You love a challenge, athletic competition, being outdoors, and hanging with your friends. How would you feel if, for half the year, you abandoned them all? That’s how your dog feels when you leave him to his own devices after the hunting season.

There are more upsides than downsides to field trials and hunt tests. Sure, the big-money prestige events are high stress and serious business; careers are made and lost. Even non-competitive hunt tests have an element of anxiety, usually on the part of the human.

But most of the nail-biting is self-inflicted. Trial and hunt test participants love the same things we do, so look at them as a chance to learn and forge a stronger partnership with your four-footed hunting companion. You might also meet new hunting or training friends, get a reality check on your training progress, find a puppy, acquire access to grounds, line up some practice birds, or receive an invitation to go hunting with somebody.

Training for field trials fortifies the human-canine bond over the entire year, instead of the brief, fleeting hunting season. And no matter your score, if you train for the test, you’ll undoubtedly have a better “meat dog.” A dog that digs and barks less and listens more.

What is Your Dog’s Purpose?

You’re a bird hunter first and foremost so you can watch your dog work in the field: coursing the uplands, churning through a pond, exuberant, energetic, and passionate—primitive forces working their magic on both of you. Panting dogs crashing through brush is sweet music to your ears. But like football season, it’s over too soon, and you’re back to the drudgery of life without hunting—that gray netherworld with nary a glimpse of a faint, distant opening day.

I’ll be the first to admit, a field trial or hunt test isn’t the same as chasing wily roosters in South Dakota. But it’s better than nothing. In some respects, it’s way better. Training distilled to its essence, and motivation for working with your dog to upgrade his—and your—performance for next season. As a musician, I was taught that anybody could be the star of the practice room; however, the rubber met the road when you stepped onto the stage, and the bright lights hit you square in the face. A hunt test or field trial is your stage.

Are You Up for the Challenge

Of course you are. You don’t have to “win” (if there are winners) or even pass the tests in other systems. Simply applying yourselves, and working on the challenges of the rule book, will make both you and your dog better hunters.

My first of many train wrecks took place in a Natural Ability Test of the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association. We’d focused intently on the field work—range, bird-finding, pointing, and tracking. However, I’d skipped over the conformation aspect; a fact driven home when a judge leaned over and counted Bill’s testicles. As they say in rodeo: hold leather and let ‘er buck! I don’t know who was more surprised, but at least neither of us bit the judge.

Since then, during competition my dogs have refused to swim ice-clogged ponds, chased rain-drenched running quail, and left to go sightseeing in the next county. Additionally, I have found a rattlesnake on the bank of a swim test, broke up more than a few dog fights, and ran with a few dogs more poorly-prepared than us—if you can imagine such a thing. I’ll never forget looking at the scores mid-way through a NSTRA trial and breathing a sigh of relief—someone had scored lower than us.

But I’d tolerate the angst any day, for the payoffs, and so would you. Take comfort in the well-worn cliché: a test or trial is simply a snapshot in time—how a dog and handler did on that day in those circumstances. We lick our wounds, go back to the yard, and get better.

Finding a Field Trial or Hunt Test

There are hunt tests and field trials of all shapes and sizes for dogs of all kinds. Finding the best fit for you and your dog is simply a matter of shopping, just as you did for your last shotgun.

Until your dog can operate an internet browser, it’s up to you to extend your season. If you can navigate social media, you can find nearby hunt tests and field trials. The big players (American Kennel Club, United Kennel Club, NAVHDA, NSTRA, VHDF, and retriever groups from MNRC to HRC) have websites with calendars, entry details, rules, and other helpful information. Most local chapters also list their events online. There’s an organization for everyone; some eliminate participants as quickly as possible to arrive at a “top dog,” others reward any dog that meets a performance standard. Some retriever groups allow spaniels and versatile dogs to compete.

Find one that fits your needs and watch videos if there are any. (I did an episode from the NAVHDA Invitational a while ago—it’s on YouTube.) Attend as a volunteer and spectator first and learn the subtleties and protocols. Join the group and a local chapter if there is one. Read the rules before you go, and bring the rule book along.

Most groups have a guru, official or informal, who welcomes newbies. He or she will answer your questions. Be circumspect and make notes; if a gallery is allowed to follow the action, go. If not, a pair of binoculars will help. Walk around; meet other handlers, trainers, and volunteers; and pitch in whenever possible. You’ll absorb a lot by osmosis, and some by observation. You’ll learn everything from who makes the best tie-out stakes, to who feeds what and when.

