Judges Report Salwarpe 25.2.22

I stepped into the judge’s role unexpectedly today when my planned judge couldn’t make it due to transport problems. Thank you to my amazing team for stepping into new roles today. Bridget who made a fantastic trial manager, organised and efficient as always. Nikki who was nervous about the responsibility of scribing but did a really great job and Liz who was a brilliant runner, keeping everyone organised and happy!
We started with tables and chairs, the main hall at Salwarpe is a big area and some of the dogs were distracted by the size and wanted to search the exterior. Some of the dogs took a while to settle into their searching and 5 dogs didn’t make the find. Well done to Emma and Sula with the fastest time on this section, 20 seconds.
The vehicle search was next with the odour placed on the back left wheel. Most dogs found this and appeared to be settling into their searching. Paula and Merrijazz, our eventual winners were extremely fast on 17 seconds.
Boxes and bags proved to be the undoing of several teams with dogs showing interest in some of the bags but not actually indicating on them. A stronger indication for these teams will help. Paula and Merrijazz were again extremely fast on 12 seconds and Clare and Xena on 13 seconds. Xena worked beautifully all day with really good indications and Clare’s handling was consistently calm, always allowing Xena to settle on the odour before calling the find. Very enjoyable to watch.
We finished with Exterior items and all the teams except one found the odour which was on an electrical cable roll. Helen and Thistle had a fabulous fast search completed in 13 seconds.
Paula and Merrijazz were worthy winners who performed really consistently all day and had very fast times. Clare and Xena in second, again very consistent. Well done to all the competitors, thank you for your positive feedback. I hope to see you at trials in the future.