It was a lovely morning with a little bit of breeze which made the vehicle searches a bit difficult for few of the participants. The most impressive searches were the exterior searches and the container searches with all of the dogs finding all the scented articles and Joyce with Max finding the exterior scents in just 13,01s.
We finished the trial with the prize giving. All 7 dogs have qualified.
Thanks to the judge Avril Young and the scribe Kathy Mcgrane for giving up their morning.
We began the trial with the table & chairs/perimeter search and the nerves of the handlers (and the new venue to some dogs) were unfortunately reflected the marks.
Our vehicle search was carried out in beautiful sunshine, which, along with a light breeze, made the search a bit more difficult for some of the dogs. Handler nerves were visibly starting to dissipate and the dogs getting into the task in paw.
Onto the exterior search, where our distractions for the day continued, this time in the shape of a tractor tilling the field beside us! Full marks to all the teams for working through this and to the handlers who forfeited some precious seconds to reassure their dogs and get them happily back on track.
The last search of the day was the container search and all teams worked hard to end the day on a high.
My aim as a judge is always to ‘judge what is in front of me’ and I thank everyone for taking the results in good spirit. There were a huge array of positives to take home today, along with some points to work on in order to keep us learning and moving forward.
Thank you especially to the club for inviting me to judge and to my scribe for the day for her support and assistance.
I was delighted to see everyone qualify and my huge congratulations to our placed teams, who were a joy to watch.
A lovely day all round.
A/F = Alert Find | H = Handling | T = Time (seconds) | |||||||||||||||
Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | |||||||||||||
Name of Handler & Dog | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |||
1 | Sean Norris – Holly | 20 | 4 | 47 | 20 | 5 | 46 | 20 | 5 | 83 | 20 | 5 | 32 | 99 | 208 | ||
2 | Gerry Briggs – Asha | 19 | 5 | 103 | 20 | 5 | 46 | 20 | 5 | 58 | 20 | 5 | 57 | 99 | 264 | ||
3 | Fumiko Onslow – Foxy | 20 | 5 | 45 | 20 | 4 | 110 | 20 | 5 | 122 | 20 | 5 | 51 | 99 | 328 | ||
4 | Maureen Berry – Penny | 20 | 5 | 100 | 20 | 5 | 53 | 15 | 5 | 177 | 20 | 4 | 74 | 94 | 404 | ||
5 | Joyce Couper – Max | 17 | 3 | 84 | 20 | 5 | 13 | 20 | 5 | 42 | 19 | 3 | 57 | 92 | 196 | ||
6 | Marion Smith – Laddie | 18 | 3 | 84 | 20 | 4 | 117 | 15 | 3 | 193 | 20 | 5 | 57 | 88 | 451 | ||
7 | Jackie Hilton – Piper | 10 | 4 | 250 | 20 | 5 | 66 | 10 | 4 | 300 | 20 | 5 | 44 | 78 | 660 |