Judges

[Kenny VanHoose]

If the call was after the deer had been caught then it definately SHOULD HAVE BEEN SCRATCHED !!!!!!!!! This WRONG falls on the MOH and the judge. Unbelievable

I was out on this cast as an observer. As the above post states,,,the call for "handle your hounds" was called AFTER the the dog grabbed the deer. Dog shoulda been scratched!!!!

[beagler80]

what if it grabbed it in the bed? that is a tough one to call as I dont think Ive ever heard of that happening in a cast. i had to break up a racoon fight this year while hunting and dog's that wont run off game, they didnt chase it they were hunting in a briar patch and all hell just broke loose, ive seen grown broke hounds eat on a dead deer. Just a tough call to say the least. Honestly I cant see there being a right or wrong answer to that one as an arguement could be made either way.[/quote

That was a wild experience, I thought the dogs had caught the rabbit and were fighting over it until I saw the look on your face.

Interesting post, I know I was running in the finals of Ky State a few years ago and I think 3 of 4 or maybe all four dogs ran down a opossum and killed it , my dog included, and was not scratched. Im not going to criticize a judge , they have a tough job to do and the few hunts I have been to I thought the Judges did a good job, win or lose.

They shouldn't have been scratched, opossum is not major off-game in little pack. Whatever dog opened up 3 times on it first should get it's three minutes to produce a rabbit then get a minus if it didn't.

[barryc]

For all of you that are debating this. SHAME ON YOU . The dog attacked a deer for pete sake! If my dog and your dog are later that day in the final cast together are you going to be proud of ol spot and lean over and say to me yeah man had a close call this morning spot attacked a deer and I though he might get scratched for a minute there!! SCRATCH.....................................................................................................................

[Kevin Dowell]

For all of you that are debating this. SHAME ON YOU . The dog attacked a deer for pete sake! If my dog and your dog are later that day in the final cast together are you going to be proud of ol spot and lean over and say to me yeah man had a close call this morning spot attacked a deer and I though he might get scratched for a minute there!! SCRATCH.....................................................................................................................

em' em' em' SCRATCH

[ray s]

Add another page to the rule book.JUST WHAT IT DOESN'T NEED!!

[oakhill]

SCRATCH!!!

Here is one for ya.....

I seldom trial but on one of the few occasions my dog was in the winners pack. We were going over a hill. My hound was on the left side hunting and the rest of the pack were about 30 yds on the right side hunting. Up jumps a doe down the hill and we all saw it. Talk about a bunch of beaglers bout to mess their pants!!! The dogs were working right down to where the doe jumped. First dog to hit the scent barked and took off the rest following. Judge says handle your hounds. Not sure how many barked on the deer. Now my hound didn't see the deer and didn't get to the scent and did not go with the pack as she was over a ways. Not to say she wouldn't have gone with them. Don't think so but ya never know. Anyway, judge picked up the first dog to bark. The rest were left down. What say you????

[pztrailman]

SCRATCH

The only SPO trial I entered I was on 5 dog cast. First jump was a deer all dogs left on the deer but mine. Judges said catch the dogs and get them back. They got lucky that the deer made a circle and they were able to catch them. I made winner cast, we had 8 dog cast. Four out of eight ran a deer, mine did not. Judges had us handle the dogs and recast. Mine placed NBQ. When I asked why he got picked up they said he was going over dogs to get to the front instead of slotting up. I asked why the deer runners didn't get picked up and they said AKC didn't fault a dog for running deer. I will say the dog that placed first didn't run a deer and was a nice dog.

[tinymwoods]

As far as catching a deer, scratch the dog as the judge or the handler. I would have caught my dog, scratched him, and taught him a lesson on the way back to the truck .
We had a case at a hunt once that a rabbit was running up a hill and the hounds were in hot pursuit. They jumped a deer that followed the same path as the rabbit. When they got to the top of the hill the rabbit went left and the deer went right. The dogs kinda split on the tracks. Dog A was hammering the deer out of the country. Dog B was running his heart out on the deer as well. Dog c was behind in the race and ran the track maybe 20 foot. Dog D and E got to where the deer track was and shut up and quit searching. We scratched dogs A and B for running off game. We did not scratch dog C for "harking in" on the other hounds. Was this the right call?