Thurleigh
My thanks to Marianne for the invitation to judge the L5 a level that I haven’t judged for quite a while. I was interested to see how the handlers would cope with this transitional step from L4 especially those taking their first attempt at a L5.
I thought all the dogs were worthy of qualifying at this level as all dogs showed much talent and it was the handling that resulted in the ‘missed’ finds. In a L5 I put out 9 scents which are straight forwards and the other 3 a little more challenging as a way of preparing handlers for L6 and beyond.
In the first search I hid 2, both ‘Clove’, low down and the other 2 high up both of which were ‘Gun Oil’. All teams found both the ‘clove’ scents and the majority finding the Gun Oil scent hidden in one of the doors higher up near the book case. The reason most teams, all except 2 teams, couldn’t find the other Gun oil scent was the combination of it being early, high up as well as being placed on an unobvious wall. All the other walls were given more attention as they consisted of either a door or a stone facade.
The Exterior search resulted in mixed results with some teams finding none whilst others found all 3. The weather was very cold, but this didn’t seem to cause too many problems especially with the Gun Oil.
In the last search I hid 5 scents 3 of which were straight forward and the other two more challenging. Hopefully the positioning of some of these scents gave handlers an insight into what dogs find easy and how some locations are outside of the dog’s radar eg the dogs just don’t look there. One scent was hidden at the base of a radiator close to a corner and it was only if the handler asked the dog to search that area the dog found it. The other scent which virtual no teams found, was hidden in the seam of the last of 3 closed doors near a corner. Most handlers searched the first doors seams very thoroughly, the seams of the second door less so and the last seam of the very last door virtually not at all. Also, the fact it was close to a corner all of the dogs ran straight past it in order to search the disabled toilet. I hope my scent placements were of benefit to handlers in a positive way of further developing the handling part of the team.
The winner today was Bettina & Oscar one of two teams to find all 4 in the first search and also finding 3 finds outside to be the only team to gain 20 bonus points, well done. Second, third and fourth were on identical marks with Jo & Dolly taking 2nd place and gaining her ‘Ex’ having the fewer F/A so well done. 3rd was Teresa also gaining her ‘Ex’ and 4th was Julie and Lola.