We have a problem. I judged two big trials this fall a 58-dog half hour SD stake and a 66-dog grouse championship. We have lost our way; the majority of the dogs I watched this fall do not meet the standard. That standard being run/power, application and style as taught to me by my mentors, peers and laid out in the AFTCA Standards to Field Trial Procedure, Judicial Practice, Handler and Bird Dog Performance. Very few dogs met some approximation of the standard. A dog needs to run hard, hunt the cover appropriately and have style and intensity on point. Your dog can have a great race, be an excellent bird finder but if it pulls its tail, it’s not a trial dog. You can’t have 2 out of 3, we are looking for the complete package, the exceptional dogs that should be bred on to better the breed. I have been trialing since 2009 and for many of those years it was more than a hobby, it was more like a second job. A middle of the field dog from 10 years ago would dominate now.

The worst part of the standard I saw this fall was tails. I have heard all the arguments, tails don’t find birds, etc. Correct, tails do not find birds, and they are the last thing we look at but it is still part of the standard. 10 years ago, and farther back, if you didn’t have style, you didn’t have anything. If your dog did not have a good tail, you didn’t even bring it to the line if you wanted to be taken seriously by your peers. In an ideal world we would all have dogs that are good enough where style can be the deciding factor. That is what we should strive for. We have meals at Alibi Hall, which is a museum of great dogs, the style standard is in front of us every time we are in that building. Somewhere along the line something happened and I think it was during Covid where some of the great competitors aged out and there wasn’t a smooth transition from the old to the new. When I look back at the dogs, I watched time and time again, Quail Trap Sadie, Moss Meadow Traveler, Centerfold Bette, Call me Kate, Dateline Blacklist, Dun Roven’s Drifter etc. 95% of the current field would not stand a chance against any of those dogs.

Everyone needs to go and read the AFTCA Standards to Field Trial Procedure, Judicial Practice, Handler and Bird Dog Performance. That is the standard. If your dog does not look like the dogs pictured in that document, it is not a trial dog, I don’t care how big it runs or how many birds it finds. Read and pay attention page 27 “Shooting Dog Stake” and page 29 “Walking Shooting Dog Stakes”, this is our standard. There is no explicit description of tails in the document because it’s a given or at least was at the time. There is mention of high and lofty tail and it must be above horizontal (I believe the horizontal is in there to capture the 3 hour national). They don’t mention pulled tails at all and they shouldn’t have to. We all know what is supposed to look like. The fact that I and others felt the need to bring this up tells me there is a big problem.

We are the gate keepers. The public expects us to maintain a high standard so that we can produce the best dogs we can, so they can have the best dogs they can. From what I saw this fall the bar is far too low and we are squandering the legacy that was passed to us from the greats before us.

This is not supposed to be easy, this is supposed to be hard, you are supposed to go through dogs to find the best you can bring to the line. Everyone needs to take a hard look at the dogs they are bringing to the line and question whether they meet the standard.

Eric Naus