Good answers above. Best I can tell, it varies from club to club, judge to judge, state to state. After attending a few SPO trials and not being impressed by some of the head banging I saw, I was told try GDB because they like a smoother dog. I went and saw the same people and dogs that beat me in SPO beating me in GDB lol. The 15" male class may be rough and banging around while the 13" male class at the same club on the same day may be smooth or vice versa.
Here's what bugged me the most about trialing: Theres no way to be exact. They aren't perfect. I expected to see a standard followed and for the most part everything I read in the rule book and was taught at the seminar can be thrown out of the window in a second because everyone interprets it different(or doesn't care to apply it at all. Just pick what's up front, what they like, etc). Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure. As a competitor I say its a bad thing, as a judge..Well.. things happen. If you are to watch 6+ strange dogs all running together for the first time theres no telling what you will see. Throw scent conditions and the way the rabbit decides to run that day(tricky short runs or long stretches)into the mix then you gotta do what you gotta do. I never liked the line "you can only judge whats there that day" until I judged a trial myself. I tried to apply the rule book the best I could but nothing is perfect unfortunately. I've left some trials before lunch because I could tell the direction it was heading and I didn't like it so I wasn't going to waste my time, and I've left trials at the end of the day realizing I needed to dog up. My advice would be go. They can be fun. If you're unsure then go as a spectator and just watch. It's worth a few trips to see if it's your cup of tea or not.
