RETRIEVING AUSTRALIA FORUM

The televised competitions are not trials or tests. They are specifically designed for television. Entry is usually by invitation.
In American trials and tests some live birds are actually shot during competitions. They call it a live flyer, usually with 2 shooters to make sure the game is killed.
There is only one hunt test organisation that has even mentioned using dummies and that is when disease makes it impossible to use game.
They have lost some very experienced members by heading this way.
As far as looking toward the obedience group for any direction it is my understanding that obedience trail participation has been steadily falling for the last few years.
Perhaps we need to look toward hunting organisations such as Field and Game to try and swell our numbers. We run Field and Game tests and that's a start but I am sure we could work more closly with this organisation to promote the working gundog.
Waynep.

It is interesting that even the Americans are having problems - an email came through to me today re a bill being put up in California to ban all hunting with dogs which would put an end to their field trials if it got passed.

pruew wrote:It is interesting that even the Americans are having problems - an email came through to me today re a bill being put up in California to ban all hunting with dogs which would put an end to their field trials if it got passed.

Food for thought. But it could never happen here (tongue in cheek).

It seems you are right about the US and the game they use, however, Prue's latest comment deserves recognition to at least think about the future.

Wayne Parkinson wrote:They have lost some very experienced members by heading this way.

I didn't think they headed this way, and if they did, did that really make a difference that these "experienced members" were lost to the sport. I would doubt it. By the way, how many "experienced triallers" are we talking about here?

Wayne Parkinson wrote:As far as looking toward the obedience group for any direction it is my understanding that obedience trail participation has been steadily falling for the last few years.

Do we know this for a fact, and does it really matter if numbers are falling, when all we want are ideas, and if their's worked, then why not?

Wayne Parkinson wrote:Perhaps we need to look toward hunting organisations such as Field and Game to try and swell our numbers.

What kind of numbers are we talking about in Field and Game, we have been running F&G tests for a while now, without any real interest from their members.


I think you have to go back to the clubs where all the people came from and promote it from there, with any rules changes we need to help them stay in the sport, else all we have is the Status Quo still, and the sport will not grow from there.