Quarry Types
The two accepted quarry are the black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) or white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii). Hares which are a good replacement for european hare (Lepus europaeus) are the intent when hunting these two species. The black-tail and white-tail should always be hunted in a location where the population is strong and secure; we never hunt them in an area where they are endangered or imperiled.
It is prohibited to hunt endangered or at-risk species such as the endangered UK mountain hare (Lepus timidus) or Mexican volcano rabbit (Romerolagus diazi). Any hunter found to be poaching endangered species will receive a lifelong suspension.
Did you know? Whippets were originally the breed of choice for poachers.
Picking your Trial Location
Picking your Country
NOFCA can be held in parts of Mexico, America, and Canada. It is not an American-only club.
Legality / Ethical
First and foremost, it must be a location in the North American Continent where it is both legal, ethical, and realistic to hunt these two species (not a small population). It is legally prohibited to course hares with hounds in Washington.
Safe Field Conditions
Every prospective location must be walked ahead of time to check for potential hazards such as barbed wire, broken glass, roads, traps/snares, etc. Obviously, you can miss minor things such as a patch of broken glass or a fence partially buried in the ground. Roads which are rarely traveled are allowed but not encouraged. Hunts may not take place on land wherein there is no permission to hunt; public land or private ranches is a popular choice.
There must be open areas, either with grass and/or shrubs for hares to be roused from. Hunting among the trees is not permissible. Hunts may be cancelled due to excessive snowfall, but it is not required.
All NOFCA Required Elements
Any policies which are new to 2025 are written in red.
Injuries, Takes, Rare Events
All of the above (injuries, takes, rare events) must be rolled for each event. Hosting an injury-less trial is not permissible. You may lower the odds of takes, but may not increase the odds. If you are decreasing the odds of takes, please specify that this round or trial is more difficult than usual. Hosts are allowed to add additional location-specific rare events as long as they are reasonably possible and rare in chance. Once the chance of injury becomes too high, the field is not safe to course; custom rare events must be actually rare in occurrence (less than one in one hundred or 1/100) at minimum. Adding more than three custom rare events is excessive.
Timely Judging of Results
Due to our injury system, it is imperative that results be judged in time (within a week of trial closure) to log injuries so that competitors are aware of which dogs are or are not eligible to run in the next round. If you cannot judge, inform us and we will seek out another judge to do so. We require that first-time judges limit entries to avoid overburdening themselves in any way.
Imposing an Entry Limit
Imposing an entry limit per kennel or user is permitted. It is highly encouraged for novice trial hosts and is actually required for first-time trial (guest) hosts. Once a guest or apprentice host has demonstrated comfort, skill, and good turnaround for trial results, they are eligible to be upgraded to a full judge or higher.
Non-Coursing Animals
It is the responsibility of competitors to check with hosts if horses and hawks/falcons are allowed on the property. If a host would like, they can specify this upfront on the trial rules. Hawks or falcons must be legally obtained and horses must have negative coggins if/when permitted. Any horse which behaves aggressively towards dogs or people will be ejected from the gallery by either the judge or trial chair and must be contained in a secure trailer for the remainder of the trial.
Invite-Only Trials
Invite only is limited to the Grand Course.
Breed Limited Trials
Breed Clubs are permitted to hold specialties or hire judges to host a specialty. No more than one specialty a year is permitted and may not conflict with another trial date.
Accepted Entries
Any policies which are new to 2024 are written in red.
Equipment Rules
No matter the location, all dogs will wear blankets (if there a fourth dog, he is naked). No muzzles obviously, as dogs need to be able to take hares, headshots depicting muzzles cannot be accepted. Judges whom are judging effort and/or CACIT entries must take care to ensure that when two dogs are depicted, at least one must wear a blanket. Blankets may not have numbers, but may have a five inch, white geometric shape. When reviewing entries, good practice is to inform competitors as soon as possible that their entries lack the required blankets or cannot depict muzzles
Effort vs RNG
When hosting NOFCA you are allowed to pick between effort and/or RNG entries. Hosting effort-only NOFCA must be mixed stake only, because there is a good chance you will fail to get five entries per breed in an effort-style breed stake.
If you choose to go the RNG route, you must also accept 150 word entries on top of drawn entries. Artists may combine word count to create entries for more than one dog. The story must be about traveling to, arriving at, in the gallery, actively hunting, eating dinner/lunch* at the hunt, or at the vet to assess an injury after the hunt (for paw pads, this may simply be getting vet wrap at your vehicle). For all styles of RNG entries, collaborations are allowed and encouraged. So is roleplay.
* The dog(s) do not actively have to be doing anything for the dinner/lunch, but they should be at least one of the topics of discussion, mentioned as being in the vehicle, and/or present in outdoor seating if possible.
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No Effort
No judge may host a No-Effort without requesting and receiving permission each time they host. This choice is limited due to the amount of entries it creates; it creates a ton of paperwork for the Founder.
Blacklisted / Banned Users
Any host which attempts to award placements or awards to a banned/currently injured/suspended dog or user will have those placements or awards ignored. Those dogs will be listed as NPC dogs on finished results via discovery of error; rejudging will not be necessary.
