Since arriving in North America I am constantly asked, when attending competitions, what the difference is between British and American field trials…
To begin with it is important to understand that the Brits and their North American cousins go about their field sports in very different ways and even the language needs interpreting! For example, the British talk about ‘a shoot”, where as an American ‘goes hunting’. In the U.K. the people who actually shoot are known as ‘the guns’ and in America are referred to as ‘gunners’ or ‘hunters’.
The majority of shoots in the U.K. have game driven over the guns, although there is what is known as ‘walked up’ days when, as the name implies, the guns spread out and shoot the flushed birds whilst walking through crops.
To buy a ‘gun’ in a syndicate for a season of between 10-15 days will cost anything from $10,000 for 250-350 bird days. Why is this?
The costs of running a commercially viable shoot can be enormous because there are so many factors. Firstly, the birds are either reared on the shooting estate or purchased from a reputable game dealer, then the game keeper and his under keepers have to raise them each summer so that they are fit and ready to fly during the season, the beaters who help drive and flush the birds over the guns are paid daily, as are the ‘pickers up’ who are the dog handlers who are responsible for making sure that everything that is shot or wounded (crippled) ends up in the game cart.
A typical shoot in the U.K. consists of between 5 and 6 ‘drives’ per day with 8 guns. They meet before hand to welcome any guests. The shoot captain, or host, will explain the safety rules that normally ban ground game, and then they draw their peg numbers. This practice ensures that by moving up 3 spaces between each drive everybody should have their fair share of birds over them during the day. There is a break for refreshments after the second drive, lunch after the fourth, and usually the best drive is kept for the afternoon. Some shoots however, prefer to ‘shoot through’, and have a late lunch.
So how do the dogs participate on these occasions? There are three different roles performed on a driven days shooting. Firstly, there are the dogs in the beating line that are usually spaniels whose role is to drive the game towards the flushing points. These dogs are trained to work close to hand, as if they were to range too far ahead of the beating line, the birds would all flush at once which would destroy the drive. In fact the quality of a shoot can be measured by a steady stream of birds over all the guns enabling everybody to have enough shots to either impress or embarrass one another! Furthermore, there is usually someone counting the ratio of cartridges fired to the number of kills.
Next are the picker ups with their trained retrievers who are frequently people who field trial dogs. However, it is important to note that the dogs they use on these shoots are either young or retired from competition as on shoots with in excess of 300 birds to be retrieved it is easy for bad habits to emerge. It is not uncommon to see one person working at least four or more dogs at once, under complete control, and the number of handlers and dogs varies both with the size of the bag and the terrain.
I was invited to work my dogs on a pheasant release shoot in Virginia shortly after arriving from England and caused a stir by working five dogs at once on different birds. At lunch wives appeared with cameras to have photos of their husbands taken with the Brit and his dogs…or maybe it was the flat cap, tweed breeks, and green Wellington boots!
Last but not least are the ‘guns’ dogs, which is always a touchy subject as the vast majority should be left at home in front of the fire. Most of these dogs are either family pets or have been sent away to be trained by a professional trainer whose efforts are completely wasted as the owner cannot spare the time to learn how to handle the dog. Therefore, these dogs are pegged to the ground to prevent them from chasing everything that drops out of the sky and have a tendency to bark or whine incessantly. However, as it is the ‘guns’ who are paying for the shoot they have a right to take their four legged companions wherever they wish.
THE U.K.TRIAL
Unlike an American trial the British one is actually held during a days shooting with the competition integrated into the proceedings. Firstly however, one has to ‘get a run’, which is the expression describing whether you have been fortunate enough to have had your name drawn out of a hat. As there are only 12-15 dogs in each field trial, with a couple of reserves in case of last minute injuries, it is very difficult to actually get an opportunity to compete. The only way one can improve the odds is to belong to as many clubs as possible and be prepared to travel.
However, it is pointless and bad manners to enter a dog in a UK field trial unless it is completely steady and silent when dozens of birds are raining down, sometimes literally within inches of the dogs. The majority of the American dogs I have seen since arriving a year ago would be disqualified and sent home within 5 minutes of the first drive.
Over the past few years, as the popularity of the sport has increased, this method of entry has caused ill feelings due to the fact that on many occasions the same names always seem to come out of the hat, especially when a dog is poised to become a champion and needs just another win.
Once successfully entered in a trial and given a number the handlers are assigned to a judge and their steward. If there are 2 judges, they each take 2 dogs ‘to line’, which is the expression used to place the dogs and their handlers in between the guns.
