Level 1
1st Julia Bodsworth – Spot – 100
2nd Sue Taylor – Spring – 100
3rd Penny Harris – Lyra – 99.5
4th Jess Martin – Ruby – 99.5
5th Deb Atkins – Skyla – 98.75
6th Jane Page – Dinah – 79.75
7th Anita Scott – Meadow – 79
8th Anne Johnson – Ellie – 79
9th Sarah Fortes Mayer – Bonnie – 78.75
10th Charlotte Ryves – Bella – 77.25
Level 4
1st Alison Deakin – Izzie – 100
2nd Jill Harper – Herbie – 99.75
3rd Jan Martin – Amber – 90
4th Felicity Ashford – Dani Darko – 89.5
5th Janet Wykes – Jess – 79.75
6th Kathy Fitzgerald – Portia – 79.5
The more involved I get with Scentwork, the more I love the dogs, the people and the experience of being involved.
Karen Denton and Faye Sparkes kindly agreed to judge for me and Karen brought with her the amazing Zelda to act as white dog. Michelle Rodgers had kindly volunteered to lend her efficiency to my trial and scribe a while back and Liz Beaumont stepped up to the plate and offered to scribe two days before hand when someone else had to unfortunately pull out.
The weather was unseasonably warm, but in the hall it was chilly and due to the type of heaters the venue has they were kept off. I must therefore thank my judges and scribes for coping with being so cold indoors.
We try to make it as easy as possible for reactive dogs to move between their safe spaces and the searches as possible and this would be nigh on impossible without fantastic runners. Lisa Finney and Carole Millington did an incredible job in the morning, and Penny Harris took charge in the afternoon.
11 teams competed at level 1 in the morning, with 10 qualifying and even our non-qualifier putting in a great performance. It was wonderful to see an excellence rosette handed out at the trial – congratulations to Julia Bodsworth and Spot.
The afternoon saw 10 teams compete at level 4, with 6 qualifying. Alison Deakin and Izzy put in a fantastic performance, coming away with 100 points.
Thank you to everyone who came and enjoyed themselves. And a huge thank you to everyone who helped the day run smoothly, including my Mum who gets a special mention for slaving away in the kitchen for us all.
I look forward to seeing you all again at other trials.
Sniff on!
Saturday 23.2.19 at Erdington was a lovely trial. I would like to say thank you to Ellen for being a great trial manager and Karen for being so helpful and being a great judge. Both Karen and I did all search areas; 2 each for each levels both an inside and an outside searches. And thank you to my scribe Michelle and all the runners: Lisa, Carole and Penny.
Level 1 – I judged exterior then tables and chairs. Great handling from competitors allowing the dogs to search the area. Dogs had good focus and most had a clear indications that the competitors picked up on. I hope you all enjoyed your first trial and learnt something to take away for your experience.
Level 4 – there was good connection between handler and dog. Good uses of hand gestures to help guide the dogs along the cars and boxes and luggage. The handlers that had long lines used them well, allowing the dogs to have free movement whilst searching. There where some close calls when it came to the 6 inch rule during the car searches as the wind had moved the area of scent away from the article itself. Very strong and clear indications from all dogs. With the boxes and luggage some dogs where distracted by the decoy scents so that is something to work towards shaping out.
But I hope you and your dogs enjoyed today and for a few of you this is the last time you shall ever have to search in cardboard boxes!
Faye
It was bright but cool for our Level 1 & 4 Trial at Ellen’s Erdington venue today.
I had the pleasure of co-judging with Faye Sparkes and we soon decided that we’d cover all four search areas between us over the day. Level 1 was scheduled in the morning and I started with the vehicle search. I tucked the clove swatch into a wheel nut and those people who let their dogs go the way the dog wanted to all managed to find it in super quick times. Penny’s Lyra detected it in 12 seconds, Julia’s Spot in 13 seconds and Sue’s Spring who sprung into action in 18 seconds! Amazing! Anita’s Meadow’s off lead search was impressive and Anne read Ellie well both gaining full marks in this exercise.
Bags and Boxes seems to be many teams’ nemesis but most completed this search with ease today. Deb was very observant of Skyla who is not an easy dog to read, Julia’s Spot and Jane’s Dinah were super speedy and Charlotte worked very hard to keep Bella focused to achieve the resulting find. Jess covered the search area well with Ruby as did Sarah with Bonnie. Congratulations to Julia & Spot who went on to win 1st place and an Excellent award.
We finished in good time and it’s always good to be able to get my dog, who was the white dog for the day, out of the car to stretch her legs and have a little play. I enjoyed a lovely sandwich and a cup of tea thanks to Ellen’s Mum who catered for us.
