Editorial policy

This page states how the record is made, so that a reader can tell the difference between something the desk checked and something the desk was told.

Sources

A rule is taken from the body that writes it. For gundog work that is the Kennel Club and its field trial and working test regulations; for sheepdog trials it is the International Sheep Dog Society and the national societies; for canicross and bikejor it is the organiser of the race, because in these sports the rules are set race by race rather than nationally. Each entry links to the document it uses and gives the date it was read. A summary written by somebody else is not a source, and is not used as one.

Three kinds of statement

The entries distinguish between a rule that is published and can be quoted, a practice that is customary and is described as customary, and a thing that could not be established. The third is written down as unknown rather than smoothed over. This matters most in the sports with no single governing body, where two organisers a hundred miles apart genuinely run different rules on line length, minimum age or the temperature at which a race is cut short.

What the record does not do

It does not report competition results, publish placings, name competitors, or reproduce reports written by other people. It does not describe an event that the desk did not verify from a published source. It does not give veterinary, legal or training advice, and where a subject touches on a dog’s welfare it points at the organiser’s rules rather than inventing a threshold.

Photographs

The photographs illustrate the kind of scene an entry describes. They are produced for this record, they do not document a named event, ground, dog or handler, and they are never presented as evidence that something happened. Where an entry needs proof, the proof is the regulation it links to, not the picture at the top of the page.

Corrections

An entry that is wrong is corrected rather than quietly deleted, and the correction changes the date on the entry. Anything that reaches the contact address with a source attached will be checked. The record is kept by year and every entry carries the date it was written, which is the point of keeping it this way: an entry that has not been re-read since a rule changed can be found. The wider purpose of the record is on the about page, and the rules on paid placements, which are strict, are on the sponsored content page.