There is normally a wait of at least 20-30 minutes during which time the beaters can be heard in the woods driving the birds towards the flushing points. The judge is normally positioned behind her competitors watching for any excessive movement and listening for any noise, both of which are grounds for instant elimination.
Behind the judges are the spotters who when the shooting begins rapidly pin point on a drawing where the birds have fallen, especially the ‘runners’, which are called cripples in the U.S.
Each drive can last as long as 25 minutes and result in as many as a hundred downed birds. When there are too many the judges will only use part of the ground where the most difficult retrieves will test the dogs.
As soon as the drive is over the judges confer with their spotters and the judge will send the first dogs after the runners. If a dog fails to find the bird it is sent for, it is recalled and the next dog in line is sent. If the next dog retrieves the bird, the first dog has been ‘eye wiped’ and is disqualified. If both dogs fail to find the bird the judges go forward to look for it. If they find it, and consider it pickable, both dogs are eliminated but if the retrieve is not possible they breathe a sigh of relief!
Usually, during the first round of retrieves each dog will get 2 retrieves after which the successful handlers report back to the steward, who replace the gaps in the line with the next competitors. The judges mark each dog’s retrieve on the A+/-, B+/-, C+/- scale. They also rotate in the line so they get to judge every dog working.
Once all the surviving dogs are ready the whole field trial entourage catches up with the guns to participate in the next rounds, which are seldom the same, as so much can change so quickly. For example, dogs can be eliminated for picking the wrong bird, for poor handling, for making a false move having trodden on a rabbit, or for having ‘ a hard mouth’, which is when the judge believes that the bird has been punctured of had the rib cage crushed by the dog.
Lunch time is normally when the judges confer and drop those dogs that are not up to the standard required, after which the remaining dogs battle it out for 1st,2nd,3rd,4th, Certificate of Merit, and Guns Choice. However, there are times when the judges decide not to award a first place if they consider the winning dog not to be of a high enough standard for the category that they are judging, and there are other times when only 3 dogs are left standing at the end of an event!
THE DIFFERENCES WITH AN AMERICAN TRIAL
The first thing that is different between the 2 countries is that in the U.S. everybody with a dog that is qualified to enter a competition, gets to compete. Secondly, the trial is not a hunting day but a gundog event organized to judge one dog against another and a required standard.
Thirdly, due to the entry numbers, and the disciplines to be judged, it is rare to hold a trial on one day. The first part of an American trial is a triple mark, where birds are released at different distances and shot. Each dog has to remember exactly where the 3 birds fell, and if the dog has to be handled it is unlikely to progress any further in the competition. There is also usually a hidden bird, or ‘blind’, during this part of the trial which may be over 150 -200 yards away. The next discipline could be a mixture of marks and blind retrieves requiring precision and perfect control.
Finally, the dogs are tested on water which requires them to handle and mark as well, if not better, than on land. The dogs have to take a line and stick to it despite any decoys, islands, or anything between itself and the bird.
OBSERVATIONS
- The American field trial bears little or no resemblance to a typical hunting day.
- For those people who want a hunting dog, there are Hunt Tests at various levels that dogs have to qualify against defined standards.
- The American field trial dog has to be able to mark to a far higher standard than in the UK.
- The American field trial dog has to be able to work at far greater distances than in the UK.
American handlers tend to be noisy when sending and casting their dogs, whereas in the UK the handler is expected to be as quiet as possible and can be marked down for excessive noise. The Americans use loud whistles which they claim are needed to ensure their dogs can hear at long distances.
British dogs are better at hunting in a small area as their training is biased as much towards blinds as American dogs are to marks. Also UK dogs get eliminated for not staying in the immediate area of a fall or runner, which goes back to the British shooting day when there is a risk of birds being flushed into the wrong drives.
British dogs have to be far steadier than American dogs due to the number of birds and nature of the shooting. This is an area where the training of young dogs in both countries varies enormously. The priority in the U.S is for the pup to mark as soon as it has had some basic obedience, whereas the basic obedience in the UK includes steadiness and the pup might get a couple of ‘happy’ retrieves a day if it is lucky!
SUMMARY
These observations have been made after a short period of time and are initial impressions only. I have also come to the conclusion that it is not a matter of which country has the better dogs as each country uses the dogs in entirely different ways. The same applies to training methods which also differ considerably.
This is a huge subject which I have attempted to cover over a couple of pages and would welcome other people’s comments and observations.