How does NOFCA work?
The short and sweet explanation is that you enter trials hosted by NOFCA judges by your choice of medium (drawing or writing) to earn placements, points, and takes for your dogs. For each trial you may recolor your lineart as many times as you'd like and make modifications to your lineart for new breeds, however you may not reuse linearts between rounds or hosts. For drawn entries, all stories must be original to the round and trial in question. NOFCA trial stories may not be doubly used for group titles in Pedigree-Club.
You fight against injuries, suspensions, and rare events to overcome the odds and accumulate enough of each requirement to earn titles. None of the titles require effort or CACIT entries, that is entirely voluntary. To learn more, click the links below.
Injuries
Program
Earnings
What is NOFCA?
Where it based out of in North America?
NOFCA is permitted within northern Mexico and southern Canada, though it is primarily a western United States venue.
To simulate real life NOFCA, the most active location is in California. The NOFCA headquarters are in Arizona.
What exactly is open field coursing (OFC)?
Unlike lure coursing where a dog chases a plastic bag or a stuffed toy, open field coursing is the act of coursing live wild hare. The act of hare coursing is outlawed in many European countries, however it is legal in the majority of North America.
Why would owners field course their dogs?
NOFCA believes that hounds were created to do an import job; hunting. To best preserve the real hunting dog, one must hunt with their hounds. Simulated coursing has many drawbacks and the main drawback is that dogs memorize the lure trajectory and there's no real simulation of the spontaneous with a fake lure. Also, OFC tests a dog ability to be a pack hunter.
How do you find hares in a hunt trial? Then what?
The competitors whom are waiting their turn to hunt or have already had a hunt (the gallery) aide the other competitors in rousing up quarry. The gallery walk slowly side by side through the field(s) to achieve this.
Hounds are never crated out of the car unless injured and excused for the day, they remain among the gallery. Any hound who leaves the gallery early without hunt master excusal for injury or illness will forfeit it's placements in future hunts.
Dog Equipment includes a leash and collar for the hound to wear in the gallery. Muzzles are not permitted. Blankets (in bright yellow, blue, or pink without numbers) are worn by all dogs except the fourth dog when run in quartlets. Hounds are permitted to wear GPS units, but remotes must be handed to the judge prior to the hunt. In the event of a missing hound the remote will be furnished to the hunter so they may retrieve their dog. Collars other than GPS in nature are discouraged due to the risk of tangling, however a simple collar with a metal nameplate and no tags is accepted.
Handler Equipment is not nearly as strict, but remember that your handler will be walking in the middle of nowhere with rowdy dogs. Binoculars to watch the hunt as it leads out ahead of the gallery is recommended. Wear sturdy hiking shoes and long-pants to protect you from prickly undergrowth, as well as a hat to protect from sunburn.
Created Breeds
Guideline A
Instincts must align. Herding is the urge to chase without the kill.
NOFCA breeds may not have herding listed a valid purpose.
Guideline B
NOFCA breeds must have sufficient creativity to be recognized as their own. Adding more colors or patterns is not considered sufficient.
We ask that the Nudari be the most unrealistic breed in our venue.
Guideline C
NOFCA breeds must have sufficient speed and size to be realistic for the venue. Dogs must be no smaller than eighteen inches and regularly reach twenty-nine miles per hour.
Guideline D
Form follows function. As a result all breeds must have a tail to act as a rudder during turns, noses to smell prey, and eyes to sight hares. Dogs may not be bright green, purple, or any other absurd color. Since the desert may often have brick colored dirt, desaturated red & orange colored dogs are permitted. Hairless will only be permitted in Night Hunting. Brachycephalic breeds are not permitted.
Created Breed Acceptance Process
All users must understand that even when abiding to the guidelines that we reserve the right to deny any breed.
What is required?
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A breed standard with FCI, AKC, and UKC groups listed.
Simply having a standard (PC Accepted preferred) is not an auto-pass. The contents of the standard will be judged in reference to how suitable for function and the label of sight hound the breed is. It was previously assumed that this was well established, but due to recent staff interactions it has been made clear it must be updated.
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Disqualifier Traits are as follows: natural dock or stub tails, undersized, oversized, and/or have traits that conflict with the general description of a sight hound such as being brachycephalic, mastiff in shape, etc. A breed standard with no faults or disqualifiers beyond albino and double merle is not preferred. We do not view merle as a favorable trait for sight hounds because it may create vision issues, which is the primary qualifier for becoming a sighthound, but it can be ignored in an otherwise suitable breed within reason due to contributing or related breeds. Hound ears are a point of contention but may be accepted in an otherwise excellent breed.
