Three Issues Pertaining to Strikes, Other Coonhound News

Coonhound Advisor

April 15, 2016

Source: Allen Gingerich

As published in Coonhound Bloodlines March, 2016

We Are Not All Judges.

This topic is near and dear to my heart. It’s one of my pet peeves, actually. How many times have you seen a cast gather and someone, usually the person in possession of the scorecard, exclaims, “We are all really Judges for this cast.” It can happen even in cases where a club or association has made an effort to appoint a quality Judge on the cast. In an effort to not come off looking like a jerk, someone accepts the scorecard agreeing to record points while making it very clear that all decisions will be voted on by all cast members. Man, I hate that. That is not how the scoring system is designed to work. It may sound nice and friendly, but it can quickly lead to choosing up sides and stalemate votes and inconsistent judging.

Every cast must have a Judge assigned to it. It is the club’s responsibility, according to Rule 9, to assign Judges who are honest and capable of keeping score. If the Host Club follows the suggested procedures to draw judges and casts, then it should never be an issue of not being able to come up with good hunting judges. Those procedures can be found under MOH/HD Guidelines in your rulebook under Drawing Casts and Judges.

The Hunting Judge, and the Judge alone, makes all decisions regarding the scoring of a cast except in three situations. Those situations are: scoring trees (plus, minus or circle); calling time out; and returning to a previously scored tree without declaring dogs treed. Other than that, every decision made on the cast is made by the Hunting Judge.

So often I hear from people who are hung up on the fact that you shouldn’t be able to hunt a two-dog cast because there is not a majority. The first thing I ask them is, “How is a two-dog cast different from a four-dog cast?” You still don’t have an odd number of handlers. The truth is you don’t need an odd number of handlers to judge a cast of dogs. All you need is one honest and capable Hunting Judge. That being said, the obvious issue at hand comes into play when the Judge’s decision is questioned.

Did you ever stop to think that in a three- or four-dog cast, if even one person agrees with the way the Judge scored a situation, he/she cannot be overturned by the cast? That is really significant in my mind. That tells us that the only time a Judge’s decision can be overturned in the woods is when the remainder of the cast members unanimously agree that the Judge has made a bad decision.

If we, as clubs and event hosting organizations, would put just a little more effort and concern into the selection and appointment of quality Hunting Judges, problems and controversies would be almost non-existent. And if those Hunting Judges appointed by the club would take control of the cast instead of claiming “we are all Judges”, the system we have in place will work very well. It’s the mentality that “we are all Judges” that prompts a lackadaisical attitude about drawing casts, assigning and accepting authority. This policy has been addressed a lot in the past 10 years, but we are still finding clubs and officials who choose to ignore it. It needs to be a mandatory process.

The process starts with selecting individuals as hunting judges from your general pool of entries for each category (Registered; Nite Champion, Grand nite Champion). By doing so, you are able to use the most qualified judges you have available. Next, put your judge entries on the cards first. Follow that up by drawing a guide entry from the guide pool (unless the judge is already guiding). Lastly, draw your remaining entries to the cards. It’s also a good idea to add blank entry forms in your general pool in the event you have any three-dog casts. The number of blank entries obviously depends on how many three-dog casts you will have. This way you are totally eliminating any potential negative perceptions as to how it was determined who gets the three-dog cast(s). Heck, stick those blank entries to the card they were drawn to. It tells the story for you. This process takes no longer than any other and benefits everyone involved. Everyone.

Three Issues Pertaining to Strikes

Rule 1 - Dog must open before declared struck or treed.

Rule 6 - Dogs will be scratched: (e) If handler fails to strike his dog on or before the third bark, after the first minute, each time dog(s) is released. (This rule is to be rigidly enforced.)

Q: Let’s say a dog barks two times, then shuts up. Twenty minutes goes by, and the dog hunts in a completely different direction and barks once. Does this count as the third bark, and must the dog be struck, or is this considered the first bark again with two to go? Seems if eight minutes denotes a dead or lost track that the same should apply to a dog that has opened and not been declared struck. If a dog opens once, but is not struck, and eight minutes lapse without another bark, seems to me like the bark requirement should start over.

What is the reason for the three-bark rule in the first place? If a dog opens once, and a handler cautiously refrains from striking him in on a track he can’t finish, why penalize the handler by requiring him to strike on the second bark 20 minutes later? On a somewhat related topic, is it permissible to declare a dog struck 5, 15 or even 50 minutes after its last bark?

