Fri 27th Oct 2017, Belbroughton

Levels 1, 2 & 3 Judges: Nigel Wilkes & Heather Donnelly
Level 1

1st Nikki – Pepper – 100
2nd Carol – Zoy – 98.75
3rd Roz – Really – 98.5
4th Jackie – Poppy – 98
5th Jane – Alfie – 96.5
6th Zoe – Dexter – 79
7th Karen – Treacle – 78.75
8th Sarah – Hugo – 78.5
9th Carole – Roxy – 78
10th Janice – Ginny – 77.75
11th Tracey – Billy – 33.75

Level 2

1st Alison – Peppa – 99.5
2nd Alison – Dylan – 99
3rd Peter – Dolly – 97.75
4th Deb – Belle – 87.75
5th Sharon – Buddy – 67.5

Level 3

1st Heather – Timmy – 98
2nd Yvette – Anya – 97.5
3rd Lynne – Kaiser – 78.75
4th David – Nikan – 77.75
5th Tina – Timon – 76.25
6th Anette – Disney – 58.75
7th Anne – Ozzie – 58.25

I’d like to start by thanking Heather Donnelly and Nigel Wilkes for judging for me today. I know they’ve both had a really busy week.

This has been a very active ‘Scentwork’ few days for me having been part of the Scentwork UK demo team at Discover Dogs in London last Saturday and
hosting a L 1, 2 & 3 Trial today, both of which were really enjoyable occasions.  It’s so nice to see the smiles of delight (and possibly relief!)
on the handlers’ faces when their dog makes a successful find.

The weather was kind being sunny, still and reasonably warm although Heather may disagree as she spent most of the day judging the Vehicle and Exterior
Searches!  Nigel was lucky enough to get all the searches inside the hall.

We started with Level 3 with Heather and Timmy, her Lancashire Heeler, winning first place and taking the red rosette.  She’s making a habit of
this as she also came first in her Trials at Level 1 and 2! Well done Heather! Well done also to David and Nikan who’d come up from Norfolk to win
his Excellence Title for the number of points scored at Level 3. Congratulations to Lynne and Kaiser who put in a good shift and came 3rd.
Yvette and Anya did well to achieve Level 3 today as they only got their Level 2 a fortnight ago!

The Level 2 folk were next and I was so pleased that Dolly, the Springer, managed to stay focused on the job during the outside searches and not the
stones on the ground which has caused Peter, her owner, a huge problem for several months.  Well done Peter for the work you’ve put in to overcome that
hurdle. Congratulations to Alison who took 1st and 2nd place with her Collies, Dylan and Peppa and also to Deb and Belle, her Chihuahua mix who’s
recently had eye surgery.  Her nose didn’t let her down though!

We started Level 1 at 1pm with a mixture of eagerness, excitement and trepidation written across the faces of some of the participants as they got
ready for their first Trial. It’s always a good one to get under your belt! Nikki and Peppa gave a lovely indication on the chair in her last search to
secure 1st place.  Well done Nikki!  Congratulations to everyone who passed and there were some very high marks with Carole & Zoe, Roz & Really, Jackie
& Poppy and Jane & Alfie all achieving scores in the 90s.

Thank you all for coming today with several of you travelling from all parts of the country.  I hope you enjoyed your day.  Commiserations to those of
you who didn’t win a certificate but I’m sure you’ll do it next time. 😊

Many thanks to my scribes, Annette, Tina and Nikki who all worked their dogs today as well as scribing for our judges which is no mean feat and I’d thank
my sister, Deborah, who is always there for me. 😊

Let’s all get training for the next one!

Karen Denton

Heather Donnelly

My thanks to Karen Denton for asking me to judge and organising a very successful third trial consisting of three levels. My co judge was Nigel and Karen had it all worked out nicely that we would share some of the indoor and the outdoor searches.  Well unfortunately it didn’t happen that way as the grass cutter arrived to cut the playing field so both the L3 outdoor searches had to start first. Nigel then went inside to judge the first indoor search and managed to stay in the nice warm village hall for the rest of the day, whilst I was stuck outside doing all the outside! (Actually it wasn’t like that really in that it was a beautiful warm Autumn day outside and village hall was pretty chilly, hehe!)

I thought that the standard of the L3 searches was really good especially regarding team work. People often forget to look back, always looking to improve their performance which they should,  but the contrast between the L3 and L1 handlers was quite noticeable. The winner of L3 was Heather & Timmy who won the L1 under me almost a year ago. Timmy isn’t the easiest dog but was very impressive with his systematic vehicle search the best of the day. Heather just seems to accept the way this little dog is and with just  a little bit more trust from Heather this team will be complete.  Also to mention coming 4th, gaining the last points for L3  ‘Excellent’ title, was Dave and Nican with Sally coming all the way from Norfolk. Nice enthusiastic searching as usual from both Nican and Dave but just not quite the systematical search pattern on the vehicles that we normally see dropped this team a few points.

We then followed with the ‘Exterior Search’ with the L2’s. Alison had entered both of her B/C and showed two different excellent handling styles with both her collies. Alison approached both search areas with a very well constructed plan and at the same time gaining good control. Alison’s handling style was different with both dogs as she knows their individual characters so well. A well deserved 1st & 2nd place for Alison and I would recommend beginners come along to watch Alison with her dogs.

Winner of the L1 was the well deserved Nicky & Peppa who have gone from strength to strength. Nicky has had to adapt to teaching Peppa as her indications are so different from her other dog ‘Ellie’ who is Peppa’s mother. Nicky has struggled with this in the past and I can only describe their performance here today as outstanding gaining full handling marks from both judges. . Also a special mention to Carole Thornley for qualifying both her two dogs at her ever first trial. Carole has attended just one Scentwork UK’ course and trained both her dogs on her own. Carole now plans to run her own classes and l wouldn’t hesitate at recommending Carole’s training to anyone. Onwards and upwards for team Carole.

