Ali Brannen L1

First off I would like to say thank you to Susan Benson & Karen Kendall for asking me to judge this trial along with my co judge Paul Bailey, and my scribe Julia Reeves. Thank you also to the runners and the refreshment providers, you all did a fabulous Job.

I was tasked with the exterior search and boxes & luggage. I began with the Exterior Search, the scent was hidden on a jump cable clip, and the competitors were given the option of knowing which 3 items it could possibly be. The other 2 items were a blue balance cushion and a wooden stick. 8/10 competitors were successful in this search, the successful teams were Janette Ross & Buddy, Julie Cox & Edith, Geoff Howard & Chester, Jan Manners & Gemma, Jane Page & Dinah, Barbara O’Brien & Jaffa, Christine Davis & Tilly and Jen Rose & Mia. The Blue cushion proved a distraction to the other 2 teams, although a scent has never been hidden on this item.

We then went on to the Boxes & Luggage. The scent was hidden on the bottom of a case with a large amount of the swab exposed. 7/10 teams were successful in this search, they were Barbara O’Brien & Jaffa, Linda Mawby & Scooby, Jan Manners & Gemma, Geoff Howard & Chester, Julie Cox & Edith, Jen Rose & Mia and Jane Page & Dinah.

Bev Dean & Leo although unsuccessful in my searches worked hard throughout the trial and Bev just seemed to have a lot of fun in the searches, it’s a lovely attitude to have.

I really enjoyed judging these level 1’s, there were some lovely searches and great indications. There was no mouthing of the swabs and no trashing of the search areas, dogs were enthusiastic and you could really see the team work coming together. Well done everyone and keep up the training. I look forward to hopefully seeing you all again in the future.

A white dog was run for my search areas.

Ali Brannen – L5

First off I would like to say thank you to Susan Benson & Karen Kendall for asking me to judge this trial, also extra thanks to Susan who also scribed for me despite having already judged and help set up the trials in the morning.

We started with the interior 1 search, the room was clear apart from 4 tables spaced around the perimeter. The hall also has a stage area with 2 small staircases, one of these were blocked off for the scribes table and competitors were told that no scent would be hidden up on the stage. The 6 scents were hidden on (left to right) a lock (below the stage area), a recess in the exposed set of stairs, underneath a table leg, in the hinge area of a toilet door, in the hinge area of a double cupboard and underneath a dado rail. 5/9 teams were 100% successful in this search, these were Helen Soper & Trek, Liz Ormerod & Archie, Linda Johnson & Tassle, Chris Clemments & Queeva-Diva, and Helen Byrne & Nellie. 2 teams found 5/6 hides, 1 team found 4/6 hides and only 1 team only found one.

Then it was to the exterior search. This was held around the rear of the building incorporating a ramp, rubbish bins and other items. 4 hides were put out these were on the first large bins wheel bracket, again on another bin wheel but around the centre of the wheel, a bracket on a drain pipe and wedged in a cupboard door. 5/9 teams were 100% successful, they were Denise Pile & Butty, Helen Bryne & Nellie, Helen Soper & Trek, Liz Ormerod & Archie and Linda Johnston & Tassle. The remaining 4 teams found 3/4 hides.

Lastly it was the final interior search which was held in the toilet lobby, with 1 scent hidden in the hinge area of the door, and the final one being hidden on the bottom of a cupboard door. 7/9 teams found both hides and the remaining 2 teams found just one hide. The successful teams were Linda Johnston & Tassle, Claire Bennett & Benson, Chris Clemments & Queeva-Diva, Helen Bryne & Nellie, Helen Soper & Trek, Lynda Crossland & Teddy and Liz Ormerod & Archie.

There were some lovely searches. Helen Soper’s Trek is a very enthusiastic searcher and took all areas at great speed. Liz Ormerod & Archie worked had in all areas with Liz being guided by where Archie wanted to go. Linda Johnston & Tassle were a lovely team with Linda being guided by Tassel around the search areas. Helen Byrne’s Nellie was an amazing little search dog, again Helen stepped back and let Nellie lead the way. Chris Clemment’s Queeva-Diva was another keen search dog who voiced her opinion at Chris whilst searching. As always Denise Pile’s Butty is always a pleasure to watch, so full of enthusiasm and just wants to get on with the job in hand. Claire Bennett’s Benson seemed to be on much better form than when I last saw them, he was much keener to search and loved his praise when he was successful. Kathy Fitzgerald & Portia also worked well at covering the areas. Lynda Crossland & Teddy struggled with the first search area, but Lynda worked incredibly hard to motivate him to keep searching the rest of the areas and he was more successful with these. Congratulations to Liz & Archie who won the trial.

Everyone worked really hard with their dogs, and this showed with the high pass rate of 8/9 competitors qualifying at this level 5, and was also showed by the high scores of the teams. Well done everyone, and I hope to see you again in the future. (A white dog was ran for all search areas).

Susan Benson

We had a beautiful day for the trial on Sunday 12 May, I was one of the judges for Level 2.
I started off with tables and chairs and the perimeter. There was some very good teamwork. The scores were close and I was very impressed with a lot of the people I had judged before. I then judged the exterior search. Again lovely searches. Lynda and Magic were very worthy winners, But there were several others that made it a really good competition. It was so nice to see the people I had judged before really moving on.

It was a lovely day, great camaraderie, lots of laughs and everyone having fun.
Well done to you all, keep up the good work.

Paul Bailey

Many thanks to Karen Kendall (now Bailey) for organising the trial at Southam and inviting me to judge levels 1 & 2, how else do we celebrate our wedding anniversary. Thanks to Ali Brannen my co-judge for level 1 and Susan Benson my co-judge for level 2. Thanks to my scribes and the runners for keeping things flowing.

For level 1 I judged the chairs and tables and vehicle searches and Susan scribed for me. The chairs and tables were first-up and all teams were successful, all times under a minute so I realised we had a good group here, Jane and Dinah in 4 seconds and Geoff and Chester in 9 seconds. The vehicle search was more of a challenge, the scent was in the front left wheel, the car in a large enclosed space, competitors approached from the rear and there was a slight breeze. Three competitors failed to call the correct position. Common handling mistakes included missing areas (or a wheel) as the dog lost attention and continuing to search in the same direction. All competitors qualified, Geoff and Chester were first with 100 points.

For level 2 I judged the vehicles then boxes and luggage, Lynda Crossland scribed for me. The vehicles search was first and again proved to be the more challenging for the competitors. The scents were on the front right-side wheel of car 1 and the tow bar of car 3. All the competitors got the first scent and some very quickly as it was near the start point, however the scent on the tow bar caused a problem for some teams. Well done to Josie and Monty who had never searched more than one vehicle and found both scents. Some dogs Karen trained spent some time searching the van in the middle convinced it must be a scent somewhere as there had been in the past, but well-done Harry and Zak for keeping on task. The boxes and luggage were a success for all competitors, some quick times Liz and Benji 17 seconds. Nice to see dogs working off lead and handlers remaining at a distance. Highlight of my day was seeing Mary and Alice find both scents, working Alice off lead for the second find was a stroke of genius. Six teams scored a maximum 100 points, Lynda and Magic in first place.

This was another successful Southam trial which ran smoothly. There was some excellent handing and several teams competing in their first trial, so it was great there were successful. I’d seen serval teams compete in previous trials and it was great to see the improvement they had made. I look forward to my next trial whether as judge, organiser or scribe.