Level 1
1st Peeny Petheridge – Oscar – 100
2nd Donna Winskill – Lucy – 99.75
3rd Jill Spurr – Drama – 99.75
4th Suzanne Olford – Dule – 98.75
5th Janice Short – Tally – 80
6th Eileen Giles – Maisie – 80
7th Sharon Smith – Inca – 79.25
8th Maggi Cameron – Bomber – 78.75
9th Lu Grant – Bo – 78.5
Level 2
1st Janice Short – Gem – 100
2nd Michele Murray – Rio – 100
3rd Karen Dunkason – Remy – 99.75
4th Jane Seymuor – Zola – 99.5
5th Jo Crosby-Deakin – Ehren – 99.5
6th Peter Biles- Charlie – 98.25
7th Kate Kemp – Paddy – 89.75
8th Felicity Palmer – Bracken – 89
9th Pat Chantler – Arthur – 88.25
Our second trial at Ace of Dogs but a whole new level of challenges as we had 21 entrants at 2 levels and with 2 scents in each level! We kept things moving as best we could and we got through everything, albeit not quite in the allotted time at the venue so we had to de-camp to the car park for the last vehicle search and dodge the arrival times for the cubs and beavers! I was worried that this distraction might pose a problem for the dogs and handlers (Level 1) but they all coped brilliantly and everyone seemed to remain cheerful!
I managed the Level 2 trial but had delegated this job for Level 1 as I had intended to run my dog in that trial (sadly not to be, so I scrimed instead). I would like to thank Pat Chantler for doing a brilliant job managing the Level 1 trial and to Sharon Smith who did a great job scriming for Level 2 and of course, I would also like to thank our lovely judge, Tracy Alker, who did a great job and kept everyone smiling all day.
The advantage of scriming for Level 1 was that I got to watch the teams work which was an absolute pleasure. There were some fabulous teams, showing great achievements and promise. Every team left with a smile on their face, having enjoyed the test even if it hadn’t gone quite to plan and they all worked really well so there are exciting times ahead for all of them! A special mention has to go to Donna and Lucy who really took on board that we were up against it for time and completed their table and chairs search in just 4 seconds!
Congratulations to our winners: Penny and Oscar in Level 1 and Janice and Gem in Level 2 both with a score of 100 and to Michele and Rio in Level 2 who also got 100 but were just pipped to the post on time.
Some lessons to be learnt for me as a trial manager but all in all a good day, I think! I hope everyone enjoyed it!
I think we must have all woken up to a foggy, wet morning with traffic chaos but all tried our best to arrive on time in Hazlemere! Helen, Pat and Sharon had started getting the search areas organised when I arrived. We decided to do the Level 2 Tables & Chairs with perimeter search first and this proved successful as the weather soon improved and our exterior searches were in dry conditions.
We had a good variety of dog breeds in Level 2 with good handling and results throughout the searches. The majority of teams were searching for cloves but we also had requests for gun oil so set up all areas for both scents. We had a couple of different search commands from the handlers including ‘go fish’ from Jo with Ehren and ‘spaghetti’ from Felicity with Bracken which I loved. We also had some different indications from the dogs including a nose freeze, a sit and look at my handler, a paw, and some very thorough investigations from Paddy while handler Kate waited patiently holding her nerve while he did his thing.
The exterior search was much faster with Michele (with Rio) and Karen (with Remy) both calling quick confident alerts almost straight away. Good to see that both Pat (with Arthur) and Peter (with Charlie) improved their performances after their first search – well done to you both.
Boxes and Luggage was next and Helen had set this up ready while we were all outside. We had some very good results in this section with only one handler slightly blocking their dog and one handler sadly calling a false alert. Zola (handled by Jane) did a lovely 180 degree ‘knock’ onto the luggage item before I changed the scent from cloves to gun oil for Jo.
I was unsatisfied with the results from Jo & Ehren’s boxes and luggage search on the gun oil. Ehren didn’t take any notice or react to either scent placed in the search area so I asked for another dog trained on gun oil (Trek) to work across the area. He made no indication either so I decided to let Jo re run this test at the end with her own scents placed in the ‘hides’ for fear of the first scents being too weak. (Unfortunately I had a cold and my nose was under par!). Happily Ehren gave clear indications the second time and passed through the test with ease.
Each team did well on the vehicle search with Zola running her nose right along a car ridge, stopping superbly on the source. We had to do a bit of vehicle juggling as we needed 6 cars to accommodate 2 different scents so thanks to everyone who volunteered their vehicles.
We also had 2 scents ‘gun oil’ & ‘cloves’ for our Level 1 candidates. This started later than expected so thank you to everyone for being patient. The exterior search ran smoothly and this was followed by an interesting boxes & luggage search! This proved difficult for many handlers as we had quite a few false alerts with a few people blocking their dogs from searching the scented box. Helen and I were both very happy and relieved when Donna (with Lucy) gave a clear correct alert! This team were also super quick on the tables and chairs search having the confidence to call the alert straight away. Brilliant – well done. We had a couple of wrong alerts in this section with some handlers not allowing time for the dogs to find the source and alerting on the chair next to the scent. I hope they remember this for the next time.
