Much has been said and written in the last few years on how to help our sport. Some have suggested that we combine the classes in licensed trials and just run males and females; some have suggested we have different criteria for finishing a field champion such as three wins and X points or four wins and X points and so on and so on. Might I suggest a different point of view or views?

First of all, make the NBQ a place and award points equal to 1/5 of the entries. That would help in some cases as hounds would pick up some additional points along the way and help them accomplish the 120 points needed to finish a Field Champion. Yes this would require judges to work the NBQ hound against the fourth place hound and would require an additional brace in third series and/or subsequent series.

My second thought would be to award championship points to the Federation Classes. This might also be a shot in the arm for the Federation events as people might keep running their dogs if they had a chance to finish a hound by getting a win or the necessary points to make a Field Champion. So what if a hound gets an additional win after he finishes, many of our hounds are already finishing with four or more wins.

Yes these might be some drastic measures, but they keep the integrity of at least three wins and 120 points to make a Field Champion. The major changes would have to come from the A.K.C. I know the one response to the awarding of points to the Federation Events is that it is a closed trial, but so is the National Brace Trial. One must qualify by running and placing in a qualifying trial. Until a couple of years ago no one would have ever thought that would have been possible.

These ideas have been discussed at several times and most beaglers seem to be in favor of the ideas. Are they changes, yes they are and some time we as beaglers tend to resist change, but they are ideas to help our sport. If you agree let your B.A.C. representative know how you feel about these ideas. It isnt going to happen over night, but if we think about it and talk about it, the representatives will ultimately present the ideas to the A.K.C. and ultimately they will listen to us.