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The Trial GroundA dated record of British working-dog trials

Field, moor and forest track

The working-dog trial, written down the day it runs

Five sports, one page each: what the ground asks, how the judging works, and what a newcomer standing at the rope is actually looking at.

Gundogs · Sheepdogs · Canicross · Bikejor · Carting

Other records and guides

For the household side of dog work, the ground shifts indoors: a three-week routine puppy plan, reward timing, loose-lead walking and room layout are set out at three-week routine puppy, with safety and choosing a trainer in New Jersey.

For readers who check a dog’s entry before the day, a Canadian conformation guide sets out how shows are read there, from the official calendar and a dog’s eligibility to coat tools and winter boots.

For the ground beyond the trial, the practical side of living with a working breed, an Australian kelpie breed profile sits among plain notes on choosing, training and keeping a dog in an Australian setting.

Away from the rope, the same questions of readiness and care arise, and dog ownership in French sets out walking, adoption and breed knowledge for the akita inu and the spitz japonais.

Away from the rope, the same questions of law and climate are kept in order at the Magnolia Dog Journal, where Mississippi code sections, municipal leash rules and heat and parasite care in the Delta are read one by one and dated.

A working record of the trial ground sits beside a plain guide to the Niagara river, where smallmouth bass identification is set out with marks, rocky habitat and low light, alongside cross border licences, seasons and bank access for families.

Away from the rope and the sheep, the desk keeps a second record of what is asked of animals kept for company: a practical guide to untreated wood and natural branches for parrot toys, covering safe materials, home made enrichment and the daily routine of a busy owner.

Start here

One entry answers more questions than the rest put together. Read it before the register.

  1. Two canvas training dummies and a green dummy wallet on a wooden bench beside a whistle on a lanyard, a hedged field out of focus behind

    Working test or field trial: which is which

    Dummies or shot game, summer or winter, a mark out of twenty or an award card: the difference between a working test and a field trial is the first thing that has to be clear, and almost every other entry in this record leans on it.

    Season 2024 · Gundogs

LOGThe register

Every entry the record holds, newest first, each one dated to the day it was written.

  1. A wooden collecting ring gate at a hill sheepdog trial in low autumn sun, a black and white collie standing behind it with its handler's crook leaning on the rail, shot from waist height with the field falling away behind.

    · Sheepdogs

    Coat colour in the working collie

    Colour is not a judged point in the pen at a British working-dog trial, and the names used at the ground are working names rather than genetic ones.

  2. A flat, shallow shoreline of a Scottish estuary at low tide in soft morning light, wet sand and a single set of paw prints leading to the water's edge, no people or dogs in frame.

    · Gundogs

    Water and a young retriever: the unhurried way in

    A young retriever is brought to water by being given shallow, warm, quiet entries and the freedom to leave again, never by being carried in or thrown in.

  3. A working cocker quartering thick bracken in low winter light, seen from behind the handler, with a whistle cord and a canvas dummy visible in the foreground.

    · Gundogs

    Two Cockers Under One Name: British Work and Show

    The name cocker spaniel covers two dogs that share a stud book entry and little else.

  4. A white livestock guardian standing at a field gate at first light, seen from behind at about ten metres, with a flock of ewes in soft focus beyond the fence and dew on the grass.

    · Working dogs

    Guardian dog and herding dog: two jobs

    A livestock guardian and a sheepdog do opposite work.

  5. A long-haired Tervueren standing on a wet grass training field in the Saarland, early morning light, low angle, handler's legs and a line of agility jumps blurred in the background.

    · Working dogs

    Belgian shepherds at British working trials

    At British working trials, the Belgian shepherd is seen most often in obedience and agility, less so in sheepdog trials, and almost never in retriever or spaniel field trials.

  6. A soft morning light on a sandy trail edge, a single hind foot print of a large macropod pressed into damp ground beside a broken line of tail drag, low camera angle, no animal in frame.

    · The ground

    Reading animals by their signs on trial ground

    A grey kangaroo and a wallaby are told apart on a trail by size, posture and tail: the grey stands tall with a small head and a long thick tail that rests on the ground, the wallaby is smaller, often hunched, with a tail that trails.

  7. A low wooden post at the edge of a mown sheep field in flat evening light, a crook leaning against it and a single ewe grazing in the middle distance, shot from behind the handler's shoulder.

    · Sheepdogs

    The collie at the trial: working line or show line

    A collie standing at the post is judged on the work in front of it, not on the paperwork behind it.

  8. A treatment table in a plain tiled room, a black and white collie standing while a pair of hands rests on its shoulder, late afternoon light from a high window, medium shot from the side.

    · Working dogs

    Who else treats a working dog's body

    A working dog's body is treated by more hands than the veterinary surgeon's.

