Holbeach St John’s village hall, Joy’s Bank, spalding, pe12 8sd
Start: Level 2 10.00, level 4 13.30
Entry Fees: £30 per dog.
Contact: Maz Jones mazscentworkinfo@gmail.com
Trial Manager and Judges Reports
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Sun 13 Mar 2022, Holbeach St John’s
Levels 2 & 4: Judges - L2, Maz Jones, Di Collino, L4 Becky Christmas, Justine Steel
I feel I need to get you to know regarding a quite cool video of {{Getting|Going} Through {The middle|Middle} of {East Borneo|East Borneo Indonesia|Indonesia|Indonesian} Forest for {Very Traditional|Traditional} {Cooking|Roasting chicken} {on|in} the Ricefield} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEUqYxb-I7w
I’d honestly be thankful if you would go watch them
I was judging the level 2 of the day.
It was a challenging morning with a wind whipping round the corner where we were holding the outside searches. We were using the wall element.
One scent was hidden nose hight of most of the dogs, on a door hinge, most of the dogs managed to find this without a problem, the other scent was hidden right in a corner of the wall/step. This proved very tricky, as many of the dogs were unsure how to pinpoint the scent, with the wind adding to the problem, lots picked the scent up blowing to the nearby pole. As a judge, we hate to see dogs struggle with a scent we have placed, but we as judges, can’t control the change in wind. I made sure that those that didn’t find the corner scent, were helped to direct the dogs onto it, and they just need that bit more tricky find training.
I have to mention Janet Beverly and Teasle. This little dog worked her paws off to try and get this find, but just ran out of time.
Quite a few teams were new to level 2, and doing double finds was a bit overwhelming for a couple of the dogs. But great effort by all the teams.
Thanks to Maz and Becky for inviting me to judge a rare Level 4 over at Holbeach. Just a short drive and a short trial due to withdrawals but a pleasant experience nonetheless. Slick trial managing from Maz ensured a smoothly run trial. Thanks also to Ruth for scribing and of course wonderful white dogs Chumley and Rosie. Becky kindly gave me the inside areas to judge… I’m not sure if there was an ulterior motive there or if she was just trying to protect me from the elements! In any case the first group came in and tackled the bags boxes and containers search before moving onto the tables chairs and perimeter. Then the second group arrived and completed the tests in reverse order. Conscientiously we took a picture of the exact position of all items and made sure the tests where as close to identical as possible.
Considering most people choose not to hang around in Level 4 it was hard to see why this might be with the high standard of searching, particularly in relation to the distraction scents. Throughout the 16 indoor searches that I had the pleasure of judging only one false alert was called on a scent other than gun oil or clove. Interestingly more wrong alerts were called on a metal fan and obviously in some cases this was more interest from the dogs than indication, but admittedly at times it was easy to see why an alert was called. Subjectively this may be because our dogs need to practice in lots and lots of different areas and lots of different conditions and of course we need to have a nice solid indication.
It was a pleasure to see Karen and Gunner, Nikki and Theo, Rebecca and Marvel working off lead but personally I would’ve been thrilled also to see more dogs working on to find that second scent without having to come out for that interim reward. I realise this is a preference for me and of course not essential but it is great preparation for the future levels.
Well done all and particularly Lena and Angel for finding all 8 target scents and of course Rebecca with Marvel who not only gained 3rd place but got that elusive Excellent at this Level 4 level! Thrilled for you and looking forward to seeing you at Level 5!