how do feild trials work

[Ark]

Thanks for the information.

Thats pretty interesing and something I think Id like to try someday.

[danny vansickle]

The field trials I have been to work like this.

You get up very early in the morning.
Get dressed, load the dogs in the truck, drive to the club house.
You get to the club house, fill out the papers, stand in line, pay your entry fee while listening to the guys that stand around the front make wise cracks about the guy's dogs that are entering (all in good fun).

After registration go get something to eat and listen to the guys in the kitchen area tell lies. After eating, get a cup of coffee and watch the bench show.

They roll the dogs to see which cast you are in.
Listen to some guy complain about how he is going to get cheated by judge so-n-so because he doesn't like his dog.
You listen to another guy talking about how good his dog is and how there is no dog around that can stay withing hearing distance.

Go get the dogs and bring to the casting stake.
The judge hands out the collars and asks, "Any one have a problem with the size of the dogs". You try to casually glance at one dog and determine if is is a Walker Coon Hound or a beagle and wonder if the guy knows it is a rabbit field trial, not a coon field trial.

You look hard at the other dogs and think,
"Too fat, hasn't been run that much - no problem."
"So skinny you can play a song on its ribs"
"That dog looks a lot like mine"
Make comments like, "What's that dog out of?"
"Nice looking dog" and "I hope mine doesn't chase deer, I've been trying to break him all week."

You hop in the truck and ride past some of the best looking rabbit habitat there is. You drive to a spot that you wouldn't bother hunting because it doesn't look good.

You unload the dogs, go over the collars and cast the hounds.
A dog barks 3 times and is pulls a minus after 3 minutes.
You think, "Cold trailing hound should be shot."

Your dog barks 3 times and pulls a minus. You say, "I know if they would have just given him a few more seconds he was going to jump a rabbit."

The dogs finally get a chase going. The judge comes back and the score is 10-25-25-25-0. The dog with 0 wasn't in the race, it has been standing around and should be scratched for not hunting. With 1 minute to go the dog with 0 trips over a rabbit and gets a strike jump and wins the cast.

Hop in the truck, go back to the club house, eat and tell lies.

sad but true,and you forgot to add that you dog always looses by a check or less every time and the judge gets in the truck at the end of the hunt with the guy that beat you and they go home together to go on a hunting trip and you get a trophy for being the best looser with the most points but if you say anything you are a sore looser,although all the spectators tell you you should have won,but does that make the drive home any better?no!!!!!!!!!!!!

but yet you are there every week hopin that this may be the lucky one!!!

god i love this sport!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ark]

The overall trial is a tournament. Say you have 50 dogs.
They will have 10 casts in the first hour, and return to the club house.
The 10 winners advance to the next hour (2 casts).
The winner of those two casts will run in the finals to determine 1st and 2nd places in the whole hunt.

So are you saying that only these two dogs get any points toward their championship?

How many wins/points does it to take for a dog to make a field champion?