Slitting Mill Victory Hall, Slitting Mill Road, Rugeley, WS15 2UW
Start: 9.30am and 12.30pm
Entry Fees: £28 per dog.
Contact: Kate Wilkes countrycaninesdogtraining@gmail.com
Trial Manager and Judges Reports
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Sat 19 Feb 2022, Slitting Mill
Levels 1 & 2: Judges - Pauline Whittaker and Helen Hepple
I was glad to be able to stand in as last minute replacement for this trial. There are some lovely handlers coming through and you should all be proud. Fortunately we missed the worst of the weather but the wind was still swirling making the outside searches hard. First place was Joanne and Milo, a cracking little dog who was soooooo fast! i made a note of what a super noise he made when he was trailing the odour back to source. Second was Pauline and Tessa another super keen little dog. Unfortunate to come up against one as fast as Milo today but if you look at the times it was the exterior search that told. On the wall Fiona and Sage worked so hard to find it and Ceris and Alfie had me holding my breath as he only had a few seconds left on the clock!
My exterior search was a handler exercise as i put out four identical items and the odour was on two of them. A few handlers did looked a bit confused when the dog indicated on the second one, but the dogs knew best. A couple of notes i made ….Lead work needs a bit of work in a few partnerships, help your dog by directing your second search on Table and perimeter, dont let the dog go to what it has already found and lastly remember that this is fun for you and your dog.
Level 1: Thank you very much to Kate Wilkes for asking me to judge today at Slitting Mill. This is a lovely venue next to the very pretty Cannock Chase although today the weather wasn’t in our favour. We decided to run the outdoor searches first and it started raining shortly into the first search. It got heavier as the morning went on and was at its worse when we were doing the indoor searches. This was especially hard on the competitors waiting their turns and the runners who did such a sterling job. Thanks also to Julie for being a great scribe.
We started with the exterior items, the odour was on the bar-b-q egg tongs (great piece of kit!). The selection of three items was the tongs, a walking stick and a tent bag. Only one dog didn’t make the find but several dogs struggled in a quite environmental area.
We moved onto a wall search. All the dogs found the hide fairly easily and there was some lovely handling as the competitors settled into their searching. In particular I’d like to mention Elizabeth and Ruby’s lovely fast search, Anna and Whisper for the lovely handling, Lexi for her superb indication and Charlotte and Betty for beautiful teamwork.
In tables and chairs the odour was hidden on the furthest chair to the left of the table. Again all the dogs found the odour with some nice fast searches from Nikki & Cara, Leanne & Lexi and Emma and Oswald.
By the time we got to boxes and bags I think some of the dogs were tiring and had had enough of the weather, a couple of dogs struggled in this section. Betty was superb, she just loves searching and Charlotte handles her so well without rushing her, a very consistent team who came away with their Excellence today.
Everyone qualified today, very well done. Some lovely teams and I hope to see you all again at trials in the future.