Many thanks to Marianne for inviting me to judge this level 5. Due to a late change of venue, we had moved from the Wellingborough RFC location to Thurleigh, and an early start was required so we could vacate the hall for an afternoon booking. Many thanks to Marianne for managing to source an alternative venue at short notice and allowing this trial to continue. Huge thanks also to Marianne for scribing, and John Hearn and Vicky Cartwright for their help running and generally making sure everything went smoothly. We had 12 teams competing and 1 running not for competition (NFC).
A white dog was used for all searches.

We started the day with interior 1. This took place in the large hall area and had the following hides – bottom of skirting board beside chair, book (gun oil); hole at top of skirting in alcove, back leg of table (cloves). Out of the 12 teams competing, 9 found all 4 hides within the 4 minutes. There was some lovely focused searching here from Caroline and Stanley, with Stanley stretching tall along the alcove wall when he hit the odour high in the air, before dropping beautifully to source and providing a lovely down indication. Laura and Peanut also displayed some great teamwork with Peanut picking up the odours from a distance and Laura allowing him the freedom to work to the source. Justine and Chumley were another great team to watch, lots of enthusiasm and some lovely independent searching from Chumley. Lynn and Chubey were also a great team, Chubey often pinpointed the direction of the first odour from the start line, enthusiastically moved to source, and then provided a lovely focused indication. Helen and Preston displayed some lovely long line handling, allowing Preston the opportunity to search freely whilst keeping his focus on the areas that needed to be searched. Helen and Chip carried out some great searches but unfortunately Chip found the last find just outside the allotted time. All handlers worked well around this area, with many of the dogs showing great commitment to the odour that was in the skirting board beside the chair. It was a joy to watch many of the dogs knock the odour as they passed the chair, and track back as far as they could behind the chair, before moving around the front of the chair to the source.

In the exterior search, there were 5 hides and 5 minutes. The area stretched from the ramp at the side of the building right round the front of the building to the fire escape and paved area at the other side. The hides were: overflow pipe, corner of low wall, gap in step by fire escape (gun oil); and flower pot, slab (cloves). Out of the 12 teams competing, 4 found all five hides (well done to Caroline and Stanley, Laura and Peanut, Justine and Chumley, and Helen and Preston). The slab was the hide that many of the handlers missed and the most common problems were either the handler not realising that their dog had knocked the find and was trying to pull them into this area, or the area was searched but the handler walked over the precise area that the scent was hidden in, blocking the source. Those handlers that gave their dog the opportunity to move more freely over the slabbed area were often rewarded with the find.

The final interior search was 3 finds within 3 minutes and took place in the entrance hall and corridor to the toilets. The hides were: back of whiteboard, vent in door (cloves); underneath radiator (gun oil). All 12 teams found all 3 scents in this area. Julie and Betty showed us a much more confident search in this area with Betty back on form and appearing to really enjoy this search. Lynda and Max, Jo and Ehren, and Suzanne and Duke also carried out some nice systematic searching in these areas. David and Nikan showed some great teamwork managing to pinpoint all hides, and Melanie and Rowan provided another lovely enthusiastic search with a wonderful sit indication at source.

The first four teams all found all hides with maximum handling points and the placings were determined on times. Congratulations to:

Caroline Bannard and Stanley – 1st place and their excellent rosette, well done
Helen Kennedy and Preston – 2nd place
Justine Steel and Chumley – 3rd place
Laura Burton and Peanut – 4th place

Well done to everyone that took part and I look forward to seeing you all continue to progress on your Scentwork journey.