Judges Corner February - March 2005  - from Hunting Retriever magazine

by Tim Gibson

Every so often we step away from the familiar Scenario – Question – Answer format of the Judges Corner and we’re going to do so in this issue.   It was suggested that I might use this column to get some information of interest and importance out to the membership.  Hey – I thought that’s what I did every issue?   

Recently, an idea that was proposed in June 2004 during the field rep meeting held in conjunction with our HRC national meeting came to fruition.   David Cooper, Field Rep for Region 3 suggested that it would be very beneficial to HRC for the reps to get together at mid-year, i.e., between our fall and spring hunt test seasons, to discuss topics such as the seminars, scheduling, policy, procedure and administrative items, and of course, hunt test and judging issues. He asked if this might be possible via telephone conference call.  HRC President Rod Smith and the executive committee wholeheartedly endorsed the idea.  So on a Sunday evening in early January, our tireless regional reps once again answered the call of this organization (pun intended).  Your humble scribe was asked to participate in the call and to moderate some of the discussion topics.  After some initial minor glitches in hooking everybody up, which included a lot of, “can you hear me now’s? ”, the first annual HRC Regional Field Reps Mid-year Conference Call proceeded smoothly.  I want to share a few of the items with you that were discussed during the call, vis-à-vis some judging and hunt test issues and other information you may find of interest. 

Judges Handlers Seminar Scheduling: 

The field reps are now working off a yearly seminar calendar schedule.  Equipment, financial, and time considerations made it imperative that we get away from the practice of scheduling a seminar every time one or two judges in a region didn’t take the time to attend one in the last three years and their license was about to expire.  Some regions are large enough that they will by necessity need to have two seminars in different locals.  The process to schedule a seminar can take some time, and it begins with contacting your rep who will access the need and work with host clubs on a date and place.  Your regional rep will contact HRC Vice-President Jim Reichman who has final approval over seminar scheduling.  HRC and your field reps continue to work diligently to make the seminars instructional, entertaining and attendance worthwhile.   

Regional Representatives judging in their regions: 

President Rod reminded everyone on the call that regional reps should refrain from judging hunt tests in their respective regions, unless it’s an emergency situation.  Emergency would be defined as on the day of a hunt test, the club finds it necessary to replace a judge, and a licensed judge at the same level or higher than the judge being replaced is not available.  Page 16, Section 7: Judging Changes, of the Guidelines to Scheduling and Licensing Hunts of the HRC rulebook covers this extensively.  Clubs should not ask their regional reps to judge in any other circumstances.   

New Rulebook and Judges Test: 

Our present rulebook is dated January 1, 2003. I’m sure many of you were wondering if we were going to get a new rulebook this year. The mystery is over and I can report that yes, a new rulebook is in the works, despite the fact that no new running rules were passed at the last national meeting.  Keep in mind that I’m writing this column in mid-January.  It’s very probable that by the time you read this the new rulebook will be printed and distributed.  At the 2004 BOD meeting in Memphis, Keith Westberry, Chairman of the HRC Running Rules committee presented a detailed report from his committee outlining portions of the rulebook that they determined fell into the categories of either HRC/UKC Policy and Procedures, or Running Rules.  The HRC Board of Directors voted to approve this listing and to incorporate it into the new rulebook when published.  This was done in order to help clubs submitting rulebook changes to identify whether their proposals would be classified as policy proposals or running rule proposals.  A new judges test will also appear sometime shortly after the 2005 rulebooks are distributed.  HRC requires new and existing judges to take the test as part of their licensing requirements and their commitment to judging in our program.  The idea of a test was originally conceived to assure that at least every two years judges read and re-familiarize themselves with the rulebook.  The 2005 judging test will be available to complete on line.  Consult the HRC website for more details.   

Regional HRC Meetings: 

A question was asked regarding the possibility of using a conference call to conduct regional club meetings.  Some regions have tried to hold an annual meeting of their clubs, often in conjunction with a judges and handlers seminar.  However, the sheer size of many of our regions makes getting everyone together difficult, especially when travel and lodging costs are factored in.  President Rod indicated that HRC would pick up the cost of a regional conference call conducted by the regional field rep. Club presidents, as well as a regions PR and running rules rep would be invited to participate on the call.  Your rep can provide more information about scheduling, planning and conducting a conference call should your region think it could benefit from one. 

Callbacks: 

One of the bedrock principles of HRC is all participants can run all hunt tests regardless of whether or not their dog failed an earlier test (the Grand hunt of course being the exception).  Some of the reps reported on hunts where clubs and/or judges were for various reasons coming up with creative work a-rounds to our rulebook’s established callback procedures. In some cases they were flat out violating them by generating “preferred” running order lists between tests that were on schedule and where getting through the dogs was not in question.  I’m going to apologize in advance for some of the blunt language I find myself unable to avoid using in the discussion that follows as I give you my thoughts on this subject and the consensus opinion of the reps on the call. 

To be perfectly fair, our rulebook does not define the word callback, ergo some of the confusion.  Some think it’s a list of only those dogs selected to run again.  They believe a running order with dogs who can still get a pass running before the others (who they will still allow to run) is not a callback list.  There’s an old saying that must have come from a hunt test game steward somewhere that goes; “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…” well, you know the rest.  Always one to be as helpful as possible, I’m going to give you a solid definition of a callback vis-à-vis our HRC hunt test program, and tell you how to recognize a callback list when you see one.   But first, I think it apropos to look at this issue from the perspective of a handler, judge, and a club. 

Handlers enter our hunt tests with the expectation that they can run both series, regardless of their dog’s performance.  For the purposes of this discussion, let’s set aside disqualification issues such as gun safety or dog fighting for the moment.  Many of us understand that it can be very detrimental to a training and testing regime to let a dog continue to run after a failing performance, especially where control issues were involved.  What we need to remember is this decision is the handlers to make!  Some handlers will choose not to run any dog they know has failed in an earlier test regardless of the reason, and this too is their choice to make.  