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Desired Traits are as follows: A deep chest, moderate to thin waistline, flexible back, a full tail to aid in turns, and/or functional structure. Dolichocephalic head and vision to aid in spotting prey due to wider field of vision. Length of the coat is not a consideration as the climate a sight hound may operate in changes depending on region and season. However, hairlessness is a potential barrier for dogs to hunt in hot areas where NOFCA primarily operates and may be granted a limited right to hunt at night only.
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The breed founder must list related or contributing breeds that were mixed together to make the breed. The contributor breeds must reasonably be able to create a dog with sighthound structure. (ie, bull mastiff x newfoundland x malamute cannot produce a sighthound!). It is not required to have a detailed breed history but is is highly preferred. This means that the contributor breeds must be fast enough to create a breed exceeding twenty-nine (29) miles per hour. A good reference material is the AKC Fast CAT Lifetime leaderboards.
Why would a breed be denied despite following the traits and speed rules?
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If the breed too closely resembles an existing real life or fictional breed it will be denied.
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If a breed has too crazy of colorations it will be denied.
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If the breed founder is abusive or hateful to others the breed will be denied.
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A breed that has too few members to reasonably support a functional breeding population;
How do we submit for acceptance?
You have two choices: note the group and wait for correspondence or Discord message the founder directly.
Where will my new breed be listed?
All new created breeds will be listed on the Annex registry. If registration numbers stay low or dead for a full calendar year they will be removed and de-recognized at the beginning of the new season. In order to be sure a new breed can run a breed stake, six imports must be referenced and uploaded a platform such as toyhouse, dA, buzzly. These six imports must all have owners and they may not all or majority be owned by one person. This may be waived for breeds with enough breed faults, unique traits, or excellent sighthound features that means NOFCA's founder wishes to specially promote them for the Calendar year.
What about real breeds that aren't accepted or listed anywhere?
You have two choices: note the group and wait for correspondence or Discord message the founder directly. Make sure you check the barred breed list first. It may take the Founder time to research the breed. Some real breeds used to hunt but haven't been used for hunting and their function as a hunting dog is purely historical and not supported by current day literature. It must be proven that the dogs hunt small prey by sight. Hunting large prey is not the same. We prefer to mostly recognize FCI/UKC/AKC recognized breeds.
NOFCA Breed Index
Permitted breeds:
Afghan Hound (Af), Andulsian Podenco Grande (An)*, Azawakh (Az),
Borzoi (Bo),
Canis Nudari (Ca), Chipppirani/Kanni (Ch), Cirneco (Ci), Cretan Hound (Cr),
Dighádídeeshwoł Hound (Di),
Egyptian Pointer (Eg),
Firenze Segugio (Fi),
Galgo Español (Ga), Greyhound (Gr),
Ibizan Hound (Ib), Ikkarian Hill Hound (Ik),
Jackcoata (Ja),
Levrier Franchis aka Regalle (Le),
Magyar Agar (Ma), Moscow Colorpoint (Mo),
Novraki Hound (No),
Pharaoh Hound (Ph), Portuguese Podengo Grande (Po)*
Rajapalayam (Ra), Rek Mesneh (Re), Roswell Hound (Ro),
Saluki (Sa), Scottish Deerhound (Sc), Silken Windhound (Si), Sloughi (Sl), Soaris Mountain Hound (So), Suri Kalb (Su), Sylvan Deerhound (Sy), Whippets (Wh)
Voda Trčanje Pas (Vo)
*Grande means only the large varieties will be recognized as eligible due to NOFCA's size requirement
These breeds are permitted but only under a different name: (no ridged relatives or ridged dogs allowed)
Velvet Gazal - accepted as smooth Saluki
Manlet Gazal - accepted as feathered Saluki
Tumbleweed Gazal - accepted as feathered Saluki
Bell Sleeves Gazal - accepted as Afghan
Satin Gazal - accepted as Afghan
Feral Gazal - accepted as Taigan
De-recognized breeds:
Akvaleir (Ak),
Bush Hound (Bu),
Czech Lynx Hound (Cz),
Gibraltar (Gi),
Memphis Hounds (Me)
All of these breeds lost recognition due to lack of participation and inactivity.
Completely Disbarred breeds:
Via Rule A: Canaan
Via Rule C - Basenji, Portuguese Podengo Small & Medium, Italian Greyhound, Irish Wolfhound, Thai Ridgeback
Via Rule B - Luxe Gazal
Not a Sighthound - Canaan, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Xoloitzcuintli, Kombai, Peruvian Inca Orchid