Halwell & Moreleigh Village hall, Moreleigh cross, Moreleigh, Totnes, TQ9 7JQ
Start: L4 9:00am, L3 12 noon
Entry Fees: £25 per dog.
Contact: Georgina Davies scent@caninecapers.co.uk
– Tel: 07734 708079
Trial Manager and Judges Reports
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Level 2
I was delighted to be asked to judge at this new venue, thank you Katrina for scribing. The weather remained challenging, wet and windy but the teams coped well in these conditions. We started with internal searches, tables & chairs and perimeter. Although a new venue the teams were not worried and all were successful. Boxes and bags next, one team was just so excited to be there and just choose nearly all the items, but they persevered in the other searches to do a fantastic car and wall search.
Outside into the wind and rain where teams were searching for odour hidden in a drain pipe and old walking boot. All teams were successful with Jackie and Dart in the fastest time of the day. Finally the vehicle and wall search. The hide on the vehicle hidden in the seam between the front and back door and the wall in a door hinge. Heidi and Jessie were well and truly on this search.
The overall winners – Jackie and Dart thoroughly deserved their win with calm systematic search from Dart with pinpoint accuracy. It was fantastic to see the progression of all the teams taking part.
Level 3
Many thanks to Georgina for inviting me to judge and to Tina for being an excellent Trial Manager and Nicky a brilliant scribe, both smiling the whole time despite the challenging conditions!
Yes, it was wet and very windy! I must congratulate everyone on remaining positive despite the difficult weather conditions. The dogs were amazing, working very well and mostly remaining very focused throughout. It was very close with just some minor deductions, mainly for the dogs not being quite on source. Well done to everyone who qualified, especially Debbie and Buddy, who were outstanding. Lots of people brought their dogs out to reward between finds and some chose to continue on to find the next one – in all cases the handlers seemed to read their dogs well and make a good decision.
In the exterior search I put the gun oil in a hole at the base of a wooden table leg, which was laid on the ground facing away from the entry point towards the middle of the search area and clove on an electric cable reel, held in place by a plug on the top. This item was located at the far side of the search area and most dogs found this one first.
We had one vehicle and a 20m section of wall. Gun oil was placed on the rear wheel of the vehicle set towards the entry point and clove was attached to a drainpipe at the far end of the wall on the other side of the vehicle. Most of the dogs picked up the scent on the far side of the vehicle and all the handlers held their nerve while the dogs worked their way back to indicate correctly. Again most of the dogs picked up the scent on the drainpipe but occasionally got a bit distracted by a bit of greenery growing next to it.
I chose two boxes for the hides indoors – one a large, flat, cardboard vegetable box and the other a plastic container. These did not generally present an issue but a few tiny deductions occurred here, when the dogs were not quite on source.
The far end of the hall had two full size doors and a stage with a row of small cupboards beneath. The perimeter hide was just below the hinge of one of the small cupboards. The hide on the chair only presented a problem to the dog, who managed to push the adjacent chair into the one with the hide, so that the legs crossed! Luckily the handler called the correct one.
It was a lovely day and fabulous to see how some of the dogs were progressing. Well done to all!
Jackie Lawer