Bench Shows and Field Trials 259 



throw himself out by a flush. The field trial men 

 then introduced the " heat " system, in which they 

 followed the rule of coursing. That is, when the 

 braces were drawn, each dog which beat his com- 

 petitor was carried into the next series, and so on. 

 This, however, w^as found not to work satisfacto- 

 rily, since by the drawing of two first-rate dogs 

 together, or by a difference in conditions, or by 

 accidents, the best dogs in a stake were frequently 

 beaten. The " spotting " system was then adopted 

 and prevails to-day. The field rules of most 

 clubs call for three judges. The dogs are drawn 

 in braces by lot and are put down in that order for 

 the first series. The judges then pick out, with- 

 out regard to any special number, the dogs which 

 they think have class enough to be among the 

 winning probabilities. Further running is left to 

 the discretion of the judges, who run the animals 

 in braces or singly in order to satisfy themselves 

 of the comparative merits. Shooting is rarely re- 

 quired in field trials at present. The judges, how- 

 ever, sometimes order the handler to shoot over 

 a point in order to test the dog. In most trials 

 the heats are from twenty to forty minutes. In 

 the principal championship stakes the rules 

 usually require the heats to be three hours long. 

 In all trials the judges are required to insist upon 

 the quality of performance and not the mere num- 

 ber of points. They are instructed to look for 



