Level 3
1 Liz Beaumont – Cash – 99.65
2 Belinda Zorab – Miage – 98.6
3 Lorraine Coley – Chester – 94.5
4 Peter Jefferies – Coco – 90
5 Marie Poole – Roger – 90
6 Rachel Fox – Logan – 90
7 Chris Bennett – Santi – 89.5
8 Julie Russon – Daisy – 75.2
Level 4
1 Collette Guy – Lola – 89.5
2 Amanda Mundell – Bailey – 88.9
3 Jill Law – Milo – 88.7
4 Sue Taylor – Sunny – 78.9
5 Justine Steel – Chumley – 78.5
6 Emma Conlisk – Smartie – 77.5
It was the perfect sort of day for my Level 3 and 4 Trial today. The weather was warm and still and everyone seemed in good spirits.
Jeni Pirie and Sue Gardner had kindly agreed to judge this Trial and they soon decided which searches they were overseeing and scented up the areas. They took an interior and an exterior search each and we soon got going with the Level 3 which was in the morning. All ran smoothly during this Trial even though there were several dogs who needed plenty of space to feel comfortable. The safe passage for them was managed superbly by Delores who was the runner for the day. Sue and Jeni set a fair but challenging Trial and one or two dog/handler teams were unsuccessful but, even so, the handlers were very pleased with their dog’s performance over all. Sometimes it’s not all about qualifying but dipping your toe into the next level just to see how it works for you and your dog.
Many congratulations to all the qualifiers but, in particular, the rosette placings who were 1st Liz & Cash, 2nd Belinda & Miage, 3rd Lorraine & Chester and 4th Peter & Coco. As well as being placed, Liz and Lorraine also achieved an Excellent title too. Well done ladies.
The step up to Level 4 was a little too much for one or two dogs who didn’t manage to qualify on this occasion but by the afternoon the temperature had risen a fair bit and a couple of the dogs looked a bit hot and bothered. One or two fell foul of the distraction scents which proved just a little too distracting! Most, however, put in a good shift and did well. Congratulations to all those who took part and especially to the top four who were 1st Collette & Lola, 2nd Amanda & Bailey, 3rd Jill & Milo and 4th Sue & Sunny who competed in a L3 Trial not very long ago.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the Trial whether or not they qualified and accepted the judges’ decisions and feedback with good grace and appreciation. Massive thanks must go to Jeni Pirie and Sue Gardner who were my judges, Michelle Rodgers and Helen Reaney who scribed and Delores Palmer who was the runner for the Trial. Without these folks giving up their free time at weekends there wouldn’t be any trials so many thanks again ladies.
I look forward to seeing you all progress on your Scentwork journey in future trials.
Karen Denton
| 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 | Liz Beaumont – Cash | 20 | 4.75 | 69 | 20 | 4.9 | 114 | 20 | 5 | 148 | 20 | 5 | 60 | 99.65 | 391 |
| 2 | Belinda Zorab – Miage | 20 | 4.5 | 125 | 20 | 5 | 59 | 20 | 4.6 | 273 | 20 | 4.5 | 169 | 98.6 | 626 |
| 3 | Lorraine Coley – Chester | 20 | 4.5 | 120 | 20 | 0 | 56 | 20 | 5 | 161 | 20 | 5 | 48 | 94.5 | 385 |
| 4 | Peter Jefferies – Coco | 20 | 5 | 42 | 10 | 5 | 30 | 20 | 5 | 60 | 20 | 5 | 67 | 90 | 199 |
| 5 | Marie Poole – Roger | 20 | 5 | 45 | 10 | 5 | 36 | 20 | 5 | 65 | 20 | 5 | 62 | 90 | 208 |
| 6 | Rachel Fox – Logan | 20 | 5 | 54 | 10 | 5 | 21 | 20 | 5 | 122 | 20 | 5 | 39 | 90 | 236 |
| 7 | Chris Bennett – Santi | 20 | 4.5 | 82 | 10 | 5 | 22 | 20 | 5 | 62 | 20 | 5 | 34 | 89.5 | 200 |
| 8 | Julie Russon – Daisy | 20 | 4 | 244 | 20 | 4.2 | 284 | 10 | 5 | 103 | 10 | 2 | 245 | 75.2 | 876 |
| Level 4 | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | Collette Guy – Lola | 20 | 4.5 | 191 | 20 | 5 | 77 | 10 | 5 | 90 | 20 | 5 | 55 | 89.5 | 413 |
| 2 | Amanda Mundell – Bailey | 20 | 4 | 262 | 20 | 5 | 86 | 10 | 4.9 | 89 | 20 | 5 | 96 | 88.9 | 533 |
| 3 | Jill Law – Milo | 10 | 4 | 157 | 20 | 5 | 85 | 20 | 4.9 | 214 | 20 | 4.8 | 108 | 88.7 | 564 |
| 4 | Sue Taylor – Sunny | 20 | 5 | 93 | 10 | 4 | 102 | 20 | 5 | 69 | 10 | 4.9 | 54 | 78.9 | 318 |
| 5 | Justine Steel – Chumley | 20 | 4.5 | 210 | 10 | 4 | 281 | 10 | 5 | 102 | 20 | 5 | 71 | 78.5 | 664 |
| 6 | Emma Conlisk – Smartie | 0 | 3 | 139 | 20 | 5 | 76 | 20 | 4.5 | 123 | 20 | 5 | 51 | 77.5 | 389 |
Sue Gardner
Many thanks to Karen Denton for asking me to judge her trial at Rubery. This is a fantastic venue, definitely, one for those competing to look out for.
