Question about Field Trials

Just out of curiosity, once a dog has achieved it’s FC or AFC does it continue to compete against dogs that have not yet earned their championships? In other words, to earn an AFC or FC does a dog have to defeat dogs that already have championships?

We were discussing this at my training club the other day, because in breed, a dog does not compete against finished champions to earn its championship, but to earn an Obedience Trial Championship (OTCH) you do need to defeat dogs that have already earned the OTCH. No one there knew how it works for field trials (we have folks who run hunt tests but no one who trials) and we were curious!

Thanks ...

Yes... if they want to. Also, there is the National Field Championship and National Amateur Field Championship every year to continue to train and trial for. (You may have seen the NAFC or NFC designations.) Dogs that carry these titles (especially both of them) are historic dogs. For instance 2XNAFC 3XCNAFC-FC River Oaks Corky. The CNAFC is Canadian National Amateur Field Champion. There's NFC AFC Westwind Super Nova Chief. And maybe most historic was NFC 2XNAFC Super Chief who was run by August Dupont.

Besides running against all the FC AFC and The national champions when running open you are against the best professional handlers in the game. Even the dogs running the amateur stakes are 99.9% trained by these pros.
If you are running the minor stakes (derby/junior or qualifying ) you are up against he pro trainers. I always feel great when I get a placing in one of these stakes as you know your training is starting to pay off.
Champions running field trials are building their points. Stud and puppy prices for high point dogs are always higher.

Hell, Anna... if I got carried to the second series I'd feel like a million bucks!!!

I think in HT, the Master Amateur Invitational is a good idea. Or a step in the right direction. That is, an amateur (but not necessarily the owner) has to RUN the dog in each Qualifying event. It doesn't mean a pro hasn't trained the dog. But at least all the "points" to get to the MAI have to be acquired by an amateur. There is a lot of wiggle room there for some fast and loose definitions, of course.

Field Trial World is horribly, horribly tradition-bound. (Some would say it began in 1931 as a class-defining endeavor. The Harrimans and Marshal Fields and so on owned the dogs and paid pros to train and run them. It hasn't changed that much over the years.) But do you think an Amateur Invitational idea could ever catch on in FT's?

Our events are small compared to those in the States. At this point the National club is discussing whether or not to drop the Amateur National or to try and combine the two events or run an Open National one year and an Amateur National the next. Because of expense and travel it seems that only dogs from the region holding the event are entered. This Year the Amateur is in BC so few of the Ontario dogs will be going and I doubt very much if any from the East coast will attend.
If it were an Amateur Owner type of event there wouldn't be that many dogs. Smaller clubs have become very upset with the Shamateurs, those that train and travel with a pro and run every dog on the pros truck in the Amateur stake. The clubs down east have gone to strictly Amateur Owner to try and stop this practice.

It may someday come down to that with the Master Amateur Invitational. But I hope not. I got a dog of RD's caliber hoping to run on a National level when she and I learned enough to get it done. However, I also think (with the distances involved out west, just like your issue in Canada) getting to 7 events (and likely more, 'cause batting a 1000 is unlikely) would just be very, very taxing. I was hoping to coordinate with someone in our training group so that we could train each other's dogs when we go out several times/week and learn how to manage them, then maybe split the work of driving to and running dogs at 7 or 8 or 9 or more Masters. That's the only way I can imagine handling it.

On top of the 7 plus Qualifying scores, you have to consider traveling across country (maybe ALL the way across if it's on the East Coast) would take a couple of weeks to do well. I think you'd want to drive one day... hopefully stop and train at least a day at some other club's grounds with maybe members' help. Drive another day or two, stop and train... and so on. Then you'd want to get to the location of the National and train on grounds with similar terrain and vegetation.

At least that would be what I think a reasonable game plan would require.