Judges can find themselves in the awkward position of not getting their dogs run, or not knowing if they’ll get them all run before dark.  Sometimes it’s their fault, and sometimes it’s not.  Upon being asked to judge, experienced judges ask a club questions such as; 1) How many dogs are you wanting to take per flight? 2) Do you have enough wingers and equipment so it’s not necessary to move this stuff between tests? 3) Do you have experienced throwers? and 4) Do you have swimming or running water available?  If a judge does not get the correct answers to these questions, it might be wise to decline the judging invitation.  HRC neither desires nor expects judges to modify or water down tests in order to get through the dogs without a callback!  By the same token, judges should be expected to get their tests started on time and keep them running unless circumstances beyond their control cause otherwise.  The callback work a-rounds I mentioned earlier should not be used as a crutch for tests that are running behind schedule.  

Clubs can lower the number of entries per flight below the maximum given in our rulebook on page 6.  They must provide the judge the help, grounds, and equipment to handle the entries taken.  

Our rulebook does not define a callback, but HRC has a document that does and I’m going to tell you where to find it and what it says.  When clubs are first chartered they receive a packet of information about conducting their preliminary hunt test.  This overview of our testing procedures contains the following sentence about the use of callbacks:  “The practice of using callbacks (defined as running dogs in contention ahead of dogs not in contention) is not allowed.  It’s clear to me that any list generated by a judge, marshal, or other hunt official that orders the dogs according to performance, i.e. those that are in contention versus those who are not, no matter what you call it is a callback list.  I realize marshals must organize the flight for maximum efficiency but the running order should be based on criteria such as multiple dog handlers, honor situations, perhaps travel considerations, etc., and not on performance.  HRC understands that some delays and problems at hunt tests are inevitable.  Item 34 on page 52 of our rulebook, Guidelines for Judges and Conducting Tests provides information and a formal procedure for dealing with these unavoidable situations by telling us when and how callbacks can be implemented.   To implement some form of a callback in the absence of weather or other circumstances beyond the control of the judges or club is not in keeping with HRC’s philosophy and rules.  

Clothing at the Hunts: 

It was the unanimous opinion of the regional reps that most handlers and hunt test participants should wear clothing.  There were some exceptions mentioned. Wait a minute while I check my notes on that… I’m kidding, but seriously, the subject of “hunting clothes” and appropriate attire at hunts was discussed. 

There seems to be some confusion in the ranks by both judges and handlers regarding acceptable dress at our hunt tests.  I have personally witnessed the following just this past fall at various hunt tests:  1) judges in blue jeans, 2) judges who indicated that camo from the waist up was all they required, and they didn’t care what the handlers had on from the waist down, 3) judges who never mentioned appropriate attire, 4) handlers in blue jeans, 5) handlers who didn’t seem to care what they had on and 6) hunt marshals and other hunt committee members who obviously said nothing to these judges or handlers about appropriate clothing.  

It was agreed that first and foremost, judges and hunt test officials and other participants should set a good example for handlers by wearing appropriate clothing.  Thankfully, most do.  If we have any doubts about the fashion statement we should be making at a hunt, we need look no farther than page 7 of our rulebook; Clothing, to find out what is appropriate to wear.  “Judges, Hunt Marshals, Gunners, Bird Boys, and Handlers must wear hunting clothes.  Hunting clothes worn must be harmonious with the hunting environment, such as camo in waterfowl and dove hunting, white clothing if snow goose hunting”.  I’ve looked everywhere, and for the life of me I can’t find any portion of the rulebook that says we need only be half-attired in appropriate clothing.  And by the way, don’t try telling the judge, “I hunt in blue jeans”.  The judge sets the tone for what is appropriate hunting attire as respects the hunt site, the test environment and hunting scenario.  “Hunting clothes”, and “harmonious” are really the operable words here.  If a handler had on for instance, olive drab or brown pants that blended nicely into the background and vegetation at the site, the judge might declare that acceptable.  How can one be sure they are always appropriately dressed for the hunt?  Wear camo!  David Cooper uses a great analogy when addressing the issue of hunt test clothing.  He says take a look in the pits at a NASCAR event.  Everyone dresses in team colors or some other type of official clothing.  They all look like they belong at….well, a NASCAR event!  Dress appropriately and in the spirit of testing which is consistent with a day of hunting.  It’s really that simple. 

Some of you will no doubt want to write and ask me about handlers that wear Cornfield Camo to the flooded timber hunt, and then change into New Breakup for the afternoon cornfield test.  I will of course refer you back to the word “harmonious”.  By the way, judges should always remember to advise handlers of appropriate dress for the test in the handlers meeting. 

Those were the high points of the conference call.  I wish I could say somebody admitted they were having a great hunting season.  If anybody was, they were smart enough not to say for fear of being swamped with houseguests.  We’ll get back to our regular scenarios in the next issue of the Judges Corner.  I’m also thinking of starting a new feature tentatively titled, “The E-Mail Bag”.  I’d like to invite you to e-mail me your pithy comments about judges and judging, tests and hunt tests, or this column.  I’ll share the good ones with all of you, especially if they’re better than what I come up with!  As O’Reilly says, no bloviating – that’s my job.   

One final note:  There have been some changes in the field rep ranks. At least one rep is stepping aside due to work commitments, and one or two added due to expansion or the need to split a large region.  Their names will probably have been announced by the time you read this.  Please thank these folks when you see them.  Few can appreciate their commitment to HRC and all work they do which makes our club successful.  

We hope the “Judge’s Corner” will both entertain and inform you.

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