Level 1
I would like to say a huge thankyou to Country Canines for asking me to judge, a lovely venue and fantastic, friendly team.
As this was my first time judging under the new guidelines, I made sure I read up and revised all the new rules and was very ably assisted by my great scribes, Jo and Helen.
The best little white dog (my Esme) was very happy to help out and made sure all hides were easily accessible and there were no distractions, or scents where there shouldn’t have been. She takes her job very seriously and is very thorough.
Overall, the standard of competitors was extremely high, I saw some fantastic dedication to odour, amazing indications and the most wonderful team work- every team qualified and you should be very proud of yourselves.
We started with vehicles, the odour was placed in the rear driver’s side wheel, with all bar one team finding the source.
Sheila with Floss and Sarah with Bonnie read their dogs very well and identified what was just interest and when they were on scent- well done for holding your nerves ladies!
Watching Banjo work calmly and methodically and take himself right to source, before giving a lovely indication was very nice to watch.
Unfortunately the exterior searches can be far too stimulating for some dogs, with the environment and natural scents being more interesting and valuable than the search, keep working, you will find the way to engage your dog and make the search more valuable- I know the struggle, I have been there with my little one !

We then moved onto tables and chairs, the scent was placed on the 4th chair counterclockwise and just under the seat, easily accessible for all sizes. Again all dogs bar one correctly identified the right chair, with all those who did identify getting right to source, which is wonderful for level 1 dogs!
Loki with Evangeline, although a very excitable dog, worked calmly and methodically, lovely searching and a great indication.
Storm handled by Daniel obviously knows her job and again methodically searched, tail wagging throughout.
Whisper handled by Anna was a joy to watch, I could see this little girl determined to get to source and she worked hard to get there.
We then moved back outside (in the welcome rain!) for the exterior search, with 2 hides. One was on the umbrella and the other on a wooden toy, it was interesting to watch as again the outside environment was distracting for some, some dogs also got frustrated, but 5 out of the 7 dogs correctly identified both items and again went to source on each one.
Martin worked well with Evie, an excited spaniel, making sure she was focussed and tasking her appropriately.
Shirley and Banjo have such a lovely relationship, preparing Banjo for the search calmly and a nice calm, methodical search.
Our final search was back inside for boxes and luggage. The hides were inside a box with a nice envelope slot where the scent was placed and under the strap on a rucksack, all dogs bar one found both hides.
Shirley and Banjo found both in 14.12 seconds! I swear he knew where they both were as he went straight to source each time, again such a lovely team to watch.
Daniel and Storm again worked very calmly, a very relaxed happy search, nice tasking from Evie for Loki (it can be very hard to find the balance between tasking and nagging and this was perfect ) and another beautiful indication
Whisper was very happy in this search, tail wagging and lovely methodical searching.

I enjoyed watching all your dogs and teamwork, thank you.