  9. A wooden judging table at the edge of a mown grass field on a bright, still morning, with a clipboard, a stopwatch and a folded schedule lying on it, shot from waist height with the field soft behind.

    · Breeds

    Breed standards and the working dog

    A written breed standard fixes the points a breed club has agreed to be essential: a height band, a coat colour, an eye shape, a tail carriage, a way of moving.

  10. A wide moorland trial field in late summer with heather on the skyline, a line of parked cars along a rope and a shepherd alone at the post

    · Sheepdogs

    August: the open sheepdog season at its full size

    If there is one month to watch sheepdog work in Britain it is August. The diary carries more trials than any other month, and the four National trials fall inside three weeks of each other.

  11. A large black dog in a padded draught harness hitched to a two wheeled cart on a grass field, a handler walking alongside on a loose lead

    · Carting

    Carting and draught tests in Britain: small, but written down

    This is the smallest discipline in this record and the one people most often assume does not exist here. It does, it is carefully regulated, and the regulation belongs to three clubs of a single breed.

  12. A retriever swimming across a still pond towards the bank with reeds behind, ripples spreading, a handler waiting on the grass edge

    · Gundogs

    Working tests on water, and the certificate behind them

    The water test is the shortest exercise in gundog competition and one of the most consequential. Its definition is a single sentence, and the sentence does not contain the word retrieve.

  13. A working spaniel driving through a strip of rough grass and brambles with its tail moving, a steward with a clipboard standing at the edge

    · Gundogs

    Inside a spring spaniel working test

    A spaniel working test is a shooting day with the shooting taken out. The beat is marked, the gun fires blanks, the game is canvas, and the dog is asked to do exactly what it would do in November.

  14. A wide forest ride with soft muddy ruts and puddles between conifers, marker tape tied to a branch, low bright sun through bare birches

    · Canicross

    Canicross in March: reading a forest trail at the end of a season

    The British dryland season runs from about September to May, and March is where it starts to close itself down. The trail is the same trail; the ground, the light and the air are not.

  15. A young black and white collie lying flat in short wet grass watching three sheep, a handler at a post in a bare winter field behind

    · Sheepdogs

    Nursery trials: a young dog in the dark months

    Nursery trials are where young sheepdogs first run in public, and they are almost invisible in the rulebook. The society that governs the sport does not publish a nursery course, and the local societies that do run them differ from one another.

  16. A retriever sitting steady in frosty stubble beside a handler in a waxed coat, breath showing in cold air, bare hedge and grey sky behind

    · Gundogs

    What a January retriever field trial asks of a dog

    January is the end of the shooting season and the hardest part of the retriever year. The ground is wet, the light is short, and the regulation that governs the day is at its most demanding about steadiness and about mouth.

  17. A wide forest track curving away between conifers with marker tape on a post, wet gravel surface and low winter sun through the trees

    · Bikejor

    How a dryland course is laid out for bikejor

    A dryland course is designed, not just chosen. The rules that govern it are written around one idea: build the trail for the fastest and biggest team that will use it, not the average one.

  18. A padded pulling harness, a coiled bungee line and a wide padded waist belt laid out on the tailgate of a car in a forest car park

    · Canicross

    Canicross kit: the harness, the line and the belt

    Canicross equipment is simple enough to describe in one sentence and specific enough that the rules give it in centimetres. Every requirement in it exists because of a way somebody has been hurt.

  19. A trial field with two sets of white hurdle gates on a long fetch line, a small pen of hurdles in the foreground and a shepherd at a post

    · Sheepdogs

    A sheepdog course, from outrun to single, with the points

    A sheepdog trial is scored by subtraction. Every dog starts on the maximum for each phase and loses points from there, and the published scale tells you exactly what the judge is protecting.

  20. A working cocker spaniel quartering thick rushy cover with its tail going, a handler in a flat cap watching from a few yards behind

    · Gundogs

    Spaniel stakes: novice, all aged and open

    Stake names sound like levels of skill and are actually definitions about paperwork. Novice is not a beginner class, all aged is not a veterans class, and one common class name is not in the regulation at all.

  21. A judge in a waxed coat writing on a clipboard at the edge of a mown field, two canvas dummies on the grass beside a marker post

    · Gundogs

    How a gundog working test is judged and marked

    The one thing everybody knows about working tests is that they are marked out of twenty. The regulation says something more careful than that, and the difference matters if you are trying to compare two results.

  22. A judge’s marked card and pencil resting on a folded coat on the tailgate of an estate car, a numbered arm band beside it

    · Gundogs

    Reading a field trial award card

    A field trial does not produce a score. It produces a short list of placings, an optional merit award, and a set of reasons written in a private shorthand of faults that the regulation itself defines.

