
Judging bird dog trials can be an absolutely thankless job which only serves to stoke the ill will of some contestants against judges who do not put up their dogs. It is entirely possible that you, as a judge, have offended a participant by not using their dog and that offended participant may wind up judging YOUR dog at a future trial. There is only ONE winner at a field trial...only one first place dog. All the rest are losers and that can be tough for some types of folks to handle...but that is field trialing.
In my experience, most folks who judge do their very best to make those decisions. But no two folks come to the judging with the exact same set of experiences and preferences. Judges are human beings and while they do strive to get it right...nobody's perfect. Some days, neither are the dogs, but you gotta judge what is put in front of you.
Any judgement that depends on the knowledge, experience and observative skills of the judge is going to be colored by those criteria. There is no ONE set of standards that is absolute. There is always a balancing of the various aspects of a performance.
I have always found that watching the pros handle, was very helpful to me. YMMV.
RayG
261 |
Responses
|