Sporting Dogs: Their Points and Management in Health and Disease

by Frank Townend Barton

9. A gun must have been fired over all aged dogs as well as puppies before they can be awarded either a Prize or a Certificate of Merit.

10. Certificates of Merit will be awarded with a view to the establishment of Workers' Classes at the Dog Shows, and as a guide to purchasers of dogs which, though not in the list of Prize Winners, give promise in their work of being valuable sporting dogs. In a Brace Stake this honour may be conferred on one dog without reference to the behaviour of his companion.

11. The Judges are empowered to withhold a Prize when, in their opinion, no merit is shown, and to exclude from competition bitches on heat, or any animals they may consider unfit to compete, and the entry fees of such dogs will be forfeited.

12. After the first round the Judges may order a flag to be hoisted at the end of each individual contest to indicate which of the two competitors has shown the greater merit in that particular trial. The hoisting of the "colour" of a dog whose performance on that one occasion has been the more meritorious will not necessarily imply that his opponent is debarred from winning in the Stake. When a striking evenness of merit is shown, both flags will be hoisted simultaneously; and, conversely, when there is a total lack of good work, no flags will be displayed.

13. In the event of the weather being considered by the Committee unsuitable for holding trials, it shall be in their power to postpone the meeting from day to day until the Saturday following the first day of the trials, on which day either the stakes not already decided shall be abandoned and their entry fees returned, or a fresh draw for them shall take place, at the discretion of the Committee.

14. If, from unforeseen circumstances, the Committee deem it advisable to alter the date of the meeting after the closing of the entries, this may be done by sending formal notice to all competitors that they may recover their entry fees by exercising the option of cancelling their entries within four days from the date of such notice. All entries, however, about which no such application is made, within those four days will stand good for the meeting at its altered date.

The Committee also reserve to themselves the right to abandon the meeting at any time, on returning the entry monies to the competitors.

15. If any of the advertised Judges be prevented from fulfilling their engagement for either the whole or part of the Meeting, the Committee shall appoint any other person to judge, or shall make any other arrangement that to them seems desirable.

16. The Committee have the power—if they think fit—to refuse any entries for the Society's Trials, and if they consider that any persons by their conduct or otherwise, are undesirable visitants at the Society's Trials, they shall exclude such persons from the Trials, without being obliged to assign any reason for their action.