Level 1
1st Paul & Jack – 99.5
2nd Roxanne & Arlee – 99.5
3rd Sue & Jazz – 98.5
4th Janet & Sasha – 79.25
5th Jamie & Bear – 78.25
6th Sophie & Nicki – 78.25
7th Becky & Reba – 77.75
8th Elise & Meg – 77.25
9th Paula & Lottie – 75.75
The day of our first trial had finally arrived. The weather god were shining on us and we had lovely sunshine all day. We arrived at 8 to finish setting up the hall ready for our competitors and judge to arrive. At 9.15 our first keen competitors started arriving and at 9.45 all 18 had arrived ready for a quick briefing before we started on the “tables and chairs”.
Lots of nervous first time competitors which showed in some of the early results. 8 pairs managed to find the scent but Jamie and Bear did it in a super speedy 8 second! Whilst the last couple of dogs were searching the tables and chairs we set up the “vehicle search” to keep the day running as smoothly as possible. 3 pairs managed full marks in this test but the fastest time went to Paul and Jack with a cool 11.07 second find.
After lunch we moved on to the “boxes and luggage”. Everyone had had a chance to relax and regroup and that showed as the results continued to improve. Paul and Jack we once again on their A game with an 8.94 find. Our final search area of the day was the “exterior” 14 teams found it with 5 teams gaining full marks. A huge congratulations to our 3 clean sweeps Paul and Jack, Roxanne and Arlee (both on 99.5 points) and Sue and Jazz not far behind on 98.5.
We felt all in all it was a very successful day, some handlers didn’t pass this time and were understandable disappointed but there attitude in training has been fantastic and we don’t doubt that they will fly through at the next attempt.
We need to say a huge thank you to our Judge Andy Grindley and scribe Nicola Gaffney, without your support we couldn’t have done this and I know our handler teams really appreciated your kind supportive comments throughout the day.
We are very much looking forward to our next one.
I would like to start off by saying a big thank you to Anna and Jennie for inviting me to judge the 1st Level 1 Scent Trial at Sussex County Dog Training in Aldingbourne.
We were lucky that the weather conditions were dry and sunny. The day started with a brief of what to expect and the schedule before moving on to the 1st of the four search exercises. The 1st search exercise was the table and chairs inside the training barn. I think all the handlers were a little nervous which possibly reflected for some, in a mixture of several false alerts and no alerts.
As the day progressed all the handlers appeared to relax which was nice to see. This allowed some great handling to flourish over the remaining search exercises, which in turn also lead to some impressively quick alerts particularly from the overall winners of the day Paul and Jack.
I thoroughly enjoyed judging today and would like to thank my excellent scribe Nicola, who was both helpful and supportive throughout the day. I would also like to thank a wonderful group of handlers and their dogs for making it a great trial. It was nice to see many happy faces even for those who’s day may not of turned out as successful as they had either hoped or expected. I can only look forward to be involved in any future trials and thank both Anna and Jennie for there hard work in the organising of a well run and seamless trial.
Andy
| 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 | |||
| 1st | Paul & Jack | 20 | 4.5 | 43.78 | 20 | 5 | 32.28 | 20 | 5 | 11.07 | 20 | 5 | 8.94 | 99.5 | 96.07 | ||
| 2nd | Roxanne & Arlee | 20 | 4.75 | 42.03 | 20 | 4.75 | 66.12 | 20 | 5 | 60.53 | 20 | 5 | 37.31 | 99.5 | 205.99 | ||
| 3rd | Sue & Jazz | 20 | 4.25 | 25.84 | 20 | 5 | 46.44 | 20 | 4.5 | 60.53 | 20 | 4.75 | 62.62 | 98.5 | 195.43 | ||
| 4th | Janet & Sasha | 0 | 4.5 | 7.03 | 20 | 4.75 | 90.41 | 20 | 5 | 19.59 | 20 | 5 | 46.75 | 79.25 | 163.78 | ||
| 5th | Jamie & Bear | 20 | 5 | 8 | 20 | 4.75 | 66.41 | 0 | 4.5 | 44.19 | 20 | 4 | 54.44 | 78.25 | 173.04 | ||
| 6th | Sophie & Nicki | 20 | 4.5 | 17.82 | 20 | 4.75 | 55.25 | 0 | 4.5 | 180 | 20 | 4.5 | 36.19 | 78.25 | 289.26 | ||
| 7th | Becky & Reba | 0 | 3.5 | 72.41 | 20 | 4.75 | 41.4 | 20 | 4.5 | 30.5 | 20 | 5 | 28.68 | 77.75 | 172.99 | ||
| 8th | Elise & Meg | 0 | 4 | 25.66 | 20 | 4.5 | 92.5 | 20 | 4 | 92.5 | 20 | 4.75 | 60.08 | 77.25 | 270.74 | ||
| 9th | Paula & Lottie | 20 | 3 | 90.78 | 20 | 4.5 | 169.5 | 0 | 3.5 | 180 | 20 | 4.75 | 52.53 | 75.75 | 492.81 | ||