It was a pleasure to be asked to judge the Level 7 trial at Sutton Coldfield and I arrived in sunshine which must almost be a first with all the rain that we have had. I started with Interior Search 1 in the Main Hall, where there were 6 hides. There were so many different breeds of dog and it was a pleasure to watch them search the area. Most teams found 4 or more of the hides and a couple were brave enough to call ‘Clear’ unfortunately for them there were still hides outstanding. The main difficulty was two hides on the table which only a few found both, whilst others did not continue the table search.
The next search was the Exterior and we used the patio area where only 2 hides were placed. The teams worked hard to find the hides although a few were caught out by not completing the search area within time allowed.
This left the final Interior Search which was the hall and the disabled toilet, where 4 hides were put out. There were some nervous handlers as going into this search all could have qualified. Again the dogs worked well but the hide on the Ladies toilet door proved to be the hardest hide as most handlers got in their dogs way when going around and stopped their dogs from actually getting near enough to the hide to indicate on it.
At the end of the day we only had one team who qualified and this dog worked extremely well with the handler and I would like to congratulate Janet & Jess for coming a well deserved first place.
I would like to thank Ellen for asking me to judge, Helen for being the Trial Manager for the day and my scribe Jane who did an excellent job. I then had a pleasant drive home with the sun still shinning!!!