Sat 23rd Feb 2019, Aldingbourne

Level 5:- Judge - Heather Donnelly

1st Paul Barnes – Jack – 150
2nd Helen Soper – Trek – 130
3rd Emily Sabin – Monty – 130
4th Helen Byrne – Nellie – 130
5th Chris Clements – BailetBoo – 129.5
6th Roxanne McCulloch – Arlee – 120
7th Becky Laphries – Reba – 110
8th Zoe Heritage – Tag – 109.5
9th Jamie Read – Bear – 100
10th Lindsay Thomason – Stanley – 99.75
11th Pippa Bentham – Becky – 99.5

What a beautiful day we had for it! Huge thanks to Heather Donnelly for coming down to judge for us and Chas for getting roped into organising everyone. Thanks also to our competitors who came from far and wide to support our trial. I hope you all enjoyed your day.

My thanks to Jennie Dean for the asking me to judge and also organising, scribing and virtually doing all the jobs making this a most efficient and well run trial, your hard work with running Scentwork UK trials is much appreciated. Also to Chas Roberts, sorry I forgot to mention you in my presentation speech, who turned up just to watch and ended up doing an excellent job of keeping the competitor flow, so thank you.

My general impression was that the standard was particularly high with virtually everyone knowing the difference between their dog investigating an environmental as opposed to locating the scented article. Out of the 15 runners we lost 3 teams 2 of which are working on new handling ideas and unfortunately Nicola with Acer. Nicola sensed that Acer wasn’t his usual self, so Nicola unselfishly withdrew him so well done Nicola for putting your dog first and I hope Acer back to his usual self soon.

1st Paul & Jack Three near faultless searches from this team gained them full marks and the top spot today, Well done. Jack is a nice keen Lab who made us all laugh by legging it to the exit gate after each find for his ‘treat’. The only slight criticism was Jack’s sniffing along the fence at dog odour pretending, like many of the other dogs today, that he was sniffing for the scented article when in fact he wasn’t.

2nd Helen & Trek – These two have really found their groove lately. Trek does things super fast and has objected to Helen reining him in too much. Helen is particularly observant knowing what areas Trek misses and very calmly asks him to search these areas which now he does without a fuss. Well done on your well deserved 2nd place Helen.

3rd Emily & Monty – Monty is a very enthusiastic Lab/springer x . A very impressive exterior search leaving us all on the edge of our seats by finding the very last find with just 5 seconds to go. Just a handler error with the first Interior search but definitely deserved to be in the ribbons. Well done.

4th Helen & Nellie – First attempt in L5 so well done Helen and Nellie. The first to run in the ‘Interior Search’ and I was particularly impressed with Nellie’s persistence at going to source. This team won’t have any problems with theses advanced levels.

Also just to mention Pippa, Zoe & Lindsay. These three teams needed all 3 finds in the very last search to qualify which put them under a lot of pressure. I am always interested to see how people cope with this situation and manage to keep their nerves under control. So well done you three for keeping focused and your cool right up until the end.

Also to Chris with Bailey who was particularly sympathetic when Bailey didn’t like the distance banging, Chris gently encouraged Bailey back to the search area and skilfully using one of her ‘False alert wild cards’ to successfully call all 4 finds. Well done.

WAPBDTWAPBDTWAPBDTWAPBDP+B+DTime
WA = Wrong Alerts ( 4 = elimination )P = Points (articles found X 10)
B = Bonus (10 if all items found)D = DeductionsT = time (seconds)
Interior Search 1Interior Search 2Exterior SearchTotals
No of itemsTime allowedNo of itemsTime allowedNo of itemsTime allowedP+B-D = Points + Bonus - Deductions
WAPBDTWAPBDTWAPBDTWAPBDP+B-DTime
1stPaul Barnes – Jack050100172030100430401001780120300150393
2ndHelen Soper – Trek05010017303010056030002360110200130465
3rdEmily Sabin – Monty24000300030100550401002352110200130590
4thHelen Byrne – Nellie05010028503010066030002400110200130591
5thChris Clements – BailetBoo24000.25300030100145040100.252342110200.5129.5679
6thRoxanne McCulloch – Arlee03000300030100770401001930100200120570
7thBecky Laphries – Reba04000300020001800401002000100100110680
8thZoe Heritage – Tag14000.2530003010013103000.252371100100.5109.5668
9thJamie Read – Bear0400030003010010402000240090100100644
10thLindsay Thomason – Stanley13000.2530003010011903000240190100.2599.75659
11thPippa Bentham – Becky03000.53000301009803000240090100.599.5638

The Dog Barn, Park Farm, Aldingbourne, West Sussex, PO20 3TL

Start time TBA
Entry Fees: £24 per dog.
Contact: Jennie Dean 07780 458583
Download Entry Form to book a place. Or book online – Level 5