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The Trial GroundA dated record of British working-dog trials

Season 2024

The 2024 record

The 2024 entries start from nothing: test against trial, how you enter and get a peg, what the gundog groups do, shepherd commands, a first canicross season.

Two handlers waiting at a trial ground in early spring, dogs settled at their feet on short grass, a running order sheet pinned to a board behind them

The 2024 entries assume nothing. They are the vocabulary year, written for somebody who has watched one event, understood perhaps a third of it, and wants the rest without having to ask the same question at every ground. What is the difference between a working test and a field trial, and why does one count for a title and the other does not. How do you enter, what is the draw, and what is a peg. Which gundog breeds do which job, and what is a judge looking for from each. What do the shepherd’s commands mean. What does a first canicross season involve. And what happens on a grouse moor in July, which is where the pointer and setter year begins.

Vocabulary sounds like the easy part and is not. Most of these words are old, most of them are used differently by different disciplines, and several of them mean something precise that a plain dictionary will not give. A run is not a run in canicross and in sheepdog work. A mark means one thing to a retriever handler and another thing to a judge holding a score sheet. Getting these straight is the difference between watching a trial and following one.

Each entry stays inside what can be checked. The regulations of the governing bodies are quoted where they exist and linked where they are published; where a usage is customary rather than written down, the entry says that it is customary. That distinction runs through the whole record.

In this section

  1. 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

    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.

  2. 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 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.

  3. 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

    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.

  4. 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

    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.

  5. 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

    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.

  6. 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

    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 rest of the record runs either side of this season: 2026 and 2025. How the entries are written, and what the desk does not do, is set out on the about page.