Level 1
1st – Jayne & Ozzie
2nd – Alexia & Bobbie
3rd – Brian & Muska
4th – Sally & Asher
Clean Sweep – Janet P & Echo
Clean Sweep – Adele & Keisha
Clean Sweep – Kay & Lola
Clean Sweep – Denise & Butty
Clean Sweep – Michelle & Zippy
Clean Sweep – Lu & Bo
Clean Sweep – Debbie & Luna
Clean Sweep – Susan H & Hogan
Clean Sweep – Sue L & Mousa
Clean Sweep – Alison & Feebee
Clean Sweep – Ray & Echo (Judges Special)
Clean Sweep – Gillian & Buddy
Qualified – Annie & Toast
Qualified – Neil & Oscar
Qualified – Annie & Truffle
Qualified – Gill & Dila
Thank you to Nigel Wilkes for judging our level 1 trial at Langley Burrell. Also a big thank you to Pippa Bentham for her amazing car parking attendant skills and keeping the competitors flowing throughout the day. Also to our super scribe Sue Dawes.
We had 21 dog & handler teams competing with various breeds so would prove an interesting day.
Starting with the boxes and luggage despite some early nerves which caused a few hiccups with calling false alerts most competitors settled down and we saw some lovely handling.
We moved on to the Exterior search with the sun shining with minimal wind making conditions almost perfect. Quite a contrast to the week before!
The Tables & Chairs proved to be the most successful search of the day with all 21 teams achieving the find. It was a real pleasure to see the confidence grow as the day went on.
With a few teams needing the final search, the vehicle, to qualify nerves were starting to creep back in but they held their cool and all called the alert correctly.
It was lovely to see the variety of breeds competing with an Alaskan Malamute, Foxhound, Welsh Springer, Belgian Shepherd (Tervuren), Bull Lurcher, Gordon Setter and a Spanish Water Dog along with the GSD’s, Cockers, Lab’s & Collies all in the mix.
Due to the great teamwork from Runner, Judge & Scribe we were completed by 1600 hrs. With the longest part of the day seeming to be the presentation! I was delighted that 20 of the teams had qualified with 6 teams achieving the maximum 100 marks.
It was a great day and thanks to Nigel’s calming influence it gave the competitors a great experience in their first trial.
Also thank you to all the competitors for making it a special day.
Rick Burgess
Trial Manager
I was kindly asked by Kate and Rick to Judge their Level 1 Trial and it turned out to be a great day with sun streaming down it almost felt like spring. I arrived just after 9 am to find Kate and Rick busy setting things up and some teams were already there! I was introduced to Sue who was going to be my scribe for the day.
On talking with Kate we decided the order of play for the day and started with Boxes and Luggage, the scent being placed in a bag.
Although some of the handlers where nervous they and their trusted dogs soon got into finding the hidden scent. Unfortunately we had a few wrong alerts, which I think where more down to the nerves of the handlers alerting to quickly than their dogs indicating on the wrong item!
We the did the Exterior search and the teams again showed that they had worked hard for this trial and most of the nerves had gone and the dogs where really working well. Jayne and Ozzy were very quick and it was a pleasure to see this team work together.
We then did tables and chairs. Brian and Muska really went for this and it was great to see the little dancing of the front feet when the scent was found. For some reason Cassie who was being handled by Shaun didn’t like the door and was fixed staring at it. It took a great deal of coaxing for her to start working and when she did she found the scent.
After this we had a lunch break which was about 40 minutes and it was nice to see people milling around and talking to each other. A great spirit to have when in the middle of a Trial.
Our final search was for the Vehicle. The scent was hidden on the driver’s side step and a couple of the team needed to find this scent to qualify. You could feel a little tension in the air but the way they all went for it proved that the training they had was working and it was so nice to see these teams starting what I hope is a long enjoyable journey in Scentwork. I think one of my best moments was Ray and Echo (Alaskan Malamute) as they were searching the vehicle Echo indicated the find and Ray was not sure and tried to move on, but Echo was having none of this and stood firm and howled. I think Ray then knew that he had better call the find!!!
It was a very close call as 6 teams got 100 points and the time that they completed the 4 finds was taken into account. It emerged that it was only a very narrow point something that decided the winner with Jayne and Ozzy coming out as Winners hotly followed by Alexia and Bobbie with Brian and Muska 3rd and Sally and Asher 4th.
I had a most wonderful day seeing many different breeds of dogs as well as a wide range of handlers. Some dogs searched perhaps more thoroughly than others whilst some were more helter skelter, but in the end their owners knew their dogs and called correctly.
