Prue,
Dogs have to qualify for the Irish national each year. The catalogue lists the years qualifiers, when they qualified and who is actually entered. They had about 38 entered all Labs mostly black but more bitches than you would see in Australia. Goldens, Flatcoats and Irish water spanials are also allowed to run but do need to qualify!!!!
There were 4 judges and the field was split odds and evens with 2 judges for each group. Being a driven shoot that the dogs watch they get the opportunity to see each bird but in reality this is just a steadiness test. After the shoot the dogs come up to the line a and do a single retrieve which by now is realy just a single blind between 50 and 100 meters. The judge selects the bird and the start point for each dog. If there are a number of birds close together the judge will allow the competitor to pick any bird up. If the birds are seperated enough then the handler will have to pickup a precise bird. The judge may move the start line around dpeneding on where birds have been shot. The is a lot of luck as to when you run and which bird you are told to pick up. Some birds are in the open while others are in very very heavy cover. One dog gets a big cock pheasant while another gets a small hen partridge, while yet another get a wounded duck.
The stewards point to the general area of a bird, the rest is up to the handler. I found the lack of equality very difficult to understand from a judging point of view.
Comparing ours trial to theirs is almost impossible they are so different. Its like comparing flat track horse racing to steeple chase. However I would say that our AA dogs would be very competitive over there while most Irish dogs would probably struggle at first in Australia, at leats in AA. Jack Lynch who competed in similar trials in England said the same. I was very imressed with the Irish dogs willingness to face heavy cover but I suppose fresh shot game realy helps that. The dogs slipped very few whistles and handled well when required.
In simple terms the Irish trials are closer to their style of shooting than our trials are to shooting here. The trade off is a lack of equality, more luck involved and only single blinds which means the dogs aren't realy tested for marking and at this trial they weren't tested in water. I understand other trials sites do lend themselves to some water work.
Having now seen trials in the USA and Europe I think we should be very happy with the style of trial we have. They are closer to real shooting than the states but have much better equality and more roundly test the dogs than a driven shoot style of trial in Europe.
But thats just my opinion.
Gareth
PS Good dogs are good dogs no matter where you go. I am sure the Irish dogs if trained for our trials have just as much ability as our dogs and would do quite well.