26O TRAINING THE HUNTING DOG 



CHAPTER XX. 



FIELD TRIAL JUDGING. 



THE field trial judge at the greatest trials is rarely 

 other than thoroughly competent to fill the position. 

 The many years of experience have given to him 

 a thorough schooling in field trial principles and field 

 trial management. Reporters, handlers and owners 

 have also derived common field trial knowledge from 

 greater experience, so that the field trials of the pres- 

 ent are conducted on principles and rules in which all 

 who are properly experienced readily concur. 



The trials have fully demonstrated that field ex- 

 perience alone is an insufficient schooling for a field 

 trial judge. There is now a sharply recognized dis- 

 tinction between following a dog for the purpose of 

 killing birds over him, and following him to deter- 

 mine how his hunting qualities compare with those 

 of some other dog or dogs, or what they are intrin- 

 sically in themselves. There is all the difference be- 

 tween the two instances that there is between a horse 

 drawing a plow and a horse in a race; and yet the 