Level 4 had 10 competing teams and I started with the Exterior search. The search area included some hard surface and some grass. All the teams found at least one scented swatch with only a couple indicating on the distraction scents which were vanilla essence and a small square of pet bedding. It’s not the easiest area to work in being directly under a flight path and adjacent to a main road so everyone did very well indeed with full marks for Felicity & Danni, Jil & Herbie and Alison & Izzie. What impressive dogs theses are.
In the Tables, Chairs and perimeter search I placed both the distractions on the chairs and both the scents on the perimeter, one tucked into a door and one into a pipe on the wall. None of the dogs bothered with the distractions and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy most of the dogs found the target odours. A true indication, pardon the pun, of the high standard I witnessed today. A well deserved win and taking the red rosette was Alison & Izzie but congratulations to all who took part and gave it their best even if they didn’t qualify on this occasion.
I’d like to thank Ellen for inviting me to judge this well organised Trial, my scribe Liz and the runners who kept everyone moving along with great efficiency.
I enjoyed watching the Level 1 teams starting their Scentwork journey and the Level 4 teams who will soon be moving into the next league. Just think, no more Bags and Boxes or Tables and Chairs! Phew!
See you next time folks.
Karen Denton
| 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 1 | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |
| 1st | Julia Bodsworth – Spot | 20 | 5 | 27 | 20 | 5 | 8 | 20 | 5 | 13 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 100 | 68 |
| 2nd | Sue Taylor – Spring | 20 | 5 | 11 | 20 | 5 | 24 | 20 | 5 | 18 | 20 | 5 | 54 | 100 | 107 |
| 3rd | Penny Harris – Lyra | 20 | 5 | 30 | 20 | 5 | 12 | 20 | 5 | 12 | 20 | 4.5 | 44 | 99.5 | 98 |
| 4th | Jess Martin – Ruby | 20 | 4.75 | 48 | 20 | 5 | 22 | 20 | 4.75 | 35 | 20 | 5 | 50 | 99.5 | 155 |
| 5th | Deb Atkins – Skyla | 20 | 4.75 | 90 | 20 | 4.75 | 128 | 20 | 4.5 | 96 | 20 | 4.75 | 80 | 98.75 | 394 |
| 6th | Jane Page – Dinah | 20 | 5 | 30 | 20 | 5 | 21 | 0 | 4.75 | 34 | 20 | 5 | 21 | 79.75 | 106 |
| 7th | Anita Scott – Meadow | 20 | 5 | 19 | 20 | 5 | 14 | 20 | 5 | 26 | 0 | 4 | 115 | 79 | 174 |
| 8th | Anne Johnson – Ellie | 0 | 4.5 | 166 | 20 | 4.75 | 96 | 20 | 5 | 37 | 20 | 4.75 | 44 | 79 | 343 |
| 9th | Sarah Fortes Mayer – Bonnie | 0 | 5 | 33 | 20 | 4.75 | 68 | 20 | 4.5 | 60 | 20 | 4.5 | 75 | 78.75 | 236 |
| 10th | Charlotte Ryves – Bella | 20 | 5 | 17 | 0 | 4.75 | 164 | 20 | 3 | 175 | 20 | 4.5 | 84 | 77.25 | 440 |
| Level 4 | |||||||||||||||
| 1st | Alison Deakin – Izzie | 20 | 5 | 72 | 20 | 5 | 51 | 20 | 5 | 90 | 20 | 5 | 137 | 100 | 350 |
| 2nd | Jill Harper – Herbie | 20 | 4.75 | 111 | 20 | 5 | 51 | 20 | 5 | 71 | 20 | 5 | 79 | 99.75 | 312 |
| 3rd | Jan Martin – Amber | 20 | 5 | 167 | 20 | 5 | 69 | 20 | 5 | 63 | 10 | 5 | 220 | 90 | 519 |
| 4th | Felicity Ashford – Dani Darko | 20 | 5 | 145 | 20 | 5 | 73 | 20 | 5 | 85 | 10 | 4.5 | 289 | 89.5 | 592 |
| 5th | Janet Wykes – Jess | 20 | 5 | 54 | 20 | 4.75 | 57 | 10 | 5 | 142 | 10 | 5 | 95 | 79.75 | 348 |
| 6th | Kathy Fitzgerald – Portia | 20 | 5 | 81 | 10 | 4.5 | 143 | 20 | 5 | 265 | 10 | 5 | 76 | 79.5 | 565 |