A perfect example is a recent Oklahoma trial put on by a national group, at which I was a speaker. It was cold and muddy, and the best event I’ve attended in years. Laid-back judges and spectators offered tips on everything from the grounds (excellent), to the dogs’ conformation (enlightening). As we sloshed through the fields, the Danish judge gave me a play-by-play on intensity, desire, cooperation, and obedience. You can still be a fly on the wall even if there are no walls, absorbing decades of experience from these industry experts.

Getting the Most Out of A Field Trial

Watch handlers: You’ll hear their commands in the field and at camp, the vocabulary of high performance canine athletes. Observe how they prepare themselves and their dogs for their run, mentally and physically.

Pay attention to the dogs: You’ll see a concentrated dose of pack dynamics—how dogs relate to each other on the chain gang and in the field. Learn what riles them up, and what calms them down. See what “state of the art” is in your breed and others.

Heed the judges, scouts, marshals, and handlers. Learn how hands, arms, whistles, voices, and body language are used to move dogs in the field. Ask gallery members why a dog or handler does what he’s doing. Suss out handlers’ strategies and tactics, how they cope with wind and terrain, and how they deal with the other dog and handler.

Training Preparation for Field Trials

Go to club training days, watch the videos, but most importantly, train in your yard and the field using the test booklet as your guide. Remember the adage: a dog isn’t really trained until he’ll do what you ask in multiple places, with multiple distractions. A hunt test or trial is the ultimate assemblage of distractions. So, if you can bring your dog to one before you’re entered in another, do. Stake him out; walk him around on a leash; and expose him to people, horses, and the crates of birds awaiting their fate. Do a little training if you can—ask first—in nearby locations. Even simple things, like a short retrieve on a check cord, can all be “proofed” at a field trial if you’re considerate. And it all adds up to a better test or trial for you two when you’re entered.

A club training day is ideal for drilling tasks that might be harder or impossible at home. You have helpers (and you are one), gear and birds, gunners, maybe even a pond. Some chapters also organize “mock tests” to lower anxiety among humans and canines.

Competing in Hunt Test and Field Trials

Plan well in advance as signups fill fast, and many require a lot of driving. Lodging is also at a premium in many rural locations. And don’t forget, any breed club paperwork should be in order prior to signing up.

While every test and testing organization is different, there are some common protocols. Judges are usually volunteers, may have traveled vast distances, and deserve respect. Safety comes first: keep your dog leashed, tied out, or in a crate—be mindful of the heat and cold. Leave other dogs alone unless you’ve been invited to approach. The same goes for horses—especially the north end of a horse facing south. Be self-contained, with your own wardrobe (including blaze orange), water, shade, and weather protection. Bring a potluck dish and an extra bird bag. And hang out after the dogs are watered and put up; for the reading of scores at some, but the commiseration and camaraderie at virtually all. Remember, beer is the currency of post-hunt gatherings, so bring plenty.

As in any other “performance,” there’s a time to put all the preparation and anxiety behind you, and let finely-honed instincts take over. At one test early in our career, I’d drilled my young wirehair, Buddy, under an iron fist for a few more reps than were good for either of us. Squeezing harder that morning at the test site, I worked him like Vince Lombardi’s Packers. Then, something Lombardi had said years before hit home, “you win games in the weight room, not on the field.” If we didn’t have it down pat by now, nothing would help us short of a bolt from the blue. We went into fun mode, loosened up, and passed with the highest possible score.

Of course, the opposite has also colored my hunt test and trialing career. I’ll never forget the head judge reading our scorecard in front of a couple dozen handlers; the back of which had just two words: ATE BIRD. No amount of post-test refreshment can wash that away, much as I tried. But I learned, and subsequently taught my dog to overcome the um, challenge, we’d encountered that day. Luckily, my dog can’t read scorecards.

Simply showing up will better prepare you for the hunting or training you’ll be doing the next day, or the next season. If you enter and prepare for a trial or test, you’ll be forging a year-round relationship with your dog, and climbing another rung on the training ladder. One sultry afternoon years ago, a judge concluded the score-reading by reminding us, “Whatever the scores today, because of what you’ve done together, your dogs will almost always be the best dog in any field, any day, anywhere.”