Thank you to Carole Thornley for asking me to co-judge alongside Ellen Ward Lindley. It was a lovely journey through countryside to the trial and, at that point, the sun was shining. However, as we went through the day, we had mixed weather with wind and also rain.

Ellen and I quickly sorted out which searches we were going to judge for both Level 2 and 3. Thank you to my scribes Bonny & Carole and to the two runners, Trisha & Sara who kept a steady flow into the searches.

Level 2 ran in the morning. My judging started with the vehicle search. Everyone found at least one of the scents on the car, with just over half the competitors finding both scents. Unfortunately, a couple of false alerts prevented some teams from searching on to find the second scent. The competitors and dogs performed very quick searches on the cars, well done everyone. Mr. Smiths handled by Felicity Ashford did a very efficient search off lead in 41 seconds – it was a lovely search to observe. Jill Harper also worked her dog off lead but, when she saw her dog Herbie had become distracted, she placed him back on lead leading to both scents found in 59 seconds. Christine Cummins and Teasel also did a very nice search – well waited out for Teasel to ‘show you’ where the scent was on the license plate. There was some lovely sensitive handling of Lola by Collette Guy.

Having completed the vehicle search it was my turn to do an inside search – boxes and luggage. For some reason this type of search has a reputation of being more difficult than the other searches. However, half of the teams found both scents – very similar to the vehicle search.

Again, there was a couple of false alerts. This seemed to be a general problem for some teams. I am a great believer in knowing where the scent hides are in training. Once you know you can read your dog when he/she has found the scent in a trial it helps to know if/when your dog is falsely alerting so that you can ignore the split second it happens – not pay your dog any attention. Then loads of attention and food/toy play when the dog indicates on the scent.

There was some lovely searching of the boxes and luggage by the dogs. The dog that stood out for me & who also did the quickest search was Hazel Kemble’s Swift who found both scents in 38 seconds – very impressive! Felicity Ashford’s Mr. Smith also did a very quick search. The thing that surprised me was the number of people who didn’t want to come out and reward their dog after finding the first scent. However, this all made sense in the afternoon when I found I was judging many of the same dogs in Level 3.

Congratulations to all the competitors who all qualified – a very high standard of work in the searches I judged! And well done to those who had a placing.

It was mid afternoon before Level 3 searches could be started due to some hold ups in the morning. Ellen and I then discovered that one of the competitors had a second dog entered – this necessitated extra items to be scented up and a change in the objects in the searches so that it wasn’t obvious which were the scented items. Extra cars also had to be found.

This time I judged the Exterior search. Nearly every dog found both scents. There were some really quick searches! Wendy Coulson’s River found both scents in 24 seconds – what a nose! Felicity Ashford’s Danni Darko found both scents in 36 seconds – impressive! And handling was on the whole excellent. In particular Jan Martin handled her collie very sensitively, bringing the best out of her. Well done!

Then it was back inside to judge my next search, leaving Ellen to judge vehicles in the dark – fortunately there was artificial light. The dogs and handlers worked really well together on the tables/chairs and perimeter and the searches were impressive. All but one dog found both scents. There were some really quick searches! Wendy Coulson’s River completed in 37 seconds, Jill Harper and Herbie in 39 seconds & Felicity Ashford and Mr. Smith in 40 seconds.

Congratulations to Jill Harper with Herbie, a very worthy winner. Also, to Felicity Ashford who came second with Danni Darko & fifth with Mr. Smith, Alison Deakin who came third with Izzie and Julie Russon who came fourth with Poppy. Congratulations also to Jan Martin and Amber, Wendy Coulson with River and Janet Wilkes with Jess who all qualified comfortably.