My very special thanks go to Helen Reaney who not only scribed for me all day but plied me with her fantastic lemon drizzle cake. Final thanks go to Delores, who manoeuvred the competitors to each search, kindly doing this all day.
Level 3
We started with the level 3, this had 10 handler and dog teams, and gave some fabulous searches. I started with Table and Chairs, three teams aced this search, Peter & Coco, Marie & Roger and Rachel & Logan getting the full 25 marks. Finds were in a chair and a little car and caused most teams no issues.
My second search was the boxes and bags, most finding both box and bag, but in varying times. Chris and Santi giving a text book search in an amazing time of 34 seconds, closely, followed by Rachel & Logan and Lorraine & Chester both under 50 seconds.
Congratulations to Liz and Cash on their first place.
Level 4
In the afternoon we moved on to the challenging level 4 with distractions, this asks more questions of the teams, and saw 6 teams passing the level out of 10. I started with the external search, good weather with the sun shining and a light breeze. Scents were hidden in a small colanders and a small wooden box. The box was the problem find as it was in the corner of the search area and easy to block. Four teams made this search look easy, gaining their full 25 marks, Emma & Smartie taking 76 seconds beating the eventual winner Collette & Lola by a second followed closely by Jill and Milo and Amanda & Bailey. The distraction that caught most out was a small section of dog bed. Although not everyone found both items, there was some great searching, so well done to all.
My final search of the day were table and chairs and perimeter, scents were hidden in the door and a chair. Both searches were challenging, but Sue and Sunney found both in an amazing 93 seconds, the only team to earn her full 25 marks.
Well done to Collette and Lola for their first place.
Jeni Pirie
Level 3
Firstly I would like to thank Karen for inviting me to co-judge with the lovely Sue Gardner at Rubery. This is a location I haven’t attended before but I really liked the flexibility it offered, the search areas were spacious and the different substrates available to work on meant a new challenge in each environment. A stunning venue I would recommend. Thank you so much to my lovely scribe for the day, Michelle, whose humour and kind nature flowed through the day. Also a big thank you to Delores who kept the whole trial running smoothly with competitors flowing seamlessly into both trial searches.
The white dog was run over all searches, so thank you to my little Sully Doodles for always being up for a search.
For level 3 I stayed outside, enjoying the fair weather that Karen had magicked up for us.
Exterior search.
In this area the chosen articles were a metal colander and a plastic container. We saw some wonderful handling techniques, varied to suit the individual dog. We had a couple of false alerts in this area a couple indicated on a rubber ball launcher Logan’s indication was particularly convincing but these people had experience of working on similar items in the past for indication training. We also had a couple of indications on the post box. Roger’s indication was particularly clear but he moved off quickly, unfortunately for Marie her alert was quicker, I feel the dogs here were picking up drifting scent from the plastic container.
The confidence in the dogs in this search was wonderful to watch, Miage was very confident in clearing unscented items and Cash walked straight into the search following the odour on the colander.
Vehicle search.
The hides here were on the front wheel arch of Delores’ car and the drivers door of Michelle’s car. The wind was swirling a little in this search, changing it’s mind about whether it wanted to come off the field or down the lane and that made the scent move quite a bit around the vehicles. On Delores’ car this meant the odour flowed almost half way along the front of the vehicle bumper, a nice challenge for source for the level 3. Chester however read the situation very well and dove straight into the first scent on Delores’ car a strong indication meant a quick time for this search. Santi had amazing drive to the odour, ignoring the environment and really getting on with the job in hand. Liz had a bit of a job keeping up with Cash’s speed on the vehicle but her accuracy and determination on source meant they completed the task well.
Level 4:
For level 4 I started with the boxes and luggage. Level 4 always seems to be a handler frightener, I remember myself feeling quite nervous starting in level 4 and several of the teams sighed as I read out the distraction odours we would be using. The hides were in a black bag with a basketball symbol on the side and a red laptop bag
Emma and Smartie did really well on this as Smartie showed interest in the tea distraction, Emma held her nerve and Smartie moved on, showing only interest. A real proof in the pudding of learning your dogs ‘interest’ and ‘alert’.
Megan found the correct item very quickly, but struggled a little getting to source. She then gave the same alert on the tea, but well done Diane for trusting your dog that’s something so important in these games.
Chip was very keen and to check his source he pumped the luggage, something I haven’t seen for a while but a very clever way to check source.
Sunny made us all jump as he popped the bubble wrap inside one of the bags, he was completely unphased thankfully. What wonderful trust he must have in his handler.
Vehicles:
For vehicles we had a bit of a switch around from the level 3, using the extent of the rules both hides were now on Michelle’s car (middle of the three). One on the front fog light and the other in the drivers door (scent cloth replaced for this search, but same odour).
The wind continued to make sporadic decisions in its direction and this made for a fair bit of drifting scent. Scent drifted all the way over to the yellow car on the far right, this caused a fair bit of interest for the dogs and if the handlers weren’t watching carefully they could have talked the dog into indicating, which sadly did happen. Smartie took a little longer to switch on in this environment but once she did she really lit up, finding both scents in a flash. Bailey read the wind really well and picked up the odour from the start line, following it right round the vehicle and indicating quickly.
There are no distractions added in the level 4 vehicle due to the nature of the search being rather distracting. Judy did well to read Jaffa and keep him on the job, no small thing with such a young boy.
All in all I felt across this level all handlers knew their dogs well, everyone took on board our comments and across the searches I could see many people implementing changes whether it only be needed for that one snapshot day.
Really well done to all trialists in both levels, you made the day truly enjoyable!