Thanks Jackie for asking me to judge, it was a long day but was great to see the handlers and dogs at the different levels.
L2: We had a full house in tables and chairs, a hide in the side of a chair, and under a metal removable grill in the printer. Everyone did really well.
Exterior: A hide under a rubber seal on a piece of guttering and the other on a large bag. Again nearly a full house, a couple of dogs were distracted, one of them left the search area and had their own agenda for a brief moment, advice was given regarding the use of a lead if you think this is going to be an issue.
Boxes & Luggage: A hide on a long narrow box and a small bag. This search caused a few issues for some, partly because handlers had their backs to some of the articles which meant they missed out on an area the first time around. A couple of early calls on the wrong items. A little bit of trashing on a box, advice was given on looking at how that can be corrected.
Vehicle/Wall: Quite windy in the area at times,1 hide under the tow bar cover and the other under a wall pipe retaining clip, fascinating to watch some of the dogs hit the scent into the wind and trace it back to the source. A full house on the 2 hides. Binks, the winner with handler Katie was on fire, such a lovely dog with an amazing work attitude.
L3: Tables & Chairs: 1 hide down the side of a chair and the other under the top flap of a large white blanket box. Almost a full house on the finds, some advice was given to work on sourcing the hides and use of lead which may help prevent returning to the first find saving time.
Exterior: 1 hide on a plastic drain pipe and the other on the base of a plastic battery charger. Only 2 out of the 5 found both with a few FA, a small deduction for interference with some advice given on how to progress the indication where needed.
Boxes & Luggage:1 hide on a box and 1 on a bag, great effort by all 5 teams finding both hides, again just some minor deductions for interference.
Vehicle/Wall: Again it remained windy at times and this did cause a few issues for a couple of teams, certainly when some of the dogs worked into the wind their pace definitely picked up. The hide under the tow ball cover was swirling its scent around the vehicle in the wind but again the dogs hit this and went to the source. Congratulations to Peter and Holly, a pleasure to watch this team work.
Thank goodness the weather was not as bad as Friday’s! We had a keen, swirly wind and a couple of showers but nothing too major. At least Lisa got to finally use the waterproof clipboard to scribe in the afternoon. Many thanks to everyone who helped out on Saturday and, of course, a huge thank you to our judge for the day, Shane Curnow. So sorry if Carrick set the bar high when he worked as white dog – he is still working at L2, so was ideal to test out the L2 and L3 search areas!
I heard lots of people enthusiastically praising their dogs – that is what it’s all about, having fun with your dogs and celebrating both the little and sometimes bigger wins. Thank you so much for coming along and very well done in achieving your personal goals.
Jackie Lawer, Trial Manager
Thanks Jackie for asking me to judge, it was a long day but was great to see the handlers and dogs at the different levels.
L2: We had a full house in tables and chairs, a hide in the side of a chair, and under a metal removable grill in the printer. Everyone did really well.
Exterior: A hide under a rubber seal on a piece of guttering and the other on a large bag. Again nearly a full house, a couple of dogs were distracted, one of them left the search area and had their own agenda for a brief moment, advice was given regarding the use of a lead if you think this is going to be an issue.
Boxes & Luggage: A hide on a long narrow box and a small bag. This search caused a few issues for some, partly because handlers had their backs to some of the articles which meant they missed out on an area the first time around. A couple of early calls on the wrong items. A little bit of trashing on a box, advice was given on looking at how that can be corrected.
Vehicle/Wall: Quite windy in the area at times,1 hide under the tow bar cover and the other under a wall pipe retaining clip, fascinating to watch some of the dogs hit the scent into the wind and trace it back to the source. A full house on the 2 hides. Binks, the winner with handler Katie was on fire, such a lovely dog with an amazing work attitude.
L3: Tables & Chairs: 1 hide down the side of a chair and the other under the top flap of a large white blanket box. Almost a full house on the finds, some advice was given to work on sourcing the hides and use of lead which may help prevent returning to the first find saving time.
Exterior: 1 hide on a plastic drain pipe and the other on the base of a plastic battery charger. Only 2 out of the 5 found both with a few FA, a small deduction for interference with some advice given on how to progress the indication where needed.
Boxes & Luggage:1 hide on a box and 1 on a bag, great effort by all 5 teams finding both hides, again just some minor deductions for interference.
Vehicle/Wall: Again it remained windy at times and this did cause a few issues for a couple of teams, certainly when some of the dogs worked into the wind their pace definitely picked up. The hide under the tow ball cover was swirling its scent around the vehicle in the wind but again the dogs hit this and went to the source. Congratulations to Peter and Holly, a pleasure to watch this team work.
Thank goodness the weather was not as bad as Friday’s! We had a keen, swirly wind and a couple of showers but nothing too major. At least Lisa got to finally use the waterproof clipboard to scribe in the afternoon. Many thanks to everyone who helped out on Saturday and, of course, a huge thank you to our judge for the day, Shane Curnow. So sorry if Carrick set the bar high when he worked as white dog – he is still working at L2, so was ideal to test out the L2 and L3 search areas!
I heard lots of people enthusiastically praising their dogs – that is what it’s all about, having fun with your dogs and celebrating both the little and sometimes bigger wins. Thank you so much for coming along and very well done in achieving your personal goals.
Jackie Lawer, Trial Manager