Level 3
1 Carole Wheeler – Tolly – 100
2 Katie Rogers – Gylly – 100
3 Hannah Crook – Quest – 100
4 Lynda Stangle – Magic – 100
5 Cath Seddon – Dana – 88.9
6 Catherine Manfield – Ozzy – 79.75
7 Clare Robbins – Ripple – 79.5
Level 4
1 Hannah Crook – Quin – 90
2 Chris Gamson – Nellie – 90
3 Ian Arrowsmith – Jasper – 89.65
4 Alan Clancy – Rhum – 80
5 Karen Goddard-Wilson -Jinx – 79.75
6 Liz Beaumont – Cash – 79.65
7 Maria Daley – Flo – 79.4
It wasn’t a great omen when we arrived at the Village Hall to find it with no electricity! L3 trial was planned for the morning and we planned for a Tables and Chairs and Exterior Item start (as separating the main hall into 2 would have made one half too dark), when during the Judges Briefing, the electricity came back and we decided to run both interior searches in parallel first – hoping for better weather!
Unfortunately, I made a mistake sending the wrong team in the wrong interior room, which threw the well planned running orders out of order. Thank you all competitors for being so understanding!
With the help of Yvette – who scribed all day, thank you! – Lorraine and Caroline we managed to finish the L3 trial nearly on time.
We then moved on to L4 searches, with Sue and Nigel continuing running searches in parallel. I now have a new appreciation for runners, as I tried to keep competitors coming, however, with the adverse weather (it was raining heavily again) and people having to get their dogs out of the cars in the carpark (where the Vehicle Search took place), I was getting flustered.
Thank you Paula for your help in the afternoon and thank you to my judges, Sue and Nigel for braving the weather. Thank you to all competitors for your understanding and camaraderie!
Sue Gardner
First, I would like to thank Nigel and Tina for asking me to judge their trial, its always lovely meeting new dog and handler teams and watching them work together to find the scents.
Thanks go to Tina for judging the cars, she was so wet!! And to Helen who kindly scribed for me during the day.
We managed to start the level 1 trial following the briefing on time at 9.30am, Helen and I started with the exterior search. I know that many handlers worry when the conditions are difficult, but nearly everyone located the scent in the tyre. Gaye and Sasha, were amazingly quick, calling the correct alert in an amazing 12 seconds. Our second search was boxes and Luggage, again some good searching with Fay and Duggie finding the scent on the black bag in a quick time of 27 seconds, this helping her achieve her 4th place. Congratulations to Denise & Oddbod on their 1st place, well worth the trip from Cornwall!!
On to level 2, again started with exterior, keeping the wheel and adding a blue bat for the second find. Everyone found at least one item, most teams finding both. Julie and Wren posted the quickest time finding both items in an amazing 21 seconds.
The final search was boxes and luggage. Amazingly everyone found both items, the quickest being Caroline and her dog Millie in 17 seconds. Congratulations to Andrea and Ruby on their first place
Also well done to Deb Atkins and her dog Belle on achieving their level 1 Excellence.
Some great searching by the teams, with good humour despite the rain. Final thanks to Nigel and Tina for making me most welcome.
Susan Benson
I woke up to notice that again this weekend a trial that I was involved with would be run in the rain which put a bit of a dampener on how I was feeling.
I got to the hall with Tina who was our trial manager for the day, and we started to get the hall ready for the interior searches. However, we had 1 small problem. Due to the wind and rain we had no electricity!!
Teams started to arrive and then Sue Benson who was co-judging with me informed me that she had to come past a couple of RTC’s which may make some late!
After a discussion with Tina and Sue it was decided that we would run the Boxes and Luggage and Table and chair first as it was due to stop raining around 11 am. I had the Boxes and Luggage to start with and put one in a box and the 2nd in a briefcase. Most teams found them quite quickly, however, a few teams had not done much in the way of training with Gun Oil and this proved their downfall!