It was a testament to Kate and Ricks training that out of the 21 dogs that had entered that they had 20 qualifiers.
All teams who qualified had a nice little gift of doggie treats with their certificates and I was also asked for my team of the day which I had to give to Ray and Echo!
I want to thank Kate and Rick for organising this Trial as well as Sue who was a God send in scribing as well as Pippa for rounding everybody up and getting us to finish before 4 pm.
| A/F = Alert Find | H = Handling | T = Time (seconds) | |||||||||||||||
| Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | |||||||||||||
| Handler & Dog | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |||
| 1 | Jayne Hurd – Ozzy | 20 | 5 | 11 | 20 | 5 | 17 | 20 | 5 | 25.17 | 20 | 5 | 14 | 100 | 67.17 | ||
| 2 | Alexia Granatt – Bobbie | 20 | 5 | 7 | 20 | 5 | 17 | 20 | 5 | 22.5 | 20 | 5 | 21 | 100 | 67.5 | ||
| 3 | Brian Grimes – Muska | 20 | 5 | 10 | 20 | 5 | 18 | 20 | 5 | 16 | 20 | 5 | 25 | 100 | 69 | ||
| 4 | Sally Wynes – Asher | 20 | 5 | 16 | 20 | 5 | 9 | 20 | 5 | 19 | 20 | 5 | 28 | 100 | 72 | ||
| 5 | Janet Parker – Echo | 20 | 5 | 23 | 20 | 5 | 25 | 20 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 100 | 83 | ||
| 6 | Adele Cole – Keisha | 20 | 5 | 12 | 20 | 5 | 29 | 20 | 5 | 18 | 20 | 5 | 27 | 100 | 86 | ||
| 7 | Kay Luis – Lola | 20 | 4.75 | 21 | 20 | 5 | 31 | 20 | 5 | 19 | 20 | 5 | 12 | 99.75 | 83 | ||
| 8 | Denise Pile -Butty | 20 | 4.75 | 67 | 20 | 5 | 19 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 13 | 99.75 | 119 | ||
| 9 | Michelle Horton – Zippy | 20 | 4.75 | 48 | 20 | 5 | 9 | 20 | 5 | 27 | 20 | 4.75 | 17 | 99.5 | 101 | ||
| 10 | Lu Grant – Bo | 20 | 5 | 12 | 20 | 5 | 24 | 20 | 5 | 30 | 20 | 4.5 | 67 | 99.5 | 133 | ||
| 11 | Debbie Joyce – Luna | 20 | 5 | 28 | 20 | 4.75 | 80 | 20 | 4.75 | 52 | 20 | 5 | 22 | 99.5 | 182 | ||
| 12 | Susan Hunt – Logan | 20 | 4.75 | 34 | 20 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 4.75 | 62 | 20 | 4.75 | 24 | 99.25 | 135 | ||
| 13 | Sue Lintern – Mousa | 20 | 4.75 | 38 | 20 | 4.75 | 71 | 20 | 4.75 | 65 | 20 | 5 | 31 | 99.25 | 205 | ||
| 14 | Alison Grimes – Freebee | 20 | 5 | 19 | 20 | 4.75 | 25 | 20 | 4.5 | 98 | 20 | 4.75 | 62 | 99 | 204 | ||
| 15 | Ray Castell – Echo | 20 | 4.5 | 38 | 20 | 4.75 | 21 | 20 | 4.5 | 61 | 20 | 5 | 65 | 98.75 | 185 | ||
| 16 | Gillian Irving – Buddy | 20 | 5 | 28 | 20 | 4.5 | 31 | 20 | 4.75 | 47 | 20 | 4.25 | 79 | 98.5 | 185 | ||
| 17 | Annie Synnott – Toast | 20 | 5 | 17 | 20 | 5 | 19 | 20 | 4.75 | 34 | 0 | 5 | 31 | 79.75 | 101 | ||
| 18 | Neil Dolman – Oscar | 20 | 4.75 | 22 | 20 | 5 | 37 | 20 | 4.75 | 18 | 0 | 5 | 32 | 79.5 | 109 | ||
| 19 | Annie Synnott – Truffle | 20 | 5 | 30 | 20 | 5 | 42 | 0 | 4.75 | 95 | 20 | 4.75 | 79 | 79.5 | 246 | ||
| 20 | Gill James – Dila | 20 | 5 | 13 | 20 | 3.75 | 36 | 20 | 5 | 38 | 0 | 5 | 31 | 78.75 | 118 | ||