Ali Brannen

Level 2

Firstly I would like to say thank you to Marianne Tembey for asking me to judge her level 2 trial at Wellingborough Rugby Club, also thanks to my scribes and the runners for the day. We were blessed with a cold but sunny day, and I judged the exterior & vehicle search. A white dog was run for all searches.

Once again the standard of teams were very high and the search times reflected this. We started with the exterior search, the 1st hide was hidden on the bottom of a fan, and the 2nd was hidden on the edge of a shredder. This seemed to pose no problems for most of the teams, Heather Bhasin & Georgie sailed through this along with Helen Findley, Julia Reeves, Val Isherwood, Wendy Clay, Stephen Whatley, Linda Whatley, Laura Burton, Jane Ellis, John Hearn & Barbara O’Brien. Keith Clowes and Monty were a nice team to watch, Keith took the time to ensure that both he & Monty were ready before the search began, and this method proved successful for him in the searches I saw. John Hearn worked very hard with Skip to keep his mind on the job at hand. Wendy Clay’s Chilli was a fun little character to watch, obviously he enjoyed the job and nothing seemed to faze him. Jane Ellis’s Febe will be one to watch come through the levels, Febe was very quick to get to source and would do anything to tell her handler where the scent was by even upturning the item and revealing where the swab was.

The next search was the vehicle search. The hide was on the near side of the vehicle on the front wheel, again this didn’t prove an issue to the dogs, as all sailed through. Gloria Bonnell & Dylan had no problem with this search, Dylan was methodical and worked the area well. Harold Latusek worked hard with Zack, although Zack was not making the job easy for him on the day. Barbara O’Brien and Joey did well, he really is a smashing little search dog, and clearly enjoys Scentwork. Julia Reeves and the little Dandy were a pleasure to watch, he’s a little dog that knows his job.

On conclusion the trial was a success. The standards shown for a level 2 were very high, very little trashing of the search areas, the handling was nice, and the search areas were covered well. So well done everyone, and I hope to see you all again in the future.

Level 3

Firstly I would like to thank Marianne for asking me to judge her Scentwork UK Level 3 Trial, also to my scribe and runner for all your help that day,

I was tasked with judging the Exterior and Vehicle Search. We started with the exterior search, the hides were in the joint of a chair, and the underside of a folding step. Everybody handled this search well, you worked the area methodically and were all successful in this area. Justine Steele & Chumley were a pleasure to watch search, Justine allowing Chumley to take the lead in all searches, and I really liked how she set up his reward. Charles Robert worked really hard with Misty, even when her mind seemed to wander off the search, he quietly brought her back to the job in hand, and I liked how he didn’t hurry her and knew her so well. Caroline Bannard & Mr Wilson were also successful in this search, although Caroline felt Mr Wilson was giving her a hard time, (don’t you just love dogs!) Quincey handled by Wendy Clay was another nice little searcher, full of enthusiasm and drive. Also Melanie Goble and Rowan made a good team, Rowan a nice little search dog again knowing the job at hand. I also like Zac handled by Jean Tuck, a lovely little searcher, methodical and accurate.

We then went on to the Vehicle search. One hide was on the front towing hitch of the first vehicle, the second was in the nearside door seem of the 3rd vehicle. Val Ridgers & Brace were the first out and performed beautifully. Lynda Stangle & Max (max being handled by her husband) made a lovely job of this search, allowing Max to guide them round the search area. Helen Kennedy with Preston had no trouble going to source on the hides on the vehicle, Helen wandered if Preston would be distracted by her car being used, but this didn’t faze Preston at all, well done guys.

On conclusion the trial was a success. Again I was blown away by the high standard of dogs and handler teams, it was a real pleasure to watch you guys work. I look forward to seeing you all again in the future. Keep up the good work everyone.

Liz Ormerod

Apologies to everyone for my late report and my notes I took on the day were a little sketchy, so this is more of a summary than full details.

Marianne, thankyou for inviting me to judge with my co-judge Ali to this splendid venue for the trials. Wow! The space is great, somewhere to walk/run your dog and the competitors even have a lovely warm room to sit in whilst they are waiting, which is even dog friendly too.

Level 2

A field of 14 competitors all eager and ready to start. Ali chose to do the outside searches, well, who am I to argue with a nice warm room to stay in. The room is big enough to be split into two halves for the table and chair search and the boxes and luggage search. This saves a great deal of time.