Time was getting the better of us now as we were very aware that other people were due to use the hall. After placing the vehicle scents and exiting the building, cars and children started arriving for “Beavers’!
We decided to move the clove scented vehicle into a quieter area to give the dogs the best chance of success but now the wind was in a different direction and blowing the scent around rather large wheel arches. Not ideal for a Level 1 search but the handlers did very well in realising the dogs wanted to get underneath a rather large vehicle and duly moved around to the other side following their dogs. All the dogs worked hard on this search and congratulations to all teams for working through it thoroughly as it was quite tough. A special well done to Lu (with Bo) for being so patient and letting him search and not calling an early alert.
Special thanks to Helen for asking me to judge her trials and also to her wonderful helpers Sharon & Pat for all they did on the day. There is an awful lot to get done behind the scenes while everyone is waiting to begin their searches. Helen had asked Pat to be Trials Manager for the Level 1 Trial as she was due to compete. Sadly, this was not to be as Helen’s dog passed away just before the Trial.
RIP Sweep.
Tracey Alker
Judge
| A/F = Alert Find | H = Handling | T = Time (seconds) | |||||||||||||||
| Level 1 | Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | ||||||||||||
| Name of Handler & Dog | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |||
| 1 | Peeny Petheridge – Oscar | 20 | 5 | 12 | 20 | 5 | 19 | 20 | 5 | 68 | 20 | 5 | 38 | 100 | 137 | ||
| 2 | Donna Winskill – Lucy | 20 | 5 | 4 | 20 | 4.75 | 38 | 20 | 5 | 54 | 20 | 5 | 19 | 99.75 | 115 | ||
| 3 | Jill Spurr – Drama | 20 | 5 | 28 | 20 | 4.75 | 54 | 20 | 5 | 143 | 20 | 5 | 58 | 99.75 | 283 | ||
| 4 | Suzanne Olford – Dule | 20 | 4.75 | 54 | 20 | 5 | 18 | 20 | 4.25 | 78 | 20 | 4.75 | 78 | 98.75 | 228 | ||
| 5 | Janice Short – Tally | 20 | 5 | 35 | 20 | 5 | 17 | 20 | 5 | 41 | 0 | 5 | 28 | 80 | 121 | ||
| 6 | Eileen Giles – Maisie | 20 | 5 | 22 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 85 | 0 | 5 | 47 | 80 | 174 | ||
| 7 | Sharon Smith – Inca | 20 | 4.75 | 22 | 20 | 4.75 | 37 | 20 | 4.75 | 41 | 0 | 5 | 40 | 79.25 | 140 | ||
| 8 | Maggi Cameron – Bomber | 20 | 5 | 18 | 20 | 5 | 8 | 20 | 4.5 | 113 | 0 | 4.25 | 43 | 78.75 | 182 | ||
| 9 | Lu Grant – Bo | 20 | 5 | 25 | 20 | 4 | 176 | 20 | 5 | 112 | 0 | 4.5 | 94 | 78.5 | 407 | ||
| Level 2 | Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | ||||||||||||
| Name of Handler & Dog | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |||
| 1 | Janice Short – Gem | 20 | 5 | 49 | 20 | 5 | 31 | 20 | 5 | 62 | 20 | 5 | 34 | 100 | 176 | ||
| 2 | Michele Murray – Rio | 20 | 5 | 38 | 20 | 5 | 31 | 20 | 5 | 88 | 20 | 5 | 66 | 100 | 223 | ||
| 3 | Karen Dunkason – Remy | 20 | 5 | 58 | 20 | 5 | 25 | 20 | 4.75 | 99 | 20 | 5 | 46 | 99.75 | 228 | ||
| 4 | Jane Seymuor – Zola | 20 | 4.5 | 99 | 20 | 5 | 39 | 20 | 5 | 47 | 20 | 5 | 29 | 99.5 | 214 | ||
| 5 | Jo Crosby-Deakin – Ehren | 20 | 4.75 | 148 | 20 | 5 | 69 | 20 | 4.75 | 167 | 20 | 5 | 48 | 99.5 | 432 | ||
| 6 | Peter Biles- Charlie | 20 | 4.25 | 74 | 20 | 4.5 | 54 | 20 | 4.5 | 54 | 20 | 5 | 33 | 98.25 | 215 | ||
| 7 | Kate Kemp – Paddy | 20 | 5 | 187 | 10 | 4.75 | 25 | 20 | 5 | 54 | 20 | 5 | 53 | 89.75 | 319 | ||
| 8 | Felicity Palmer – Bracken | 20 | 4.75 | 73 | 20 | 4.75 | 50 | 20 | 4.75 | 83 | 10 | 4.75 | 50 | 89 | 256 | ||
| 9 | Pat Chantler – Arthur | 10 | 4.5 | 32 | 20 | 4.75 | 60 | 20 | 4.5 | 123 | 20 | 4.5 | 48 | 88.25 | 263 | ||