I then started on the exterior search with one being hid in a wheel and the other on a dog guard. The dog guard proved to be the one that sorted out the dogs the most and it was quite noticeable to see those that had been trained on looking for a low hide as most dogs had difficulty in finding the Gun Oil. There were exceptions with Katie and Gylly and Carole and Tolly finding both in less than a minute in hard conditions.
At the end of the searches 4 teams had 100 points and were only separated by time, with Carole and Tolly coming first Katie and Gylly 2nd, Hannah and Quest 3rd and Lynda and Magic 4th.
We had a quick break for lunch and the it was Level 4’s turn. Again, I had the Boxes and luggage to start with and I was surprised by how many dogs I deducted points for trashing boxes and bags., however, the handlers were very calm which I think helped some of the dogs in their search
I then went outside for the Exterior search, just as I did this it started to rain a little, but it did not put the dogs off and we were then quickly into searching. Most teams found both hidden scents but a few did have difficulty as their dogs were searching the gravel more than the items. Out of 10 teams 6 qualified and the deserved winner was Hannah and Quin followed by Chris and Nellie who did well. In 3rd we had Ian and Jasper with Karen and Jinx in 4th.
I would like to thank my scribes Caroline in the morning and Paula in the afternoon for their help as well as Lorraine for keeping people moving throughout.
| 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 3 | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |
| 1 | Carole Wheeler – Tolly | 20 | 5 | 61 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 59 | 20 | 5 | 34 | 100 | 174 |
| 2 | Katie Rogers – Gylly | 20 | 5 | 70 | 20 | 5 | 44 | 20 | 5 | 52 | 20 | 5 | 42 | 100 | 208 |
| 3 | Hannah Crook – Quest | 20 | 5 | 34 | 20 | 5 | 58 | 20 | 5 | 100 | 20 | 5 | 17 | 100 | 209 |
| 4 | Lynda Stangle – Magic | 20 | 5 | 48 | 20 | 5 | 36 | 20 | 5 | 87 | 20 | 5 | 46 | 100 | 217 |
| 5 | Cath Seddon – Dana | 20 | 4.9 | 121 | 10 | 4.75 | 204 | 20 | 4.5 | 180 | 20 | 4.75 | 166 | 88.9 | 671 |
| 6 | Catherine Manfield – Ozzy | 20 | 5 | 117 | 10 | 4.75 | 274 | 20 | 5 | 157 | 10 | 5 | 49 | 79.75 | 597 |
| 7 | Clare Robbins – Ripple | 20 | 5 | 180 | 10 | 5 | 133 | 10 | 4.5 | 122 | 20 | 5 | 43 | 79.5 | 478 |
| Level 4 | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | Hannah Crook – Quin | 20 | 5 | 74 | 20 | 5 | 54 | 20 | 5 | 59 | 10 | 5 | 38 | 90 | 225 |
| 2 | Chris Gamson – Nellie | 20 | 5 | 75 | 20 | 5 | 157 | 10 | 5 | 300 | 20 | 5 | 60 | 90 | 592 |
| 3 | Ian Arrowsmith – Jasper | 10 | 4.9 | 76 | 20 | 5 | 94 | 20 | 5 | 130 | 20 | 4.75 | 106 | 89.65 | 406 |
| 4 | Alan Clancy – Rhum | 10 | 5 | 123 | 10 | 5 | 122 | 20 | 5 | 111 | 20 | 5 | 116 | 80 | 472 |
| 5 | Karen Goddard-Wilson -Jinx | 0 | 5 | 116 | 20 | 4.75 | 235 | 20 | 5 | 216 | 20 | 5 | 34 | 79.75 | 601 |
| 6 | Liz Beaumont – Cash | 20 | 5 | 65 | 10 | 5 | 71 | 20 | 4.9 | 97 | 10 | 4.75 | 116 | 79.65 | 349 |
| 7 | Maria Daley – Flo | 10 | 5 | 52 | 20 | 4.75 | 58 | 10 | 4.9 | 220 | 20 | 4.75 | 40 | 79.4 | 370 |