Sunday 4th September 2016 at: Daglingworth Village Hall. Judge: Heather Donnelly
Level 1
1st Berit & Saffi 99.5
2nd Christine & Buster 99
3rd Matt & Ellie 97.75
4th Tina & Tusker 96.5
5th Lindy & Gunner 80
6th Bernadette & Moss 72.75
There were six runners at the Level 1 Trial held at Daglingworth Village Hall on Sunday 4th September 2016.
Our Judge for the event was Heather Donnelly and she arrived early so we could discuss how the trial should go as this was my first trial I was involved with as an organiser and was very nervous. As we had no scribe Pauline McGeoch who had come to watch, was persuaded to help us out which was very good of her.
All competitors and their trusted dogs arrived on time and the draw for the first of the 4 trials was drawn. The scented article for the Table and Chairs was hidden on the chairs. All the dogs found the scented article quite quickly and nobody alerted incorrectly.
The next test was the Vehicle search and the Scented Article was put on the nearside front wheel around the wheel nut. Again all dogs found the article quickly.
We then went back inside to do the Boxes and Luggage, this test proved a little more difficult for two of our competitors as we had two wrong alerts, however, there was good handling from Berit Aherne whose dog Safi was hovering over one of the cases and she could easily have called the alert but gave her dog the chance to search other items and found the correct case.
Our final search was back outside to do the other items. Again the dogs did very well and found the scented article which was in the dial on the water heater. We also had a first with our Deaf Dog Moss and Handler Bernadette finding the scent with the rest of the group giving her a big cheer on her way back – which could be heard even in the test area. What a great team spirit!
The Trial ended with 6 out of 6 qualifying, with the winner being Safi and Berit, hotly followed by Buster and Chris.
I would like to thank Heather Donnelly for her Judging and making everybody relaxed and also Pauline McGeoch for helping out at the last minute.
It was an honour to judge the ‘Cotswoof Sniffers’ who were taking part in their very first Level 1 trial at Daglingworth Village Hall in the Cotswolds. Nigel Wilkes had set up this rather enthusiastic group of competitors and I was looking forward to judging these six dog/handler teams.
Pauline McGeoch just came along to watch a ‘Scentwork UK’ trial but as we were short of helpers I asked Pauline if she wouldn’t mind scribing for me, fortunately she agreed and what an excellent job she did too. Thank you Pauline. This freed up Nigel who spent the afternoon helping to set up the search areas, running the white dog and the all important job of rounding up the rather nervous competitors.
We started with the tables and chairs search and I couldn’t believe how quickly some dogs found the scented article and how confident some of the handlers were at giving an early ‘Alert’. Lindy & Gunner was one of these with Gunner being very obvious in his indication by going into the ‘down’ position. Again Christine and Buster didn’t hesitate going straight to the scent in just 13 seconds.
Next we did the vehicle search and I hid the scented article around one of the wing nuts on the front wheel of the car. I allowed the competitors to search the vehicle from either direction to test the competitors understanding of the wind. Tusker took a little while to get into the search and spotted the rather interesting grass verge which he wanted to investigate. Tina spotted this and quickly got Tusker back into searching mode finding the scented article with ease.
Next up was the dreaded box & luggage search which always seems to take it’s toll for wrong ‘alerts’. We had one really heart stopping moment when Berit was on the verge of calling the alert on the green bag whilst Safi was just having a good investigation. Fortunately Berit’s knows how to read Safi ‘s body language really well and waited which was the right decision as Safi promptly abandoned the green bag and correctly alerted on the black rucksack.. Brilliant handling, well done. So unfortunately with 2 incorrect alerts two teams were under a lot of pressure to find the last scented article in the exterior the last search.
Fortunately some really good searching again by most of the teams with Matt & Ellie looking like a great team showing a very good relationships between Matt and this little Jack Russell Terrier. Bernadette & Moss were under a lot of pressure needing to find this last scented article to pass the test. Moss isn’t the easiest of dogs to read as his indication is rather brief and off course I should mention that Moss is deaf. We all waited with baited breath when Bernadette, not being quite sure, declared that she thought the scent was hidden on the water urn and a big cheer went up from the other supporting competitors.
So very unusually we had had 100% passes which was great news and the results were as follows:
Berit & Safi – A brilliant partnership between this team which especially showed during the boxes & luggage search
Christine & Buster – Lovely quite handling from Christine, well done
Matt & Ellie – This team improved as the day went on, lovely to watch Tina & Tusker – Not easy doing the test whilst being watched by your partner so well done Tina for holding it together
Lindy & Gunner – Abit of bad luck on the day for this team although no doubt they will go far.
Bernadette & Moss – So pleased for this team just proving that being a deaf dog doesn’t always hold you back
| A/F = Alert Find | H = Handling | T = Time (seconds) | ||||||||||||||
| Position | Handler | Dog | Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | |||||||||
| A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |||
| 1st | Berit | Saffi | 20 | 4.75 | 24 | 20 | 4.75 | 18 | 20 | 5 | 18 | 20 | 5 | 71 | 99.5 | 131 |
| 2nd | Christine | Buster | 20 | 5 | 13 | 20 | 4.75 | 23 | 20 | 4.25 | 27 | 20 | 5 | 15 | 99 | 78 |
| 3rd | Matt | Ellie | 20 | 3 | 117 | 20 | 5 | 12 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 20 | 4.75 | 25 | 97.75 | 174 |
| 4th | Tina | Tusker | 20 | 4.5 | 31 | 20 | 4 | 61 | 20 | 4.25 | 47 | 20 | 3.75 | 24 | 96.5 | 163 |
| 5th | Lindy | Gunner | 20 | 5 | 7 | 20 | 5 | 16 | 20 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 29 | 80 | 61 |
| 6th | Bernadette | Moss | 20 | 4.75 | 15 | 20 | 4 | 140 | 20 | 4 | 55 | 0 | 4,5 | 69 | 72.75 | 279 |