When Harry was unable to fulfil his appointment (I do hope that you’re feeing better Harry) I was happy to help out. It was very last minute but Bridget and I messaged each other beforehand and we were virtually ready to go with Interior 1 when I arrived. Thank you Irene for scribing, I would never have known that it was your first go and I hope that you enjoyed yourself, Caroline too was new to assisting at a trial, thank you for keeping things running smoothly.
The competitors were, without exception, a nice group to work with, so I was particularly pleased with the number of qualifiers.
The areas were checked by a white dog for odour availability.
Interior 1
4 hides, 5 minutes
The main hall was divided on the diagonal and I used the LHS, plus the committee room. All hides were in the hall. On the left hand wall, quite close to the start, I placed a row of 6 chairs to create a narrow channel. There was a hide on the last chair and GO in a carrier low on the radiator close to the first chair. The channel was wide enough for handlers to get through but I thought that this set up might be a little introduction to the No Go Zone in L8 and that the dogs might be encouraged to work it on their own. However, handlers preferred to squeeze themselves into the gap too and I do wonder if this may have interfered with the dogs accessing the radiator hide as no team found it on the first pass and only two teams found it at all. Well done Pauline and Heather..
The other 2 hides were placed in 2 stacks of chairs set apart from each other to create a little alcove. The odour (T) on the LH stack was obviously spreading under the seat and causing dogs to indicate. I was happy to be able to accept the “alert” but with with a deduction for not being at source. I was delighted when Vicky’s Dexter and Jo’s Dolly hit odour just where others had, but then worked it round to source. Fabulous.
Exterior
4 hides, 5 mins
Two cars were included but hides were placed in a support post, low in a door, in a drain cover and low on a bench which I dressed with a jacket and some other bits and pieces.
Interior 2
4 hides 4mins 30
The other half of the hall; entry to storeroom; entry lobby to loos; corridor leading to busy storage room.
The only hide that created a problem for the dogs was GO in the bolt of an open door close to the start but 2 teams were successful here.
1st Pauline and Tessa
Confident, methodical searching resulted in 11 finds. The only team to find all 4 in Interior 1. Very nice performance. They were the first team to run in Interior 2 and Pauline kept her cool when I effectively used her as the “white dog” and adjusted the time allowed, during her run.
2nd Fiona and Sage
I’m going to admit to a little bit of alarm watching Sage work Interior 1, there were times when I was worried that he wasn’t going to make any finds. Exterior though was a different story, the area was worked very well and all hides found very easily. Interior 2 went well too.
3rd Peter and Dolly
The patience that Peter displays has to be seen to be believed. Dolly has so much talent but wow she’s busy and the Exterior search was rather frantic, to say the least. Dolly was only one of 2 to find the “bolt” hide in Interior 2. Well done on gaining your Excellent today Peter, very well deserved.
4th Paula Davis and Bonnie Jazz Nice work from this team today which improved from search to search. Finding all 4 hides in Exterior proved very important. Well done and good luck in the future.
Heather Poulton and Rudi
Actively seeking out the hides doesn’t seem to be Rudi’s forte but put him in the vicinity of a hide and he’s very reliable, as seen with the radiator hide in Interior 1 and the bolt hide in Interior 2. Nice work.
Vicky and Dexter Vicky’s line handling needs a little polish but other than that, this team work really well together. It’s always nice when you see a dog hit odour and then work it to source and there were a couple of really good examples from Dexter today.
Good luck to all the competitors who took part today.
When Harry was unable to fulfil his appointment (I do hope that you’re feeing better Harry) I was happy to help out. It was very last minute but Bridget and I messaged each other beforehand and we were virtually ready to go with Interior 1 when I arrived. Thank you Irene for scribing, I would never have known that it was your first go and I hope that you enjoyed yourself, Caroline too was new to assisting at a trial, thank you for keeping things running smoothly.
The competitors were, without exception, a nice group to work with, so I was particularly pleased with the number of qualifiers.
The areas were checked by a white dog for odour availability.
Interior 1
4 hides, 5 minutes
The main hall was divided on the diagonal and I used the LHS, plus the committee room. All hides were in the hall. On the left hand wall, quite close to the start, I placed a row of 6 chairs to create a narrow channel. There was a hide on the last chair and GO in a carrier low on the radiator close to the first chair. The channel was wide enough for handlers to get through but I thought that this set up might be a little introduction to the No Go Zone in L8 and that the dogs might be encouraged to work it on their own. However, handlers preferred to squeeze themselves into the gap too and I do wonder if this may have interfered with the dogs accessing the radiator hide as no team found it on the first pass and only two teams found it at all. Well done Pauline and Heather..
The other 2 hides were placed in 2 stacks of chairs set apart from each other to create a little alcove. The odour (T) on the LH stack was obviously spreading under the seat and causing dogs to indicate. I was happy to be able to accept the “alert” but with with a deduction for not being at source. I was delighted when Vicky’s Dexter and Jo’s Dolly hit odour just where others had, but then worked it round to source. Fabulous.
Exterior
4 hides, 5 mins
Two cars were included but hides were placed in a support post, low in a door, in a drain cover and low on a bench which I dressed with a jacket and some other bits and pieces.
Interior 2
4 hides 4mins 30
The other half of the hall; entry to storeroom; entry lobby to loos; corridor leading to busy storage room.
The only hide that created a problem for the dogs was GO in the bolt of an open door close to the start but 2 teams were successful here.
1st Pauline and Tessa
Confident, methodical searching resulted in 11 finds. The only team to find all 4 in Interior 1. Very nice performance. They were the first team to run in Interior 2 and Pauline kept her cool when I effectively used her as the “white dog” and adjusted the time allowed, during her run.
2nd Fiona and Sage
I’m going to admit to a little bit of alarm watching Sage work Interior 1, there were times when I was worried that he wasn’t going to make any finds. Exterior though was a different story, the area was worked very well and all hides found very easily. Interior 2 went well too.
3rd Peter and Dolly
The patience that Peter displays has to be seen to be believed. Dolly has so much talent but wow she’s busy and the Exterior search was rather frantic, to say the least. Dolly was only one of 2 to find the “bolt” hide in Interior 2. Well done on gaining your Excellent today Peter, very well deserved.
4th Paula Davis and Bonnie Jazz Nice work from this team today which improved from search to search. Finding all 4 hides in Exterior proved very important. Well done and good luck in the future.
Heather Poulton and Rudi
Actively seeking out the hides doesn’t seem to be Rudi’s forte but put him in the vicinity of a hide and he’s very reliable, as seen with the radiator hide in Interior 1 and the bolt hide in Interior 2. Nice work.
Vicky and Dexter Vicky’s line handling needs a little polish but other than that, this team work really well together. It’s always nice when you see a dog hit odour and then work it to source and there were a couple of really good examples from Dexter today.
Good luck to all the competitors who took part today.