Nice early start to head up to the NorthWest to Lydiate.

A lovely venue, with a nice big field to exercise the dogs.

L2 – I shared level two judging, and my first area was the vehicle search. Three vehicles, with a hide placed on the front passenger wheel of the first vehicle, the second vehicle was blank, and the second hide was placed on the drivers side of the front bumper of the third vehicle. The breeze meant scent was around the front bumper for the first vehicle, but most teams successfully worked their way around to the source. The second hide gave some strong scent around the wheel arch causing some teams to call incorrectly a little too early. Overall some nice handling, with the advice of longer lines to a few teams working on short walking leads – it’ll help your searches for sure!

The second area of L2 I judged, was inside – tables and chairs plus 8 perimeter items. The first hide was on the very first corner of the very first chair as teams entered the area. Many dogs missed this first time as handlers tasked past this or didn’t quite believe their dogs were in scent so soon! There were a couple of teams who called this quickly, and it certainly helped place them in the top four!
The second hide was placed at the back wall on a plastic tool box. I must say, I was super impressed by how methodical every single team was working these items as a line up, ensuring the majority found it first time over the items! Excellent searching!

Well done to overall winners, Gail Burgess and Bisto – I’d work hard for popcorn too!! And special mention to Paul Coward & Oxley, handling a spaniel off lead and on crutches is no mean feat!!

LEVEL 5
Interior 1 – half the main hall with table tops providing a perimeter. 3 hides, 3.5mins. The first was a low gun oil hide bottom of the skirting board. It was nice and open allowing plenty of odour to be available, IF you have your dog the chance to search this area. This is the one that caught most out as many dogs went into the big area, and handlers never came back to the start to search. Hide number 2 was on the second stack of chairs at nose height for most dogs, and being clove, meant it was often the first find for many as it drew the dogs in. The busy part of the perimeter had nothing, and if teams didn’t get caught up in that, the third find halfway up the end of a radiator, was achieved – this was also gun oil. Daniel Gordon & Tess were stand out in this area, with a flawless search finding all three hides in order, in less than half the allowed time! Also Wendy & Bandit, to see such an old terrier really enjoying his work with his handler, put a big smile on my face, what a joyous team to watch!

Exterior Search L5
Using the front of the building, a long linear exterior search was possible. 5 finds and 4minutes allowed. First hide was gun oil back the gas/electric box with a low clove wall hide just around the corner 4ft away. The teams that found these two first were the ones with the most success overall. The next hide was behind a drainpipe past the doorway (the doorway entrance caught a lot of people as the scent from hide 3 blew into this area causing lots of interest as time went on). Hide 4 was gun oil in a bottom corner further along, and the 5th and final hide was round the end of the wall in the bottom of a water pipe – again this hide needed the handlers to recognise the interest and step back, allowing the dogs to work it in, scent was everywhere around all of the pipes! The exterior search for Helen & Clay was text book! In a super fast time of 103 seconds, closely followed by Daniel & Tess on 114 seconds. Four teams found all 5 hides here, and all other teams successfully managed 4/5 – with most missing one of the corner hides.

Interior 2 L5 –
The final search was a t-shaped corridor area, 4 hides and 3minutes. Hoping the new teams to L5 had learnt to check from the start, the first hide was a clove band placed on the hinge of the entry door, and approx 2m in was a gun oil scent on the foot of a stack of chairs, approx 1” from the ground. The left part of the T, had a clove scent in the bottom corner of the door at the far end, and a gun oil hide halfway along the bottom of the radiator. There was nothing on the right hand side of this search as you looked in, and this caught a few teams out with a bit of time pressure. Two teams successfully found all four, one of those being the chaos that is Zenzero – this dog was an absolute pleasure to watch throughout- whether or not you can see it, she has method to her madness and became the eventual winners to find all 12hides, closely followed by Daniel and Tess in second missing only the door hide in the final search.
3rd, 4th & 5th all on 10hides, came down to wrong alerts (only 4 from all teams over the trial!). Lovely day – thank you team Lydiate for inviting me to judge, great team of helpers and a lovely, welcoming bunch!