  23. A setter standing rigid on point in deep heather on an open moor, a second dog stopped behind it, two handlers walking abreast in the distance

    · Gundogs

    Pointers and setters: the moor season, and why it runs twice

    Of the four gundog groups this is the one with its own calendar, its own way of running two dogs at once, and a fault list that has almost nothing in common with the retrievers.

  24. A runner in a waist belt attached by a bungee line to a dog in a pulling harness, both moving away along a muddy forest track in winter light

    · Canicross

    Canicross for a first season: what actually happens

    Canicross is running with a dog attached to your waist by a bungee line. The sport itself is simple; the parts that need explaining are the season, the start format and the rules that exist because a dog cannot tell you it is too hot.

  25. A border collie crouched low in long grass watching a small group of sheep at distance on a hillside, a shepherd standing at a post further back

    · Sheepdogs

    The sheepdog and the flock: the words used on the hill

    Sheepdog work has a small vocabulary and every word in it is a direction, a pace or a state. Learn the eight that matter and a trial stops being a mystery and starts being a conversation you can follow.

  26. Four gundogs of different breeds sitting in a line on cut grass, each with a handler standing behind holding a slip lead, hedged field beyond

    · Gundogs

    The four gundog groups and the jobs they were set

    Trials are organised by sub-group, and each sub-group has a written basic requirement that says exactly what the dog must do. Read those four paragraphs and most of what a judge is watching becomes visible.

  27. A clipboard holding a numbered running order sheet pinned to a wooden board at a trial ground, a hand resting on the edge, cars and a hedge behind

    · The record

    Entering a first trial: the schedule, the ballot and the draw

    Entering a field trial is a paper process with a strict order, and the part that surprises newcomers is that previous winners are drawn ahead of you by rule, not by favour.

  28. Two canvas training dummies and a green dummy wallet on a wooden bench beside a whistle on a lanyard, a hedged field out of focus behind

    · Gundogs

    Working test or field trial: which is which

    The two events look alike from the rope and are not the same thing at all. One is judged on live unhandled game in the shooting season and counts towards a title. The other simulates a shooting day with dummies, and by rule awards no title at all.

The three seasons

The record is kept by year, and a year page here is a season page: every entry belongs to the year it was written in, and each year has its own character. 2024 is the vocabulary, 2025 is the mechanics, 2026 is the season as it ran. Nothing on this site reports a competition result, names a competitor or reproduces anybody else’s report, and the desk writes under one collective signature explained on the about page, together with how the record is kept.

The 2026 record

16 entries · from 17 January 2026

The seven entries of 2026 follow the calendar: cold water and heavy cover in January, an indoor spaniel test in February, a forest canicross course in March, nursery sheepdogs in May, a water test in June, carting in July, and an open trial on the moor in August.

The 2025 record

6 entries · from 25 January 2025

Six entries on the mechanics: the award sheet a field trial produces, the points a working test is marked out of, the parts of a sheepdog course, the spaniel stake classes, the three pieces of canicross kit, and how a dryland bikejor course is laid out.

The 2024 record

6 entries · from 10 February 2024

Six entries for a first year: the difference between a working test and a field trial, how entries and the draw work, what each gundog group was bred to do, the language a shepherd uses on the hill, a first canicross season, and the pointer trials that open the moor.

DESKPages kept close

These pages stay in the register because the desk rereads them, keeps their explanations current, and returns to them when a new season raises the same questions.

  1. A working test score sheet beside canvas dummies on short grass, with a distant field trial gate beyond

    · Gundogs

    Working test or field trial: which is which

    The first distinction to settle: dummies or shot game, summer or winter, and why only one route can lead towards a field trial title.

  2. A trial entry form, pencil and numbered draw cards on a wooden table beside a folded dog lead

    · Gundogs

    Entering a first trial: schedule, ballot, draw

    A practical guide to the closing date, preference groups and draw, with the small decisions that make a first entry readable.

  3. A sheepdog trial course marked across a green field with gates, a pen and a handler post visible from the rope

    · Sheepdogs

    The parts of a sheepdog course

    Outrun, lift, fetch, drive, shed and pen in their working order, so the route across the field becomes a sequence rather than a blur.

  4. A handwritten field trial award card beside a rosette and clipboard on a marked wooden steward table

    · Gundogs

    Reading a field trial award card

    The quiet document at the end of the day explained: placings, Certificates of Merit and the details that matter after the running.

  5. A wide moorland trial field in late summer with heather on the skyline, parked cars along a rope and a shepherd at the post

    · Sheepdogs

    August: the open sheepdog season at its full size

    A dated field note on the month when the British open season reaches its largest courses and the familiar phases are tested at distance.

Beyond the register

For the wider trial circuit, the sheepdog trial phases page explains the phases, classes and scoring that sit behind a herding competition. It is a useful next reading when a spectator wants to understand a course beyond the rope.