Many thanks to Ellen for inviting me to judge this level 5 at Bodymoor Heath Victory Hall in Sutton Coldfield. A huge thanks to Mandy for scribing for me and providing the white dog that ran blind in all searches. Ellen, as always, was well prepared for this trial and made sure everything ran smoothly.

Interior Search 1
We started off with the interior search in the main hall. There were 4 scents (4 minutes) in this area all of which were cloves – coat stand, chair leg, under skirting board, base of right hand door. Out of the ten competitors, 7 found all 4 hides (Gloria and Jade, Alison and Dylan, Stacey and Bella, Yvonne and Drac, Alan and Rhum, Alison and Izzie, and Christine and Teasel).
The hide that the 3 teams missed was under the skirting board. This was quite close to the end of the fire guard / corner and the dogs needed to search low immediately after investigating the fire guard to cover this area fully.
It was interesting to watch several competitors work both on and off lead in this area, utilizing the extra control to settle their dogs into the search.

Exterior Search
The exterior search was the patio area at the side of the building. This had several picnic tables, paving slabs and a wall. There were 3 scents in this area all of which were gun oil – end of a picnic bench, base of wall near drain pipe, and within the slabs near a wall/shovel.
Out of the 10 competitors, only 1 found all three hides within the time (3 minutes). This hide was very close to the grass area on the boundary and Christine showed complete trust in her dog as Teasel knocked the odour, worked towards the source (which could have so easily been mistaken for interest in the grass), and indicated beautifully. Well done. A special mention must also go to Alison and Dylan. Dylan was working beautifully to the source of this final odour but unfortunately indicated outside of the time.
It was clear from how a lot of the dogs were working that the scent from this hide in the patio slab was being blown up the nearby wall. Quite a few of the dogs spent quite a lot of time working the wall trying to locate the source but failed to drop to investigate the surrounding floor area. The wind also played a factor in the odour from the end of the picnic bench that again appeared to be blown across to a nearby bench which several competitors spent quite a considerable time searching.

Interior Search 2
The second interior search comprised the entrance hall and the area outside of the gents toilets. There were 5 hides in this area (time set at 4.5 minutes) – 2 x Gun Oil (hinge on gents door, table leg) and 3 x cloves (between the book cases, under the entrance mat into interior 1 area, side of cupboard at the start line). This was quite a small area and required the dogs to work confidently with the judge near – which all dogs coped with well. Out of the 10 competitors, 7 found all hides (Jan and Amber, Alison and Dylan, Stacey and Bella, Lindsey and Chip, Alan and Rhum, Cath and Dana, Christine and Teasel).
A couple of the dogs missed the hide on the table leg. This area of the room seemed to be searched less thoroughly, probably as there were fewer items in this area and it was at the end of the room.
This was a lovely trial to judge with a very high standard of competitors that was demonstrated by everyone qualifying.

Congratulations to:

Christine Cummins and Teasel – 1st place. It was lovely to see how Christine worked with Teasel to provide the freedom for Teasel to follow the scent cone and work to the source of the odours. Well done

Alison Williams and Dylan – 2nd place and some lovely searching. A quick and enthusiastic team who only missed out on that final missing find by around 4 seconds. Congratulations, a very well deserved result

Stacey Robinson and Bella – 3rd place. A lovely team to watch work, and Bella also showed us her parkour skills in the outside search.

Alan Clancy and Rhum – 4th place. Rhum was very enthusiastic with his searching and Alan handled him very sympathetically to manage his excitement and carry out some great searches. Well done

Well done to everyone that took part today, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.