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Pointing Dog Field Trial Judges Guidelines

1. 1.Mounted handlers must keep horses at a flat walk. Judges control the pace.
   

2. Instruct your handlers to remain on the course.

3. 3.Do not allow handlers to ride off with their dogs or push their dogs into birdy areas.
   

4. Instruct your Marshal to control the gallery at all times.

    A. Stay together.

    B. Do not gallop to a dog on point.

    C. Do not handle a dog.

5. 5.A scout cannot handle a dog in any manner except at the direction of the Judges. Only an Amateur can act as a scout in Amateur stakes.
   

6. 6.In retrieving stakes, handlers must never pick up the bird and throw it, unless unusual circumstances exist, and the Judge instructs the handler to do so.
   

7. 7.Handlers should never block the dog's view to restrain it from breaking to wing or shot. This is severely penalized.
   

8. 8.Judges should make every effort to allow the dog to demonstrate its steadiness to wing and shot. Dogs should be sent to retrieve only after demonstrating steadiness with the bird on the ground.
   

9. Dogs must retrieve absolutely to hand in retrieving stakes.

10. 10.In retrieving stakes, one of the official guns must join each handler as the handler enters the bird field or at a designated place on the course when following on horseback.
    

11. 11.Judges must discourage and may penalize handlers for continuous or excessive loud vocalizing when handling dogs, particularly in a gun dog stake.
    

12. 12.No electronic or dummy electronic devices may be worn by a dog while competing, except for an approved electronic tracking collar.
    

13. Severe training or correction is not permitted on the field trial grounds.

14. Remember, dogs must find and point birds in the Derby stake.

15. 15.Dogs must find and point birds and demonstrate steadiness in all adult stakes.
    

16. 16.Dogs in Gun Dog and All-Age stakes must honor when encountering their bracemate on point. In order to execute a proper honor, a dog must see the pointing dog before being commanded to stop, and must clearly demonstrate that it is honoring and not merely held by command. A dog that honors naturally, requiring no command to stop, must be given more credit for bird work than a dog requiring a command.
    

17. 17.A dog that is out of judgment for a continuous period of more than five minutes (or for more than 1/6 of the running time if over 30 minutes) cannot be placed unless seen on point by a Judge, or unless in the Judge's opinion the absence was due to unusual conditions.