Judges report by Rita Cunningham
Level 1 competition at NDTC on Friday 8th April

Thank you Gloria Bonnell for inviting myself and Mary Allen to Judge the level 1 trial. Thanks also to Linda Treadwell for Scribing for me.

For this trial I judged the boxes and luggage and the vehicle. In the boxes and luggage search I placed the clove scent on the bottom leg of a small case which was on its back. The scent was verified/confirmed by a white dog.
There were 15 teams and all in all some excellent handling and fast finds, a particular mention to Corinne Morgan and Meg (10.88 secs) and Helen West with Mabel (20.5 secs). A couple of handlers called too quickly and got it wrong and some blocking at times, but overall excellent Work.
In the Vehicle search we had to start over again, as too many dogs indicating in same/incorrect place, so we put a clean car in and placed a fresh scent in the front offside wheel. Everyone who wanted to, ran their dog again with excellent results. Special mention of Althea Green and Buddy who found it in 18.19 secs.

Everyone seemed to leave with a smile on their faces.
All in all a good trial and much thanks to all the hardworking people organising and providing/serving food and refreshments.

Thankyou Gloria for inviting me along to Nuneaton to co judge this level 2 with my friend Keith Clowes.
I was tasked with judging the interior, tables/ chairs/perimeter and the exterior search.
A white dog was used prior to the searches.

Tables/chairs.
These were set up in the normal square shape,appropriate to this level.The cloves scent being hidden under the rear of the furthest away chair, to the left of start line.Numerous items were sited around the perimeter of the room.The second hide was contained in a car foot pump and placed in the far right corner of the room.12 of the competing 13 team correctly identified both hides with ease,the other finding only 1.
Excellent searching by Gail and Mars,leading the way home in some 23 seconds,closely followed by Lisa and Snoop,Diane and Billy and Dawn and Molly,all giving an excellent display of teamwork.

Exterior
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I laid out some 14 items for the exterior search,which was held in a fenced of grassed area at the far end of the clubhouse.
The scents were secreted,one in a 5 cm diameter pipe which was placed front right of the start.The second scent was hidden under a black dustbin lid.This was laid out to the far right of the area.
12 of the 13 teams correctly finding both,but with times a little slower than the indoor search I had conducted.
Some excellent searching all round,with a special mention going to the following..Emma and Callie and Lyda and Flo,in 29 and 39 seconds respectively.Hot on their heels on some 40 seconds were,Eszter and Freya and our eventual winner on the day,Janet and Teasel.

A good display of searching and teamwork all round.I wish you all good luck in your future trials,and perhaps we will cross paths again at sometime in the future.