This was the first time that I had organised a trial for a Saturday. I arrived early at 8.15 for a 9.30 start and started to prepare for the day.
Our Judges for the day Tina Schuster and Pippa Bentham were in situ and we discussed how the trial would be run and decided that Pippa would do the inside searches and Tina the outside.
We started off with the Level 4 searches and even though they had competed in trials before you could tell that some were very nervous. Unfortunately one team had to withdraw due to a family illness so we had 10 teams competing.
The morning session went very well and for once we finished on time and then there was a short break whilst the scores where added up. 8 out of the 10 teams qualified with the winning team being Janet Wykes and Jess.
We broke for lunch and soon the Level 3 competitors started to arrive so again we started on time with Tina and Pippa quite happy to do the same search areas.
We had 7 teams in level 3 and it again proved to be hot competition as the teams started to do their searches.
I was able to observe the searches inside and Boxes and Luggage does appear to be the thorn in the side for lots of teams. However, the dogs performed very well and all handlers should be very pleased with their efforts.
It was pleasing that all 7 passed this trial with Charles and Skye gaining 100 points to win and Alison and Dylan gained enough points to get their ‘Excellent’ award for this level.
I would like to thank Pippa and Tina for Judging and making the day go smoothly as well as giving helpful feedback to the handlers which I am sure that they appreciated.
On 16 Feb, we hosted 2 trials – Level 4 in the morning and Level 3 in the afternoon. Pippa Bentham had kindly agreed to judge and to help things go smoothly, I volunteered as second judge. Pippa was happy to let me judge the outside searches and due to the lack of volunteers I was judge and scribe at the same time – which actually worked fine (apart from forgetting to stop the stopwatch once, realising about 10 seconds late). It was great to see a number of familiar faces and everyone was used to trials – with a lot of the competitors having done a Level 4 trial previously. On the car search, a couple of handlers called the find higher (more than 6 inches) above the location (door seal) as they had big dogs and the scent had drifted up. On the exterior search, a lot of competitors found both scented articles, with the ones that didn’t “falling” for the vanilla scented distraction. Unfortunately Buster (and Chris) was shattered by that time and wasn’t working at all, so he unfortunately didn’t qualify. Well done Janet (and Jess) for winning – even without a voice (suffering from a bad cold)!
After a short break, we started the Level 3 trial – again with vehicles first. Not having a small dog as competitor was novel, and it allowed me to place the scents a bit higher than usual (in both Levels) on the cars. About half of the competitors were unlucky for one reason or another, calling one wrong alert in the cars, however, none of them failed to qualify overall. On the exterior items, all but Kay (and Lola) found both items and overall it was a successful afternoon. I would like to give a special mention to Maria (and Liberty), who came second and Maria has worked wonders with the little pooch – having seen and judged them previously, she has come on tremendously!
T&C - A/F | T&C - H | T&C - T | ES - A/F | ES - H | ES - T | VS - A/F | VS - H | VS - T | B&L - A/F | B&L - H | B&L - T | Marks | Time | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A/F = Alert Find | H = Handling | T = Time (seconds) | |||||||||||||
Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | |||||||||||
Level 3 | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |
1st | Charles Robert – Skye | 20 | 5 | 76 | 20 | 5 | 13 | 20 | 5 | 143 | 20 | 5 | 28 | 100 | 260 |
2nd | Marie Poole – Liberty | 20 | 5 | 64 | 20 | 5 | 75 | 20 | 4.75 | 129 | 10 | 4.25 | 111 | 89 | 379 |
3rd | Sarah Wren – Tia | 20 | 5 | 76 | 20 | 4.5 | 297 | 10 | 4.5 | 230 | 20 | 4.75 | 83 | 88.75 | 686 |
4th | Alison Williamson – Dylan | 10 | 4 | 76 | 20 | 5 | 17 | 20 | 4.75 | 137 | 20 | 3 | 98 | 86.75 | 328 |
5th | Kay Luis – Lola | 20 | 4.5 | 66 | 10 | 4.75 | 124 | 20 | 5 | 200 | 10 | 4.5 | 60 | 78.75 | 450 |
6th | Chris Gamson – Neil | 20 | 4.5 | 64 | 20 | 5 | 132 | 10 | 4.75 | 282 | 10 | 4 | 84 | 78.25 | 562 |
7th | Helen Straszewska – Chip | 20 | 4.5 | 146 | 20 | 5 | 58 | 10 | 4.75 | 179 | 10 | 4 | 223 | 78.25 | 606 |
Level 4 | |||||||||||||||
1st | Janet Wykes – Jess | 20 | 5 | 69 | 20 | 4.75 | 52 | 20 | 5 | 69 | 10 | 4.5 | 99 | 89.25 | 289 |
2nd | Grahame Godby – Skeena | 20 | 4 | 186 | 10 | 5 | 65 | 20 | 4.5 | 122 | 20 | 4.5 | 86 | 88 | 459 |
3rd | Matilda Bell – Mitford | 20 | 4.25 | 55 | 20 | 4.5 | 87 | 20 | 4.75 | 128 | 10 | 3.75 | 207 | 87.25 | 477 |
4th | Denise Pile – Butty | 20 | 4.75 | 69 | 20 | 0 | 38 | 20 | 4.75 | 227 | 10 | 4.25 | 43 | 83.75 | 377 |
5th | Kathy Killick – Rowan | 20 | 5 | 60 | 10 | 5 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 90 | 20 | 5 | 71 | 80 | 235 |
6th | Paula Davis – Jazz | 20 | 5 | 31 | 20 | 5 | 36 | 10 | 5 | 70 | 10 | 4.25 | 101 | 79.25 | 238 |
7th | Berit Aherne – Saffie | 20 | 5 | 43 | 20 | 5 | 37 | 10 | 5 | 43 | 10 | 4 | 131 | 79 | 254 |
8th | Jackie Hodge – Lima | 20 | 4.25 | 147 | 20 | 4.75 | 171 | 10 | 4.75 | 300 | 10 | 4.5 | 135 | 78.25 | 753 |