First of all, I would like to thank Marie for asking me to Judge this level 6 trial.

We had a much better day than we had on Saturday, although cold to start with there was no rain! We had 9 competitors for this trial and some where already walking their dogs when I arrived at the venue. At 9.30 we walked the 3 area’s that were to form part of today’s trial.

We started with Interior 1 search and there were 3 hides, One on the Gents Toilet door, 1 on the skirting boarder in a corner and the final on a table near to the door. I was surprised only 3 out of the nine dogs indicated on all hides, Helen & Trek, Sara & Tia and Yvette & Anya. However, the handling by all was very good!

Next it was the Exterior Search. This search had 5 hides with 5 minutes to find. Hide 1 was on the oil Tank, hide 2, was on the corner of the 1st Flower holder, hide 3 was on the 2nd Flower holder in a hole a third of the way down. 4 was in the drain cover and 5 was in an air vent on the side of the building. Due to a problem with a broken toilet pipe I had to move a pallet from one part of the search area to cover this drain just in case dogs started to lick it. As it had been moved, I informed all teams about this and told them it was not included in the search and the reason. Marie ran the white dog and found all even though it was not a freeze on the second flower tub, however, we were both happy with the hides. Most teams found 4 out of the 5 hides, but unfortunately the hide in the 2nd Flower Tub, proved to be hard for the dogs as nearly all were searching either to high1 or low. To confirm that the dogs could get the scent I told the handlers where it was, and they put their dogs on the scent and nearly all indicated. I was surprised that quite a few of the teams spent such a long time in one area of the search being the small alleyway and 3 even talked their dogs into indicating on pipes or holes in the wall! Just to be sure at the end of this part of the trial the White dog was again run, however, it did have difficulty picking up the scent until Marie pointed to the spot and then it indicated.

The final Search was in the main hall, porch and toilet. Hide 1 was on a chair in the toilet, hide 2 was on the door to the cubical of the toilet. 3 was on the door of porch with the final 4th hide being in the keyhole of the door in the main hall. 5 Teams found all 4 hides and 2 teams found 3.

7 out of 9 teams qualified and Congratulations to Helen & Trek for coming 1st, other qualifiers Sara & Tia, Yvette & Anya, Zoe & Teg, Margery & Alfred, Marianne & Mister Kai, Lindsay & Stanley

It was a long day for all, and the teams worked really well, and you can now see the bond that they have between them. I would like to thank Barbara who did a sterling job on her first time as a Scribe and also Julie for keeping the teams on their toes and rounding them up so we were not kept waiting.