The publication
About Marks & Blinds
One subject, one method, and a short list of things this publication does not print. Marks & Blinds is a reference on organized retriever work in the United States, written from the rulebooks that govern it.
Marks & Blinds covers the work of the American retriever: field trials and hunting tests run by the American Kennel Club, the Hunting Retriever Club program run under the United Kennel Club, the NAHRA ladder, and everything that feeds those, from a puppy's first short mark to a November water blind. The name says the subject. A mark is a bird the dog watched fall; a blind is a bird it never saw. Every level in the sport is built on the pair.
What this publication covers
Six working sections and one dated journal. The reference section sets out the programs, the stakes and the levels, and carries the stakes and levels table and the glossary of the line. Training follows the progression from puppy to finished dog. Gear is sorted by what a piece of equipment lets a lone trainer do. Waterfowl covers the hunting day the whole sport imitates. Breeds and health covers the eligible retriever breeds and the screenings working lines are held to. Grounds and seasons covers water, cover, access and frost in the Northeast, which is what actually limits training here.
How the pages are written
The rulebooks are the primary source, and they are read rather than summarized from elsewhere. A precise figure, meaning a number of passes, a number of marks, a scoring threshold or an age condition, only appears on a page when it has been read in the governing document, with the chapter and section noted and the edition and the date of reading recorded. Where a figure has not been read at the source, the page says what can be said without it instead of approximating. The full procedure, including how a correction is dated, is set out in sources and method.
One distinction runs through everything: what a rulebook states is kept in a different field from what the sport habitually does. Distances in a field trial are the standard example. They are set by the judges on the ground available, and a great deal of writing about the sport quotes a habitual distance as though it were a requirement. On this site a habit is labeled as a habit.
What a page here is built to hold
Rules with their edition, the reading date and the section they come from. Screenings explained so that a reader can tell what a piece of paper certifies, with every question about a particular dog sent to a veterinarian. Programs, levels and vocabulary described as the governing bodies define them. Firearms appear only as the noise a dog is conditioned to accept. A reference that prints a rule with its edition stays useful until the edition changes, and then says so in notes and rule updates.
Sponsored links and disclosure
Some outbound links on this site may be part of a commercial arrangement. When that is the case, the arrangement never decides what a page says: the rulebook figures, the tables and the judgments are written first and are not altered afterwards. No product is ranked, scored or recommended in exchange for payment, and no page is published whose purpose is to carry a link. Anything sponsored is marked as such on the page that carries it, and the whole rule, including what is refused and how a link is marked, is set out on the sponsored content policy.
Writing to the desk
Corrections are welcome and are the fastest way to improve a reference. If a figure here does not match the edition of the rulebook in front of you, the page will be checked against the source and, if it is wrong, corrected and dated. Subject suggestions and link exchanges go to the same address, on contact the desk. Who answers for what is published here, and how a correction is dated, is set out on the editorial policy, and what this site collects from a reader, which is nothing, is described on the privacy page.