Heather Donnelly

My thanks to Nigel Wilkes for asking me to judge at the L1 & 5 trial at Daglingworth. I haven’t been to Daglingworth for quite a while and I believe the last time was when I judged the very first Daglingworth L1 trial.

We started 9.30am prompt and I had the good fortunate of having Tina Schuster to judge the exterior searches who then became my scribe for L5. Thank you Tina especially braving the outdoor elements in the rather showery cold weather.

I started with the L1 table and chairs search after going through the marking system with my newby scribe Paula Davis. Paula has only had a few scentwork lessons and took up the challenge of becoming my scribe, I know that she learned a lot so all newbies do come along and help as you will learn so much.

As with all Level 1’s the standard ranged from newby trainers to those who were experienced and it showed. In the table & chair search there was some very confident early calls from Karen & her excitable collie ‘Oreo’, Carole Thornley and Zoe who went on to gain 2nd place and Judith and ‘Jaffa’ a Cocker Spaniel with super attitude.

With the boxes & Luggage particularly impressive were Chris & her red B/C Nell doing a super ‘freeze’ indication on the large brief case in just 7 seconds. Chris experience showed with her handling of this rather excitable collie who went on to win a well deserved first place. Carole and Zoe came a very close 2nd only missing the top spot on having a slightly slower time, Bobby and Bella the ESS showed great team work gaining a credible 3rd place with Lorraine and Chester who come 4th who made it obvious that he loved his searching so much that he didn’t want to leave the room!.

Commiserations to those that didn’t pass this time, some dogs are more difficult to read than others but keep at it and your time will come I am sure.

After a quick break and after Berit s delicious jam scones it was onto the L5. I was privileged to have a very impressive line up and decided to start with ‘Interior Search 1’ which included a small committee room and part of the corridor. I hid 3 scented articles in this area and I must admit that most teams covered these two areas really well. The only comment though, was that some handlers completely ignored the table and chairs in the centre of the room, just as well that I didn’t put one there!
Next was the exterior search and as the heavens opened I wondered if this might cause a few problems for the teams which it didn’t . Again most teams did really well but unfortunately Flossie & Becky missed the scented article on the corner of the bench even though Becky suggested Flossie should look here, just unlucky really. Lovely handling from Lesley and Hettie, Lesley knows that Hettie is so into the great outdoors so Lesley allowed Hettie to get a measure of the outdoor area before Lesley & Hettie got down to business. Well done for taking a well deserved 4th position. Also young Barley the 8 month old BSD ably handled by Karen was super focused and I just love her stamping of all 4 feet on the ground letting mum Karen know that she had found the scent. Full credit to Karen for sensitive handling of this very young dog who will go far.

Back inside for the ‘Interior Search 2’ and this time I used part of the large hall and the rest of the corridor. As most of the teams were doing well so I made this last search a little more challenging. However you wouldn’t have though this as Chris and Dilly found all 5 in 103 minutes and Nicky & Ellie in 133 minutes. Chris and Dilly went on to win the trial and well done to Chris for keeping Dilly’s enthusiasm curbed as she so loves her scentwork. Close up on Chris & Dilly’s toes, taking the 2nd spot, was Nicky & Ellie who have come on so far recently and pulled out all the stops in gaining this credible 2nd place amongst some very stiff competition.

Tina Schuster

Having learned from previous trials, this time I stayed behind to receive a list of “I forgot to bring….” from Nigel, who had gone to Daglingworth Village Hall early and we managed to start L1 on time! Despite forecast of heavy rain, there was only a drizzle and my faithful scribe Berit and I managed to stay fairly dry – as for some reason we had pulled the short straw and were doing the outside searches. We started with vehicles, and thanks to Berit having washed her car, we were able to use it for this search. A lot of the dogs found this search hard – most of them being in a new place, with new smells and distractions. Kudos to all those who managed to get their dogs to work despite the rain, ducks and tempting verges – especially Beverly, who managed to get Teddy’s attention on the car at exactly the crucial moment and spot! After a tea break, we started the exterior search. Even though a lot of the dogs hadn’t worked on gravel before, all teams found the scented item, opting to be told which of the 3 items it could potentially be. Thank you Carole for acting as cautionary tale! Well done all, and especially Chris and Nell, who won the L1 and a special thanks to Berit for not only scribing but also helping organise and feed everyone!