And finally thank you to Darren Carmell who thought he was just coming to watch until I grabbed him to scribe the L3 vehicle searches, Annette Leslie who is  so supportive in everything she does who staying behind and scribed the L1 searches for me and Karen’s sister Debs who is a fantastic runner and who doesn’t even work a dog.

Nigel Wilkes

I would like to thank Karen for inviting me to Judge at Belbroughton her Level 1, 2 and 3 Trials.

It was the first time that I had worked with another Judge Heather Donnelly as we had a very busy day and it meant that we would finish quicker.

I had a lovely drive up to Worcestershire through sunshine and mist and arrived at 9.20 to find Heather already there talking to Karen. Karen had everything organised and we were going to start with Level 3, with me inside judging the Boxes and Luggage and Heather outside with the Vehicle search.

Unfortunately we had a small problem as the grounds by the hall were being mowed, so to save having to move the external items, we decided that I would start outside so that when the field had been mowed the tractor could leave.

At this stage Heather and I were supposed to be Judging 2 indoor and 2 outdoor searches each, however, due to us both starting outside, meant that I did all the inside Judging and Heather the outside! (Sorry Heather)

It was nice to see such a wide range of dogs who clearly enjoyed doing Scentwork and with some people travelling the day before to attend the trial from Norfolk.

The dogs performed very well with the eventual winner Heather and Timmy working well as a team and thoroughly deserved to win, although some people had my heart in my mouth when their dog was indicating and they waited an age before alerting! Tina you know who I mean and one who forgot the rules!

The morning flew by and next we were judging Level 2 and this was the Alison and her two dogs, Dylon and Peppa show. Both dogs were exceptional and you could see that they were on the ball.  They came 1st and 2nd but were pushed hard by Peter and Dolly who was very quick in covering the area of search. I must also mention Sharon and Buddy who although they didn’t qualify worked really hard and you could tell that the handler really loves her pet and that they are a great team.

Finally we came to our Level 1 teams and again it was of a very high standard with all teams working well. Again we had a good mix of dogs, but the handlers were confident in their alerts and you could tell that the ones trained by Karen followed her way of working towards the find. In the end Nikki and Peppa with 100 points ran out winners.

I would like to thank Karen for running a great trial together with Nikki who scribed for me in the morning and Tina for the rest of the day as well as Deb who kept the teams on their marks ready to run.

A/F = Alert Find H = Handling T = Time (seconds)
Level 1 Tables & Chairs Exterior Search Vehicle Search Boxes & Luggage Totals
Handler & Dog A/F H T A/F H T A/F H T A/F H T Marks Time
1 Nikki – Pepper 20 5 25 20 5 21 20 5 16 20 5 37 100 99
2 Carol – Zoy 20 5 135 20 4 100 20 4.75 35 20 5 42 98.75 312
3 Roz – Really 20 5 20 20 4.75 70 20 4 84 20 4.75 65 98.5 239
4 Jackie – Poppy 20 4.75 35 20 4.75 60 20 3.75 53 20 4.75 44 98 192
5 Jane – Alfie 20 5 14 20 2 83 20 4.5 20 20 5 26 96.5 143
6 Zoe – Dexter 20 5 45 20 5 15 20 4.25 63 0 4.75 18 79 141
7 Karen – Treacle 0 4.75 13 20 5 25 20 4.75 15 20 4.25 117 78.75 170
8 Sarah – Hugo 20 4.75 135 20 4.75 60 0 4 50 20 5 52 78.5 297
9 Carole – Roxy 20 5 64 20 4.5 61 0 3.5 180 20 5 32 78 337
10 Janice – Ginny 20 4.75 27 20 4.75 58 20 3.75 43 0 4.5 101 77.75 229
11 Tracey – Billy 0 4 180 20 4.75 19 0 5 180 33.75 379
Level 2 Tables & Chairs Exterior Search Vehicle Search Boxes & Luggage Totals
Handler & Dog A/F H T A/F H T A/F H T A/F H T Marks Time
1 Alison – Peppa 20 4.75 94 20 5 28 20 4.75 60 20 5 50 99.5 232
2 Alison – Dylan 20 5 123 20 5 40 20 5 77 20 4 51 99 291
3 Peter – Dolly 20 4.5 100 20 4.75 70 20 3.5 173 20 5 71 97.75 414
4 Deb – Belle 20 5 113 20 4 120 10 3.75 124 20 5 92 87.75 449
5 Sharon – Buddy 20 4.75 114 10 4.5 215 10 4.25 35 10 4 218 67.5 582
Level 3 Tables & Chairs Exterior Search Vehicle Search Boxes & Luggage Totals
Handler & Dog A/F H T A/F H T A/F H T A/F H T Marks Time
1 Heather – Timmy 20 4.75 106 20 5 68 20 3.75 89 20 4.5 91 98 354
2 Yvette – Anya 20 3.75 159 20 4.75 106 20 4.75 68 20 4.25 102 97.5 435
3 Lynne – Kaiser 10 4.75 114 10 5 86 20 4 82 20 5 77 78.75 359
4 David – Nikan 10 4.75 51 20 4.5 110 20 3.5 82 10 5 57 77.75 300
5 Tina – Timon 20 4.5 92 10 4.75 50 20 2 203 10 5 38 76.25 383
6 Anette – Disney 0 5 289 20 4.75 96 10 4.5 59 10 4.5 176 58.75 620
7 Anne – Ozzie 0 4.5 139 10 4.75 70 20 4.5 83 10 4.5 68 58.25 360