Hosts may choose to refuse to judge entries for dogs owned, written, and/or drawn by members they have blacklisted. If the entry is drawn/written by a blacklisted user but is owned by another user (such as a commission), that entry can be reused for another trial (such as McFarland which ignores blacklists).
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Backgrounds
RNG show hosts are permitted to require a themed or basic background for drawn RNG entries.
Passing out Awards
Points
For first place dogs, points awarded are 4 x the number of hounds which are slipped. Maximum of 40 points.
For second place dogs, points awarded are 3 x number of hounds which are slipped. Maximum of 30 points.
For third place dogs, points awarded are 2 x the number of hounds which are slipped. Maximum of 20 points.
For fourth place dogs, points awarded are the number of hounds which are slipped. Maximum of 10 points.
For fifth place dogs, points awarded are half the number of hounds which are slipped. Maximum of 5 points.
For dog earning the High-Score award, they are awarded five additional points. In event of a tie, each dog earns two points.
Points will not be awarded to Mixed Stakes which only have one breed on the field unless the trial is a specialty.
Awards
Standard ribbons are in this style, with a string and triangular top. Any host may choose to award fancier ribbons such as rosettes, but the colors must stay the same. Only hosts which are hosting a special created (or real) breed event may upgrade from ribbons to non-ribbon awards. If the show is hosted by a breed-specific registry, they are allowed to give plaques, statues, cups, etc in place of ribbons.
For first place dogs, no less than a standard flat blue ribbon is awarded.
For second place dogs, no less than a standard flat red ribbon is awarded.
For third place dogs, no less than a standard flat yellow ribbon is awarded.
For fourth place dogs, no less than a standard flat white ribbon is awarded.
For fifth place dogs, no less than a standard flat green ribbon is awarded.​​
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Best in Field
At the end of a trial, Best in Field (BIF) may be awarded to the best hound of the stake being hosted.
Breed Stake: Once all breeds have run and the best of each breed determined, breeds will be divided into groups of duos or quartets depending on the breeds represented on that given day. (Throw the best uninjured dog of each breed into a list generator and pick the top one after generation as your BIF dog.)
Mixed Stake: Dogs will run preliminary hunts until the pool of prospective hounds for winner's course is ranging from a quartet to a trio. When there are too many dogs entered to run in this fashion, the entries will be divided into two fields and the respective winners of each fields winner's course will be run as a duo at the end to determine BIF.
Both stakes are hosted: There will be a BIF hound for each respective stake because they are considered separate fields.
Rules of Thumb
Authorization to Host Trial
All trials you plan to host must be cleared by the Founder prior to posting. This is to avoid conflicts or going over the maximum trials held in a month (which is three per month, not three per judge).
Extending Trials
A judge may extend a trial only if the entries are lower than 100. A judge may permit late entries to be submitted to Mixed Stake up to 72 hours after the actual closing date, however this does delay judging so it is not encouraged.
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Judging Template
All judges must comply with using the color codes on the judging template. This allows for the best in-house sorting of results and minimizes confusion when logging points.
Handling Dog Fights
Common sense should be kept in mind, if a dog is attacked first, I would not excuse him for defending himself.
Any dog whom punctures / bites, sustained attacks, or breaks another dog's leg is automatically required to be disqualified and awarded zero championship points.
Pinning / bumping and body slamming other dogs is to be judged on a judge-by-judge basis. Judges are given some leeway, but if they have complaints made by competitors I will ask them to be more strict about DQ'ing aggressive dogs.
For example, a judge can choose to use roleplay logic to have their judge decide that the dog who body slammed another dog into being lame
CACIT Entries
To avoid any confusion, awarding non-PC CACIT is not permitted at NOFCA trials. If you are not PC-CACIT certified, the Founder may view the entries in question and award CACIT for you.
Entry Setting
CACIT and effort entries are permitted to draw dogs waiting in the gallery or mid-slip in lieu of actively coursing or having caught the quarry. Drawing the quarry is not required. Collab entries may not be awarded CACIT. Effort entries must be drawn in the proper setting; must be accurate to the setting the host created.
Handlers
Requiring that users draw handlers/judges is expressly prohibited.
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Minimum Requirements
Entries that lack enough detail to be discernable from title images are expressively prohibited from being awarded CACIT.
Minimum score for CACIT is 15.
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Judging Rubric
Comparison to Gallery (1-20): Score should be higher the more positive consistencies and differences there are. These are judged against the artists gallery. Techniques (such as brushes, fur, anatomy, style, etc), as well as, composition (creativity of pose, style, dog, background, etc) will also be judged on positive consistencies and differences. If an entry is commissioned, the entry will be judged against the gallery of the artist that made the piece, NOT the owner of the dog.
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Short Story (0-3): +1 for every 100 words up to 3 points (300/three hundred). Stories may be blurbs about the dog's current career in sport, breeding plans, the handlers relationship with the dog or other handlers, or perhaps even how the dog is doing today.
Quarry (0-10): Depiction of the quarry, depending on how well done or how much, awards up to 10 points
Blanket (0-2): 2 points for drawing the blanket on the dog.​
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