Watching competition retrievers

[This is a letter that I wrote to a veterinary specialist who had asked for some information.  The information may be of interest to others as well.]

Hi, Dr. [name].  You were the ophthalmologist that examined my Golden's eyes a couple of weeks ago.  At the time, you expressed an interest in watching competition retrievers perform at some point.  Sorry to take so long in getting back to you, but I'll try to provide you with some information now.

You have a lot of choices:

* If you'd like to go to any of the following activities as a spectator, I'm sure you'll find that you're most welcome, and people will be happy to explain what's going on and answer your questions.  At events, the spectators typically bring their own chairs and set up to watch each series wherever the judge designates.  At training days, it's even more informal.  There's no admission fee, and you can come and go as you like, within the constraint of not interfering with the dogs.  Club members will be out there and will let you know to stop and wait if a dog is working.

* If you wish to go to a competition, you can find lists of them on the AKC website.  If you'd like to watch a breed competition, such as the WC/WCX competitions that Goldens, Labs, and other breeds have, you'll find those listed on the breed's website, for example the Golden Retriever Club of America website.  If you have any trouble finding such info, please let me know and I'll give you more details.

* The site that participants often use is "entryexpress.com".  Although that site is set up primarily to help people enter an event, it also acts as a pretty complete compendium of events.  I find it more convenient to navigate than the AKC and breed websites if you're looking for competition info.  Plus, as you dig into the info available on Entry Express, you can get directions to events on the Premiums (documents that give a formal description of each event), you can see what dogs are signed up, you can look at the breeding of each dog, and you can also look at each dog's previous competition history.

* As a quick intro to the types of field events I'm familiar with:

-- The AKC has two kinds of field events, Field Trials and Hunt Tests.  In general, all Field Trials stakes are more advanced than all Hunt Test stakes, but it's not that simple, because advanced Hunt Tests require some training that's not needed in a Field Trial dog.  In any case, Field Trial retrieves are almost always considerably longer than Hunt Test retrieves.

-- AKC Field Trials have four main types of stakes, with variations for some of them that I won't describe comprehensively here.  The four main types of stakes are:

    --- Derby: For dogs under two years old.

    --- Qualifying: For any retriever who has not yet had a certain level of success (I'm not sure of all the rules, but the idea is to prevent more advanced dogs from entering and winning the Quals).  This, by the way, is the level where Laddie, my competition Golden, runs.  One special type of Qual is called an Owner/Handler (O/H) Qual, in which case the dogs must be handled at the event by their owners.  That doesn't mean the dog is trained by the owner.  Some Field Trial dogs are trained by their owners -- Laddie is, for example -- but most are trained by professional trainers, and generally live with the trainers, often hundreds of miles from the owner.  If it's not an O/H event, many dogs are not run by their owners, but rather by their trainers or by people who work with the trainers as handlers.

    --- Amateur: This is one of two types of stakes that are called All-Age stakes.  Any dog can run in an Amateur, but the handler cannot be a professional trainer, even if the dog is being trained by a professional.  Even if the dog isn't being run by the trainer, the dog might not be run by the owner either (unless it's an O/H Amateur).  Instead, the dog might be run by a handler who is not a professional trainer but works with the trainer.  Dogs who have not had any success in Quals can run in an Amateur, but it's unusual, and I think it's considered bad form.

    ---- Open: This is the other type of All-Age stakes.  These are generally the top field retrievers in America.  They can be any age, and they have generally been successful in Quals before someone would enter them in an Open.  They can be run by professionals as well as handlers or the owners.

Many Field Trials have all of those four types of stakes in some variation, though sometimes you see a trial that only has some of them.  Also, sometimes an AKC Hunt Test (described below) will include an O/H Qual stake.  If you go to an event with multiple types of stakes, make a note of which day the particular stakes are being run, and you can move around and watch dogs at the different levels during different parts of the day.  Typically, though not necessarily, Derbies and Quals finish up in one day (for example, the club might run the Derby on Friday and the Qual on Saturday), whereas that rarely if ever happens with the All-Age stakes, as I understand it.

-- The other kind of AKC event is the Hunt Test, and it has three levels of stakes: Junior, Senior, and Master.  In Field Trials, which I described above, the dogs are competing with each other, and only a small percentage win a placement.  But in a Hunt Test, the dogs are competing against a standard established by the judges for that stake, based on AKC guidelines.  So in theory, every dog running in a particular stake could qualify, or none of them could.  They are not competing against one another.  The other thing to know about a Hunt Test is that it's supposed to be more like real hunting, whereas Field Trials have become a sport pretty far removed from hunting.

-- The breed-specific field events that I know about are Working Certificate (WC) and Working Certificate Excellent (WCX).  The rules for a WC/WCX vary with breed type.  Oddly, for example, the Golden WC/WCX standards are actually more difficult than the Lab WC/WCX standards.  A WC/WCX event is visually kind of a hybrid of Field Trial and Hunt Test, with the handlers and gunners wearing white jackets and with no duck calls like at a Field Trial, but with smaller distances like at a Hunt Test.  Again, the WC/WCX events are not competitions; any and all of the participating dogs can end up qualifying, though I don't know whether that ever happens.

-- A number of other kinds of retriever competitions exist.  I don't know much about any of them.  And extending the subject even further, other kinds of hunting dogs also have their own competitions, both inside and outside of the AKC.  For example, a Retriever Field Trial is completely different from a Pointer Field Trial.  Pointers are also called bird-dogs.  And lots of other types of events are also out there for you to explore if you like.  I am familiar only with retriever field events.

* If you would just like to watch the dogs work, other options are also available.  One of them is to come to a club training day.  Those are designed to simulate competitions, but the dogs are actually being trained, and the goal isn't to "win Training Day", but to help the dog prepare for future competition, or for some trainers and dogs, just to have fun.  I belong to four retriever clubs, all of whom have training days from time to time.  If you'd like to come to one of those, please let me know and I'll let you know when they're coming up.  A training day may be more convenient for you than a long drive to a competition.

* As one more option, retrievers typically have training sessions several times a week, at least mine do.  You'd be more than welcome to come and watch Laddie train, or even help out if you like.  Some other trainers would feel the same way, others would not, so if you know any, you could ask.  If you live anywhere around Gaithersburg, watching Laddie train will be your most convenient option, since we often train within twenty minutes of home.  On the other hand, you'd probably only get to see one dog run, whereas with the other options, you'd get to see lots of dogs.

I guess that's enough of an intro for now.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

-- Lindsay Ridgeway