I couldn’t have asked for a better day: Sunshine and 17 degrees in mid-October, no cows or sheep in the fields next to Daglingworth Village hall AND all competitors passing their test! Bingo!
We started the day at 10 am with Level 2 and all competitors, the judge (Karen Denton) and scribe (Laura Dally) “in situ” at the start time. The first search being “vehicles” and unfortunately, more than half of the competitors struggled with finding both hides on the cars. We then moved on to “tables & chairs”, where nearly everyone found both hides. Even though the outside search is on gravel and as Karen admitted “one of the toughest surfaces” she had seen to work on, a lot of dogs did their owners (and trainers) proud – especially with a bike race happening on the road next to the search area at the same time. I admire Lyndsey’s tenacity to wait until 4 min 42 sec to call Tilly’s second find! Last but not least were “boxes and luggage”, where only Yvette called it wrong unfortunately. For me, the team that stood out that morning was Pippa and Becky, with their calm and positive approach to each search, as well as Matt, who after a hiatus of 3 months (and an “unenthusiastic” tables and chairs search) managed to bring back Ellie’s mojo!
After a 30 minute break for the judge and myself, we started Level 3 at 1:30 and continued with the same search-order. Thankfully Yvette had agreed to stay as a scribe for the afternoon, which helped with the running tremendously. 2 competitors struggled with the vehicle search, however, everyone excelled at the tables and chairs straight afterwards. It was great to see everyone focus on the “search in hand” even after the previous search hadn’t gone to plan. Again, everyone found both items in the (dreaded) exterior search, with Chris motivating and reading Buster well. All but Pippa and Billie found the “boxes and luggage”, which was a shame, as again they were a very calm and “in tune with each other” team. We hear that the winning team, Jennie and Reo (100 points) has a bit of a competition going on with other family member…well, sorry mate, you have a tough act to follow!
Now, a little note to all: If you use a “Frixion” pen (one of those you can rub out) to write out your certificates, don’t laminate them!!! Lesson learned: the writing will disappear!
A big thank you goes to Karen Denton, our judge, who has had kind and guiding words for everyone, Yvette Preston for spending all day at the trial and Laura for coming to the trial and scribing in the morning. As always, Berit Aherne and Chris Ovenden have been instrumental behind the scenes and Matt… for keeping me on my toes and not taking things too seriously!
Many thanks to Nigel and Tina for inviting me to Judge their L2 & L3 Trial.
We had lovely calm weather on this October day which can make a huge difference to the way the dogs perform, particularly outside and because it was so mild, there was no need for internal heating which can swirl the scent around for the inside searches.
This was the second time I’ve judged for Nigel and Tina and it was lovely to see some familiar faces from the previous Trial competing for their next levels. Others had travelled from far and wide to compete which is never easy on strange turf but they all did very well.
We started in the morning with the Level 2 competitors on the Vehicle Search. Tables & Chairs/Perimeter was next and with nerves settling most completed their searches in good time. Outside again for the Exterior Search which was held on gravel quite near to a road where every few minutes a group of racing cyclists whizzed by. Fortunately the dogs were unfazed and faired well. Our last Search was Boxes and Luggage with almost every dog successful in both finds. The standard of these teams was very high and everyone passed. Congratulations to all and especially to Pauline and Mirren who won the red rosette.
The Level 3 exercises were held in the afternoon by which time the sun was shining and we could feel its warmth. The four search areas were conducted in the same order as the morning exercises. The teams worked at a very high standard and I was particularly impressed by the outside searches which most dogs find more difficult than the indoor ones. The scores were amazing and hardly anyone dropped points. Very well done to all the partnerships with a massive well done to Jenny and Reo who scored 100% and took first place. You can’t do any better than that! All the Level 3 folk passed ~ again a great achievement.
I’d like to thank Laura and Yvette for scribing for me. This was the first time they’d scribed and both were very efficient and a great help. Also thanks to Berit who kindly provided cups of tea and rock cakes which were lovely.
