Judging Sighthounds

There has been much discussion about judging sighthounds and scoring systems, lately. There are some
different theories out there as to what and or how this should be done. I just thought I would share
what I was taught and how I have scored through the years.

First off, let’s get what’s best out of the way. Brace eliminations is the best way to reduce human error.
It matches all dogs head up without a 3rd dog to add confusion into the mix. The problem with brace
eliminations is that it is not practical in the West. Most years we don’t have enough hares to even use
the brace elimination system. Besides that, most of our coursing is done in open ended desert
conditions and because of this, our course durations vary drastically. With that said, I still see a lot of
errors within courses themselves that the brace elimination system would not fix.

Let’s talk about some of those errors. One I commonly see is a misinterpretation of work. I hear a lot of
Judges say, “I judge work!”. Well, that’s great, but what is work?

Work

Work is defined in many of the clubs’ rule books, but still gets screwed up. Basically, it is forcing
the hare to do something it does not want to do. Be it, get wrenched, turned, or get taken.
Work does not include following the hare as it weaves through cover. It also does not include
turning left on a dirt road four links behind a hare. (This is also just following the hare and
does not count as a turn!).

One of the other biggies I see a lot of is missed work or forgotten work. When one dog does a lot of
work early, only to be overcome by a second dog with more endurance who ends up doing equal or less
work but he goes on to win the course. This is bad judging, plain and simple. And let me explain why.
The first dog proved to have superior speed with the early work. So, he wins that category. The second
dog takes over the course and because of that he proves to have more endurance, so he wins that
category. The work and agility has to decide the winner of the course. Let’s just say there is equal work
by both dogs, 8 turns a piece and the hare escapes. Was it a tie?!? No, it wasn’t, because the work the
first dog did on the hare weakened the hare and changes what happened for the rest of the course. So,
for the second dog to overcome his deficit, he will have to go above and beyond what the first dog did. I
know a lot of folks will struggle with this, but they cannot deny the fact that the hare has been
worked down by the first dog and to ignore that fact is poor judgement.

Sometimes as a judge you have to stop and ask yourself, what would have happened if I removed a
given dog from the course; how would it have gone?

The other categories (besides “work”) we use to score courses have to do with speed, agility, endurance,
and takes/touches.

Speed
 Speed – The run up and first turn is when a dog gets to the hare first in a course and turns the
hare. It is the ultimate speed test. Unless the slip was bad or dogs were unsighted at the slip.
This is where you find your fastest dog in the course. Followed by go-byes. This is when a dog is
clearly behind another dog with some separation between them, and then on a straightaway,
advances ahead of the other dog that was in front with separation between the two of them
once again. Go-byes are not when a dog is advantaged by the turn forced by the lead dog. Speed
is a very important test in finding the best dog. It is a race after all.

If speed is not accompanied by work, it is less important in determining a course winner. Just
because a dog is in front first doesn’t mean much if he doesn’t get up on the hare and force a
wrench or turn.

Agility

Agility, to me, is shown when a dog does not lose ground to the hare during work. Making a turn
and coming out only a few feet behind the hare takes great agility. The most agile dogs seem to
control the hare and dictate the work instead of the hare doing the dictation. Most Judges do
not struggle with this category but some still mistake following the hare for work which, as
stated above, is incorrect.

Endurance

Endurance – When a dog shows it can hold its speed over a long distance or when a dog takes
over a course from another. This is also a very important test for a judge.

But if endurance comes without work it is less important in determining a course winner.

Note: The duration a dog is in the lead should not be what determines the winner of a course.
Now, I know this is mind blowing for some but it is true. If a dog is leading for a long duration
but accomplishes no work it is not very important to the course, unless there was no work in
the course at all.

Take/Touch

Take/Touch seems clear. When a dog takes a hare, he captures the hare. When he touches the
hare, he either touches, picks up and drops, or runs over the hare. We seem to have a lot of
Judges struggling with this. It is usually the AK/UK thing that gets them. This may not seem
important but it is. Some dogs cannot catch hares, as a matter of fact; a lot of them cannot. This
is very important because it is a requirement for titles. A UK is when you can clearly see who
caught the hare. An AK is when they grab it at the same time. That’s it. All the other descriptions
are incorrect.
One of the other common mistakes I see Judges make happens during the work. Example Dog (A) forces
a turn advantaging dog (B) now dog (B) forces a turn, and on and on it goes. Usually something else will
happen to help determine the winner. But sometimes the Judge has to use a little common sense to
figure out who was really the stronger dog and again; It wasn’t who happened to lead for longer
durations. Remember we are judging work, as they always say. And don’t just play back your voice
recording of the course and count turns you said out loud. And if that is what you do, you need to pay
more attention during the course and not just count on your recorder to determine the winner of a
course. The recorder will not capture the little differences and nuances of a course your eyes will while
watching the course live. You should mark down 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in your Judges book immediately
following the course. You can use your recorder to help with the scores. (The scores are just for cross
course judging, don’t forget that.)

Now, let’s talk about the biggest issue that most Judges struggle with and that is “cross course judging”.
This is the toughest part of judging a hunt. It’as the reason folks came up with category scoring. The first
piece of advice I can give, is get all the courses listed on the same piece of paper, where you can
compare courses side by side. Trying to do this fanning through a Judge’s book is ridiculous. I create a
little spreadsheet on the back of my judge’s book to compare data. See example below:
Look at how easy it is to compare different courses. This makes it easy to make adjustments to get it
right.

One more thing, don’t score dogs out of the building in the prelims. The prelims are used to remove sub-
par performers and the finals are to decide champions. Let the finals do what they are supposed to do.
In the prelims, you have some champion caliber running dogs possibly running with lesser dogs. So, of
course you will have dominating courses in the prelims. But it is poor judging when some dogs have
huge scores from the prelims that will be hard to overcome when they have not even faced other
course winners. The finals should decide the winners of hunts because it pits winners against winners.

Lastly, I would like to talk about short runs with quick takes vs long good courses with takes. On this
subject the category scoring will not help you. You might as well throw your judges book in the trash on
this one. Because you are going to have to rely on common sense when comparing these two types of
courses. But what I am about to write should clear this up for you once and for all, if it does not, blame
your parents, because if you can’t get something this simple it is genetics and their fault.

Let’s just really think about what we are seeing when we see a quick take. The dog ran up and just
caught the hare! Crazy, huh?!? So, it just did what every dog in the field is trying to do except it didn’t
miss! That’s right, it did not miss and therefore it did not make a mistake. Turns and wrenches are the
result of missed attempts. If you don’t believe me, bring a couple of inexperienced dog with ability out
to a nice big field and watch how many times they turn the hare. You’ll need a calculator to add up all
turns. When you see and quick take without much work, you are seeing a close to perfect course and
should receive your close to perfect score.

A lot of folks struggle with this concept but it really is that easy. And if you have owned a few good fast
dogs in your life, you know that the great ones do this the most often, coincidence? Only a fool would
think so.

Some judges will counter with “It must have been a lesser hare”. My question to them is, “What are you
being paid to judge?” And if they don’t know, I will inform them that they are the judge of dogs, and the
Hunt master is the judge of hares”. If you do not score a dog that makes a quick take Very Well, you
are in turn punishing that dog for doing well and being efficient. There is no other way of looking at it,
no other theory.

Steve Downs