I don't think of it as a game but more of a competition. Most are here for fun and some bragging rights. You may be right, many of the longstanding members say that ours dogs field ability has improved greatly over the past several years. Maybe it is easier to achieve these levels than it was in the beginning. It may be time to raise the bar. But it would be hard to do fairly with so many already having the title by the old qualifications.

Heres a point to ponder. 08 HOY, World Hunt, and Michigan State. Mostly the same group of dogs competing all three days. Most of the dogs were on top one day and in the middle or on bottom the next. You would think that the HOY Winners "the best of the best" for 07 would dominate the other hunts as well. Look at all the results, it isn't so in most cases. Ability and Desire does play a large part, but luck in the field also plays a big role in who the winner will be from cast to cast and day to day.

With the lack of numbers the competition suffers. Why not compete against yourself and raise the bar. Make the scoring harder and minus the faults

The "Red Sox" as good as they aren't didn't win every game they played.

Marc Give us some examples of what you are thinking.

Seeing The subject matter has seem to go way off...I'll add some here...I find it offensive people making the comment on how much the breed has improved etc. ACCORDING to WHO!!!!!!I had better dogs 10 yrs ago than I have now and if any of you think my Past dogs could not compete with the dogs running today Bull...Speed isn't the answer....It is a game and again will agree with Jim. The folks that take it to serious are the reason I hardly show up anymore..I'll still kill as many rabbits and hare as anyone else...And that is the bottom line....I must tell all of you that mine get wet when they cross a creek ,I can't hunt them in 2 feet of snow and they don't run like beagles..If there were dogs out there that I felt were that much more superior to mine I'd own them as money is no object..And if any of you don't feel the same way about your own hounds...You are in the wrong GAME!!!!If you are always looking for something better you may never be a happy person..The perfect dog has yet to be born,never will in my life time..!I came close with a few and I'm very content with that....I realized it and enjoyed them while they were alive.. not Wishing or constantly looking for better.If I ever get another Spanky I'll die a very,very happy man.

blockston is right there is no perfect dog. if we are going to get technical lets award and minus point for line control and obeadeance. a game i thought it was about bring the basset breed back to what the were bread for. not just a pet. 10 20 30 would show a harder hunting dog with its nose in a check area.

My apologies, I didn’t mean to offend anyone, just trying to have a conversation. I have heard that said at many field trials in the last 2 years. Obviously they were not talking about Spanky.

No need to apoligize Eric...My comment was not directed at you..I really believe you were just repeating comments you have overheard...Anyone can say anything they want about Spanky..I don't care..I know what he was..He set the level in his day!!!I believe in the bygone years the dogs were there we just didn't locate them...now we have..I see the speed of the hounds becomming faster...this is causing more checks on the runs..So are we really improving the whole package?Hounds swinging really wide and slashing a track in the check area??Don't get me wrong as I like a speedy dog... I don't like a sloppy check dog..If they are crusing for the check and hoping to stumble on it because of there inability to solve it close.. thats a fault!They don't need to stand on there head either..If you can't figure it out close FIRST then swing out to try and recover..Much more on this but I'll stop here..

Great points everyone, but as I read I thought we were talking about judging not breeding. It seems either way both arguments have no end since they are both oppinion based. Heres my 2cents. I think a good judge adheres as closely as he can to the written rules while adapting them to the situation. Maybe the best way would be to hand your dogs over to the judge and let him hunt them. Then when he is done he will bring them back to you at the clubhouse. Everyone waiting at the club house can shoot the breeze. That way nobody has to hear all the bs about how so and sos dog got screwed. The catch here is if you dog doesn't handle or needs special attention your out. Open or not. If the judge can't get your dog to come when called then the dog should be minused out or DQd. That's how I would hunt. Anyone can take my best dog and hunt and handle him. To me that's a good hound. Some of that is me working him and the rest is breed into him. Quantity doesn't make quality. JMHO

Would you want your hounds going off with somebody you meet in the field.???? My hounds hunt for me. I can send then out with a handler, but if they know where I am , they will come to me. Do you think a judge could handle 6 hounds if there is a problem -- like the porcupine we found in MI????? What does a judge do at a split??? Judge the hounds, or try to bring the others up??? There are way too many bad possibilities to even consider having a judge take the hounds out -- including trying to get new people to join us!!!!!

I guess I miss understood the post. This was just my opinion not the solution to a problem. Dean do you and only you handle your dogs? How many people at hunts do hand their dogs to strangers and let them handle them? I found as a judge the hardest thing to deal with was hardly ever the dogs and almost always the handlers. Often times pushing the cast too fast or handling their dogs too the point of distraction for all the other dogs. We all hunt differently and for that hour it isn't you who is in charge of the hunt it should be the judge. In any scenario when you run into off game it will be a problem. I never said it just had to one judge either. When I hunt my dogs I worry about them, but I try not to handle them unless we need to. Depends on the conditions. As far as new members go I think if you concentrate on the current members and make sure to retain them then the by product would be happy participants bringing friends along. The misconception might be that you need to grow to survive. Maybe you just need to concentrate on what you have and people will just start coming with friends who are interested. I know that's an out of the box idea in this we need more members craze, but it just might work. Who knows. Sorry for the long post I guess I was bored at work or something.

We all have seemed to loose sight of the original question...Alot of good stuff and alot of other stuff at least the board is staying active...what about judging the checks..I see a lot of circumventing the issue with rule changes...Not the question...the question is how about the judging of checks with the rules we have now..the purpose was to try and get everyone on the same sheet of music!!

What did I do there ERIC???