Tables and chairs first. In general, some lovely searches, very thorough by the dogs, just a couple of handlers restricted the flow of their dogs’ search or others allowed searching of an area they had already covered.

The Boxes and Luggage was a little bit more trying. Only 8 out of 14 found both of the hides. Again, some handlers calling too early when their dog was still investigating.

A well deserved First Place to Laura with Peanut, you are a very motivating handler. 100% qualifiers though, so well done to you all.

Level 3

9 competitors and Ali and I stuck to the same programme that we had in the morning …… me inside!!

The two searches I had to judge couldn’t have been so different. The Tables and Chairs were excellent from ALL. Great team work, watching and knowing their dogs well. BUT, the boxes and luggage! Not such good results. Only 3 out of 9 found both the hides. Early calls, missing the ‘flat black bag’ where the scent was hidden. Valuable lessons to be learnt with this one.
However, it was still a 100% success for all the Level 3 competitors which is a great result.

Congratulations to Lynda with Max who was First in the Level 3 trial, especially as she was using a walking stick to aid her mobility. Max didn’t seem phased by this at all.

Big thanks to the runners and the scribes for keeping the flow of competitors coming and of course to Marianne who runs these trials it seems in her sleep now, always professionally organised.

Liz Ormerod

		T&C - A/F	T&C - H	T&C - T	ES - A/F	ES - H	ES - T	VS - A/F	VS - H	VS - T	B&L - A/F	B&L - H	B&L - T	Marks	Time
		A/F = Alert Find			H = Handling			T = Time (seconds)
		Tables & Chairs			Exterior Search			Vehicle Search			Boxes & Luggage			Totals
Level 2		A/F	H	T	A/F	H	T	A/F	H	T	A/F	H	T	Marks	Time
1st	Laura Burton – Peanut	20	5	121	20	5	41	20	5	61	20	5	33	100	256
2nd	Wendy Clay – Chilli	20	5	84	20	5	26	20	5	86	20	5	133	100	329
3rd	Keith Clowes – Monty	20	4.75	120	20	5	56	20	5	68	20	5	20	99.75	264
4th	Linda Whatley – Sasha	20	4.75	110	20	4.75	53	20	4.75	114	20	5	22	99.25	299
5th	Heather Bhasin – Georgie	20	5	21	20	5	43	20	5	38	10	5	46	90	148
6th	Gloria Bonnell- Dylan	20	5	26	10	5	39	20	5	102	20	5	36	90	203
7th	Jane Ellis – Febe	20	5	27	20	5	22	20	4.75	46	10	5	46	89.75	141
8th	Barbara O’Brien – Joey	20	5	117	20	5	43	20	4.75	44	10	5	34	89.75	238
9th	Helen Findley – Jessdadswatching	20	4.75	120	20	5	20	10	5	77	20	5	37	89.75	254
10th	Julia Reeves – Dandy	10	4.75	63	20	5	97	20	5	70	20	5	39	89.75	269
11th	Val Isherwood – Heike	20	4.5	146	20	5	32	20	4.75	103	10	4.5	39	88.75	320
12th	Harold Latusek – Zack	20	5	47	0	5	77	20	5	204	20	5	49	80	377
13th	John Hearn – Skip	20	4.75	132	20	4.5	112	10	4.5	293	10	4.75	126	78.5	663
14th	Stephen Whatley – Merlin	20	4	145	20	4.75	73	20	4.75	77	0	4	57	77.5	352
Level 3
1st	Lynda Stangle – Max	20	5	39	20	5	54	20	5	103	20	4.75	79	99.75	275
2nd	Jean Tuck – Zac	20	5	69	20	5	65	20	5	45	10	5	31	90	210
3rd	Caroline Bannard – Mr Wilson	20	5	77	20	5	170	10	5	84	20	5	68	90	399
4th	Helen Kennedy – Preston	20	5	95	20	5	46	20	5	61	10	4.75	33	89.75	235
5th	Melanie Goble – Rowan	20	5	55	20	5	58	20	5	73	10	4.75	108	89.75	294
6th	Justine Steele – Chumley	20	5	75	20	5	87	20	5	133	10	4.75	46	89.75	341
7th	Charles Robert – Misty	20	5	70	20	5	111	10	5	88	20	4.5	185	89.5	454
8th	Wendy Clay – Quincy	20	5	50	20	5	47	20	4.75	45	10	4.25	124	89	266
9th	Val Ridgers – Brace	20	5	87	20	4.75	82	20	5	44	0	4.75	47	79.5	260