Jeni Pirie

Firstly I would like to thank Naomi for having me down to a wonderful venue in Bodle Street. One of the things I love about Scentwork UK is the variety of venues available each with their own challenges.

A huge thank you to my co-judge Ruth and to my scribe and navigator for the journey, Yvonne.

We started with the level 2. Yvonne and I were gratefully indoors for this one doing the table chairs and perimeter. A very interesting search with an early hide on a chair which threw a few people off and the perimeter hide plume was moving in an interesting way, most dogs knocking the odour from the wall and not the inside of the room. This was interesting to watch as many handlers called their dogs away from the wall quite understandably, many handlers recognised their dogs were on odour and allowed them to continue the search which brought them directly to the item. Frankie was particularly impressive in this search, trusting the indications and calling both hides in a super quick time. The level of trust in the dogs was fabulous in this search overall.

Our next search was the level 2 Exterior, the search area was on grass which always carries extra interesting factors. The hides were on a water toy flower and a child’s toy till. The location was a concern for many competitors but everyone worked with their dogs beautifully. The relationships really showed in this search. We had a few false alerts in this area, some on a tin similar in size and shape to a biscuit tin. Only one dog gave a full indication on this tin but with a couple of others showed interest in the tin and the handler called an alert on what was really interest. The tin was the closest item to the correct water flower and its likely scent was pooling around this item. Many of the dogs knocked and indicated on the toy till but the handlers were unsure about it and didn’t call the alert. We also had two urinations in the search, both just outside the area and in different areas. I particularly liked the relationship between Indy and Christine in this search, remaining calm and confident.

For me the challenge in level 2 is about learning to trust your dog and understand the partnership, this challenge was clearly being met and conquered by all the teams I observed in this trial. Truly lovely to watch and be a part of.

Level 3
As many of the people originally entered in the level 3 achieved their excellent award, meaning this was a small group and the hides remained in the same location for the 3 and the 4 (with just the addition of distractions in the relevant searches for the 4)
As my scribe and I got rather soaked and had a long journey home Ruth requested that she run the two outdoor searches and we gratefully accepted to remain indoors.
We began with the boxes and luggage. All handlers worked the area well with good item awareness. Again in this area we had some interesting scent movement and the box which was on the right hand side of the search as you looked at it was throwing scent out to the wall. Most handlers allowed their dogs to follow their noses and they followed scent to source well, intriguing to observe.

Next was table and chairs. As this was a level 3 we included the closed doorways of the search and increased the area to be searched. The chair was on the left hand side of the search, the door hide was on the double doors looking out to the pond. The chair caused no real concerns, indeed Toffee followed the scent all the way to source from the cones. The door however flummoxed some of the teams, the dogs knocked it well but the hide was unexpected to the handlers.

A lovely group remaining immensely positive in unpleasant weather conditions. Fabulous team work and positivity!

Level 4
As above the hides remained in the positions for level 3, however we added distraction odours to these searches. The distractions used were shampoo and almond extract.

In boxes and luggage we had no problems at all, indeed the dogs skimmed over each of the distractions with ease.

Table and chairs caught Julia out with Pudding offering a couple of lovely indications on the door but they weren’t seen by Julia. We added one of the distractions to a ceramic flower pot, this distraction got some interest but no false alerts here. Ziggy particularly impressed me in this search, moving through the search confidently, independently and focused.

Fabulous teamwork and relationships to be seen in this level. Thank you all so much for sharing your work with us.

Ruth Payton

Thank you to Naomi Sullivan (Calm and Content Dogs) for asking me to judge and for all your organizing throughout the weeks before hand. My steward throughout the day Carina and all the helpers you were all wonderful.

The conditions were not that brilliant with rain, rain and more rain. I was never kept waiting and I thank all the competitors for there promptness, it made the day go very quickly.

I judged level 2 vehicles, then boxes and bags in the morning. Level 3 & 4 vehicles and exterior in the afternoon. Overall the standard was very good the ‘paw’ was the main problem with the majority of the dogs in all levels. Only 3 dogs missed odours on the vehicles throughout the three levels.

Boxes and bags level 2, 3 dogs missed odours with no bad trashing of the boxes which was a pat on the back to all the great work the handlers have done.

Level 3 & 4 exterior was done very well by all dogs with only one missing an odour

Well done everyone.