A: Neither the UKC Nite Honor Rules nor UKC interpretations of such have ever referred to a time frame or distance requirement which would, in effect, re-start the number of barks a dog could make before being required to strike the dog. You must strike your dog on or before the third bark, regardless. While I certainly can’t speak for the reason that the three bark rule was originally adopted, I can only assume that it was put in place to hold hounds accountable for tracks that they opened on.

Playing the devil’s advocate, let’s look at an example of how many times a hound could open without being struck in if the eight minutes actually re-set the bark requirement, as you suggest. First, the dog could bark for a solid minute without being declared struck. So as not to confuse the issue, we’ll say in our example that after the first minute, a dog opens twice but is not declared struck. Eight minutes later, he opens twice more and is not struck. And so on. Two hours later, this hound could have opened 30 times without being declared struck or penalized. And what if the dog treed a coon right off the tailgate put some plus on the scorecard then opened twenty more times the rest of the hunt without being declared struck or penalized? That would be a tough way to get beat.

In regards to your second question, you can only strike a hound that is opening on trail at that time the dog is struck. That portion of Rule 1 which states, “dog must open before declared struck or treed”, has been interpreted by UKC to mean that a dog must be opening when the call is made. This prevents a handler from holding off on one bark and jumping in behind someone else for second when a second dog barks and is struck ten minutes later. If you elect not to strike him when he opens, you have to live with it when the competition is getting struck in and your dog isn’t saying a word.

One more thing, it’s my understanding that in some parts of the country it’s become an issue that, if you’re not in the process of saying “strike” as your dog is in the process of making its third bark, you will be scratched. That’s not true. On the third bark means immediately following the third bark, but before the fourth as far as I’m concerned. Dang, it’s really not that complicated, is it?

Dog Catches Possum But Never Opened

Q: The other night during a UKC nite hunt one of the dogs came back to the cast members carrying a possum in its mouth. It was obvious that the dog had caught and killed it. The dog in question that brought the possum back was not declared struck. Actually, none of the dogs in the cast had opened yet. This was a Registered cast, but (I) would like to know how to score in both Registered or Champion casts for future reference.

A: In Registered casts dogs are minused for running, treeing or molesting off game. In this case the dog obviously “caught” the possum. By UKC’s definition “caught” falls in with “molesting. In accordance with Rule 4(m), as it applies to the Registered Division, this would result in minus strike points for those dog(s) involved. However, in this situation the dog was not declared struck, therefore, the dog has no strike points to minus. And there are no provisions to award strike points to a dog that has not opened.

The result would not be the same by the rules as they apply to the Nite Champion and Grand Nite Champion Divisions. The penalty provided under Champion rules calls for dog(s) to be scratched for running, treeing or molesting while under the authority of the judge. Using the same scenario described above would result in the dog(s) involved to be scratched from the hunt because they have met the requirement of “molesting” (caught). The fact that the dog(s) had not opened, barked or wasn’t declared struck is irrelevant. I guess it’s a good example of how a dog can “molest” off game without actually opening. By rule, a registered dog gets by without penalty but not so for Nites or Grands.

Dogs Leaving Tree/Tree Positions Don’t Change

Q: In a four-dog cast, Dogs A and B are struck in and treed before Dogs C and D are struck. Dog C was then struck and treed with Dogs A and B, and considered shutout. Next, Dog D opens and is declared struck for 25. He is running a track right-handed of the tree in question. After the five minutes were up on the tree, but before the handlers got to the tree, Dogs A and B left the tree and joined Dog D on his track. Dog C remained at the tree and was handled there. A coon was seen in the tree. How should the strike and tree points be scored for Dog C?

A: Provided that the tree in question is still open, I would put Dog C down for third strike and third tree. I would do this knowing that if he is on the same tree as Dogs A and B his strike points will have a line drawn through them. When Dogs A and B leave the tree, you minus their tree points. Unfortunately, Dog C’s tree position does not move up when a dog ahead of him is minused.

I get the impression your question is whether or not to assume it is the original tree even though the possibility exists that Dogs A and B left the original tree and Dog C was treed split all along. Even though we give the benefit of the doubt to the dog in most cases, you can’t assume that Dog C was split-treed unless it’s obvious. It wasn’t obvious when they put him on the card for 50 tree points, so you shouldn’t make that assumption later just because the other dogs left. Since you can’t award plus or minus strike points to Dog C, who was shut out, unless he trees on a separate tree; 50+ tree points is what Dog C scores on this tree.