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Field Activities
New Seminar!! "Hunt
Test Know How" Oct 30-31, 2010
Results: Spring 2005 WC/WCX Photos: 2005 Hunt Test
Results: 2005 Hunt Test 2006 Spring WC/WCX
Results: Fall 2005 WC/WCX 2006 Fall WC/WCX
Results: Spring 2006 WC/WCX 2006 Hunt Test
Results: Fall 2006 WC/WCX
Results: 2006 Hunt Test
 Although
Goldens excel in many different performance events, they aren’t
Golden Agility dogs, Golden Obedience dogs, Golden Tracking dogs,
or Golden Therapy/Assistance dogs. They are Golden Retrievers!
Golden Retrievers were originally bred as field/sporting dogs.
Participation in field events is a way for golden owners/handlers
to develop and demonstrate their Goldens’ retrieving instincts
and to help maintain those instincts in the breed.
Click for full size photo
Each spring Yankee holds a series of
field training classes for
retriever owners wanting to learn field handling skills. Several
different levels of classes are held, from novice to advanced
handling, and each class meets 5-6 times over the course of the
spring.
Yankee also sponsors various field events in the region. These
events, either AKC Hunting Retriever Tests or GRCA Working
Certificate tests, are held on a pass or fail basis. Hunt tests
are offered
in three levels of increasing difficulty; Junior Hunter (JH),
Senior Hunter (SH), and Master Hunter (MH). Dogs which pass
the GRCA tests earn the titles Working Certificate (WC) or
Working
Certificate Excellent (WCX).
View a comparison of requirements
for WC/WCX/JH/SH tests
There are other retriever organizations
that offer performance tests for retrievers. Yankee belongs
to two of these, including
NAHRA (North
American Hunting Retriever
Association) and the Master National
Retriever Club. Another hunting test organization
is the Hunting Retriever Club, or HRC, which is a division of the United
Kennel Club (UKC.) The purpose of these
organizations is the betterment of all hunting retrievers, to influence
the breeding and
training of better retrievers, and to test the dogs’ natural abilities
and acquired training. This is done in programs similar to those of the
AKC and GRCA.
There
are other retriever events that are competitive, and that involve placement
awards including first through fourth places
and judges’ awards of merit. These are field trials.
YGRC does not currently conduct field trials, but there are
several
clubs in our area that do, including Colonial Field Trial Retriever
Club and Shoreline Retriever Club.
A Brief History of Retrievers
and Retriever Testing Programs
Goldens as Hunting Companions
 The
official American
Kennel Club "Standard for
Golden Retrievers" describes
the golden retriever as "Primarily a hunting dog." Goldens
were, in fact, developed in Scotland as hunting companions
specializing in the retrieving of upland game birds
and waterfowl. Along with
spaniels, pointers and setters, retrievers are in the
AKC sporting group, one of the seven groups into which
the
various recognized
breeds are classified. All the breeds within the sporting
group are considered to be hunting or gun dogs and
have, over time,
been bred for specific skills in hunting situations.
Retrievers
began to appear around 1840 in response to a perceived
need among British nobility for working dogs with
tender mouth, trainability,
nose and stamina that could find and bring back wounded
and dead game. Setters and pointers had been taught
to
retrieve, but improvement
in the firearms used in hunting dictated the need
for gun dogs that would mark the fall of downed birds and
proceed
on command
to find and deliver the game to their masters. All
the breeds within the sporting group are specialists
of sorts,
and the retrieving
breeds evolved in response to the inclination of
the various pointers, setters and spaniels to hunt a bit
more independently
than was called for by the modern bird hunters of
the mid nineteenth century (Gertrude Fischer, The New Complete
Golden Retriever,
1984).
Early Field Trials
With the advent of
the breech loading shotgun and the resultant upsurge in the
development
of the retriever
breeds, game shooting became a fashionable social
activity in the British Isles in the late 1800s.
The first retriever
field
trial was held in England in 1899, marking full
acceptance
of retrievers as hunting companions. (Keith
Erlandson, "British
Retriever Trials",
The Retriever Journal, June/July 1996).
The field trial game soon found
its way onto
American soil, as
did the golden retriever. By 1937, Goldens were
competing in the American version of field trials.
In fact,
the very first
American national field trial champion was a
Golden Retriever named King Midas of Woodend
in 1941.
American
Field Trials
American retriever field trials
are split into Derby, Qualifying, Open All-Age,
Limited
All-Age,
Special
All-Age, Amateur All-Age and Owner-Handler
Amateur All-Age stakes. Derby is for young dogs under
two years of age,
qualifying is
open to dogs that have not placed in any All-Age
stake, and the various all-age stakes are open
to all dogs with
certain
limitations.
Amateur All-Age stakes, for example, may only
be entered by a dog and its amateur handler. Open
All-Age stakes,
on the
other
hand, are, as the name implies, open to all
dogs and all handlers. Field trials are competitive,
with placements
from first through
fourth place awarded in each level. Only points
earned by placing in all-age stakes are accumulated
toward
the titles
of Field
Champion (FC) or Amateur Field Champion (AFC),
which, as
with all AKC competitive titles, precede a
dog's registered name.
(Registration and Field Trial Rules,
American Kennel Club, Inc., 1993).
Hunting & Working Tests
 In recent
years the interest in retriever field training and trialing
has
lead to the creation of new forms of the
retriever sport. The Golden Retriever Club of America offers
tests
for the Working
Certificate (WC) and Working Certificate
Excellent (WCX) titles, which are awarded to any dog meeting
the requirements
at a test
offered by a GRCA member club. The tests
have evolved from traditional field trials but are non-competitive,
meaning dogs are judged
on a pass/fail basis. In the mid 1980s,
another offspring of field trials appeared in the form of AKC
hunting
tests. Hunting
tests had been a long time in coming to
the AKC; they had been offered for a while by other organizations
including the North
American Hunting Retriever Association
(NAHRA).
Since AKC's involvement, however, hunting tests have
exploded in popularity and are widely
regarded as the weekend trainer's version
of
field trial. AKC hunting tests are non-competitive and
offer three levels of testing
- Junior, Senior and Master Hunter. Dogs
must pass four tests at the Junior and Senior levels and
five at the Master level
to earn AKC titles. (Regulations & Guidelines
for A.K.C. Hunting Tests for Retrievers,
American Kennel
Club, Inc., 1996).
Yankee Field Activities
Yankee Golden
Retriever Club, through its constitution and bylaws,
is committed to encouraging
members to maintain and perfect the
natural abilities of golden retrievers.
To this end we have, over the years,
offered opportunities for testing of those abilities
in the form of field
trials, hunting
tests and working certificate/working
certificate excellent tests. We also offer four levels
of retriever
training classes each spring. The classes consist of six week
sessions split
into
beginner,
intermediate
and advanced levels and are designed
to prepare dogs and handlers for the various
types of
trials and
tests. All
these activities
are conducted by the club's very active
field committee. Currently we offer
an A.K.C. hunting
test in August.
The club is also
a member club of the Golden Retriever
Club of America and offers two GRCA Working
Certificate/Working Certificate Excellent
tests
each year.
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