A funny thing happened with the certificates ~ when I presented them they had the names of the handlers and dogs etc written in black but when some folk had them laminated all the writing disappeared apart from my signature which I’d signed with a blue pen! Seemingly, the writing in the black ink had reacted with the heat of the laminator but I think it reappeared when the certificate cooled down again! The magic pen gave Tina a heart stopping moment but relief when it all came back!
It’s always heartening to watch so many different breeds competing and to hear the stories of their improvement and the problems they’ve overcome to successfully pass the Trials. Matt’s dog, Ellie, was a bright little spark racing around the Tables & Chairs and found the scent easily but he had to work amazingly hard to encourage her to search the Perimeter when her demeanour changed completely because she’s worried by wood Lice! I was impressed generally with the participants’ understanding of their dogs’ strengths and weaknesses and with the way they handled them accordingly. These are lucky dogs 😊.
Karen Denton
A/F = Alert Find | H = Handling | T = Time (seconds) | |||||||||||||||
Level 2 | Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | ||||||||||||
Name of Handler & Dog | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |||
1st | Pauline – Mirren | 20 | 5 | 44 | 20 | 5 | 205 | 20 | 4.5 | 45 | 20 | 4.5 | 47 | 99 | 341 | ||
2nd | Pippa – Becky | 20 | 4.75 | 35 | 20 | 4 | 141 | 20 | 4.5 | 83 | 20 | 5 | 66 | 98.25 | 325 | ||
3rd | Lindsey – Tizzy | 20 | 5 | 41 | 20 | 4 | 288 | 10 | 4.75 | 45 | 20 | 4.5 | 107 | 88.25 | 481 | ||
4th | Ian – Jasper | 20 | 4.75 | 69 | 20 | 4.75 | 84 | 10 | 2.5 | 300 | 20 | 5 | 51 | 87 | 504 | ||
5th | Pauline – Jack | 10 | 4.75 | 28 | 10 | 4.75 | 38 | 20 | 4 | 146 | 20 | 5 | 25 | 78.5 | 237 | ||
6th | Clive – Mitch | 20 | 4.75 | 68 | 10 | 5 | 106 | 10 | 4 | 136 | 20 | 4.5 | 64 | 78.25 | 374 | ||
7th | Yvette – Anya | 20 | 4.75 | 25 | 20 | 4 | 141 | 10 | 4.5 | 54 | 10 | 4 | 40 | 77.25 | 260 | ||
Level 3 | Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | ||||||||||||
Name of Handler & Dog | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |||
1st | Jennie – Reo | 20 | 5 | 28 | 20 | 5 | 48 | 20 | 5 | 99 | 20 | 5 | 28 | 100 | 203 | ||
2nd | Berit – Safi | 20 | 5 | 112 | 20 | 4.75 | 58 | 20 | 4.25 | 90 | 20 | 4.75 | 53 | 98.75 | 313 | ||
3rd | Ian – Ruby | 20 | 5 | 63 | 20 | 5 | 68 | 20 | 4.5 | 46 | 20 | 4 | 142 | 98.5 | 319 | ||
4th | Kathy – Star | 20 | 5 | 93 | 20 | 4 | 164 | 20 | 5 | 92 | 20 | 4.5 | 77 | 98.5 | 426 | ||
5th | Lynn – Wotton | 20 | 4 | 187 | 20 | 5 | 38 | 20 | 3.5 | 128 | 20 | 5 | 34 | 97.5 | 387 | ||
6th | Matt – Ellie | 20 | 4 | 180 | 20 | 5 | 101 | 20 | 3.5 | 120 | 20 | 5 | 99 | 97.5 | 500 | ||
7th | Pippa – Billie | 20 | 5 | 70 | 20 | 5 | 36 | 20 | 5 | 108 | 10 | 5 | 44 | 90 | 258 | ||
8th | Helen – Trek | 20 | 5 | 36 | 20 | 4.75 | 68 | 10 | 4.75 | 55 | 20 | 5 | 64 | 89.5 | 223 | ||
9th | Chris – Buster | 20 | 4.75 | 142 | 20 | 5 | 147 | 10 | 4.75 | 146 | 20 | 5 | 45 | 89.5 | 480 |