Supervised judging gives you an opportunity to develop one of the most important judging skills:

Making a decision when the answer is not immediately obvious.

You may encounter:

• An indication that is difficult to interpret.
• A deduction that could reasonably fall within a range.
• Handler behavior you have not previously encountered.
• A course-management issue.
• An unusual distraction.
• A situation requiring interpretation of a rule.
• A dog whose behavior looks very different from dogs you have previously judged.

Your supervising Judge of Record is there to help you.

However, whenever appropriate, you should first consider the situation and determine what you believe the correct decision should be.

Instead of immediately asking:

“What should I do?”

Be prepared to say:

“This is what I observed. I believe this rule applies, and this is how I would score it.”

That gives your supervising judge an opportunity to evaluate your reasoning, not merely provide you with an answer.