NAVHDA Scoring

David Sparks Ph.D.

Hunting dog breeder and trainer Kyle Amundsen told me about the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, or NAVHDA, and how they score dog trials. “you start with an NA, which a dog has to run before at 16 months old, which NA stands for natural ability. It's judged on 1 to 4 on its pointing its field search. We make sure the dog's not gun shy. We'll make sure the dog tracks down and wounded animals and that it will swim. And then a UT is after that or UPT, which is a utility prep test or a utility test. That's a lot more in depth. Dog has two point hold to the flush, hold to the shot, make a straight hand retrieve, has a duck search and it has to do in water. It's a lot more extensive. You get graded up to a 110 112 112 prize one is the absolute best you can do with an NA dog and they'll do it right there on the spot. There's three judges that follow you through the field. They'll judge you at the end of the day and then have to send you a certificate. At the end of everything. You'll get a placard in the mail if you want it. When you get to the UT, what it does is it gives us a grading that we can use as far as breeding and how we put dogs together. Speaker1: Again, that was dog trainer Kyle Edmondson, who specializes in the breeding and training of Griffons.