Judging National Gundog Event at Yorkshire Game Fair

I had the pleasure of judging the National Gundog Event this weekend at the Yorkshire Show. A two day team and individual event that used cold game which included, Duck, Hare, Rabbit, Pigeon and Geese to help test the dogs. The scoring format differed from tests and trials whereas the dogs were set with different scenarios which they may encounter on a shooting day, we as judges were asked to simply assess whether the dogs and handlers had completed the task and therefore passed, did not complete the task which resulted in a failure or completed the task with merit resulting in a pass + this sounded straightforward enough as we were given our judges briefing and in the main it was but dogs have a tendency to do things out of the norm just to test a judge’s opinion.

My co-judge for the weekend was Adam Mair and luckily we got on great and were both on the same wave length, we judged different scenarios including water retrieves with various distractions, timed team events, dogs being sent for the same bird at the same time with one dog then having to stop while the other completed the retrieve.

The Grand Finale was a simulated shoot day “drive” with dogs walking forward in a beating line, cold game being thrown, guns being fired, live birds being released and picking up dogs retrieving game from behind the guns, this was done in front of a large crowd of people who had attended the fair and was very well received by them.

With the judge’s marks in, there was a clear Team winner but to find the individual winner needed a run off. This was the highlight of the week end for me, all the competitors gathering to watch along with members of the public. 3 rabbits were placed at 250yds and the 2 handlers would be asked to send their dogs as blind retrieves. Both dogs completed the task to rapturous applause from the crowd, something you don’t get on the trialling field and im sure the handlers must have been bursting with pride. There has to be a winner and in this case the individual winner was David Ross with Jack and the winning team POLMAISE 4K9S.

Congratulations to all the competitors the organisers and all the helpers, I hope everybody enjoyed their weekend as much as I did.