Sat 25 Jun 2022, Plympton

Level 5: Judge - Debra Cassidy

Cottles Lodge, Station Road, Plympton, Plymouth PL7 2AU

Start: 9:30
Entry Fees: £27 per dog.
Contact: Sara Seymour compasscanineuk@gmail.com
Trial manager – Hannah Crook.

Trial Manager and Judges Reports

Firstly thankyou to Sara and Hannah for allowing me to judge my first level 5 competition. It is a big step up from judging levels 1 to 4 to judging a level 5 and I can assure you I was just as nervous as the teams competing. This was also a new venue and although busy, the dogs and handlers were focused and got on with things.

The weather was mainly sunny and dry and kind to the exterior searches with an episode of rain.

I choose to do the exterior search to avoid the rush of dog walkers. There were 4 hides were site near the start on the under sill of the double door (clove), One in a crack on the wall between 2 window (clove) in paving slab crack toward end of search area (gun) and on near the end of the search area by the black double doors and wall ( gun). One team scored their bonus on this search. This was a tricky area with numerous corners that needed checking but all teams worked well.

Large interior area with a number of doors, cupboards, chairs and tables. There were 5 hides to find: located at the base of the table leg to teams right as the entered the search area (clove) To the rear of the area where tables were stacked in a frame (gun oil), under a doormat by the rear fire door (gun oil) the bottom of the left hand door of brown metal cabinet to the teams left as they entered the search area (clove) and lastly on the front of a chair in the middle of the hall (clove). Two teams gained their bonus marks in this search.

Second interior search, corridor with numerous doors and toilet. There were 3 hides in this area. The plastic sink pipe in the ladies toilet (clove) the middle of the doors at the entry to hall (clove) the corner of the brown door at floor level (gun). Four teams gained bonus marks in this search)

It was a great opportunity to see different teams and dogs working. Well done Bev and Delilah, really fantastic searching. I loved Delilah’s visual and verbal indication – Fantastic.

Not all teams qualified but you all worked hard and I hope that like me you will have learnt from the trial.

Thank you to Sara and Debbie for inviting me to TM for this trial.
It was a new trial venue for all of us, so there were a couple of teething issues. Thank you to everyone for your patience.

The exterior search was done first off, to try and avoid the worst weather (we tried!) as well as a cricket match that was starting round the corner.
It was lovely to see all the different dogs.
Debbie did a great job as a first time L5 judge setting a challenging but fair trial.
Well done to those who Q’d and commiserations to those who just missed out.

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