A thank you to Heather for the invitation to judge her level 4 at Finmere. With a thanks and congratulations to Yas who scribed for me before going on to win the level 6 later that day.

The level 4 entries were split into two groups. Distraction odours used, Dog and Almond Oil.

The Exterior Searches.
The wall and vehicle search proved difficult for the majority of the pairings. Only one pair found both targets. A special well done to Stacey and Ghost. Many dogs passed the first target which was in the wall, passing the target without searching. The target was quite early in the search and many of the dogs found the grass too much of a distraction.

The other exterior search was more productive with 4 pairings finding both targets. Once again many of the dogs found the ground more interesting also, a couple of dogs also alerted on one of the distraction odours, which was Almond oil.

The Interior Searches
The boxes and luggage proved to be the most productive, search of the day, with 7 pairs finding both targets. I am pleased to report no box trashing so well done everyone.

The table, chairs and perimeter again proved tricky for a lot of the pairings. With only 2 dogs finding both targets, well done Laura and Jess and Julie and Edith. The cupboards in the annex room proved to be the problem area for many.

Congratulation to Stacey and Ghost who won the trial, a super Staffy with an enthusiastic handler.
I would also like to mention Sue and Tiva and Laura and Jess for their calm handling and their approach to the searches.

Well done everyone.

Grahame.

Judge’s report

Thank you to Heather for inviting me to judge this well organised Level 6 trial and to Sue for scribing for me.

I began with Interior 1 which included the chair cupboard and the kitchen. There were 5 hides and most teams got off to a cracking start by finding all of them.

Then we went outside for the Exterior Search where it was a different story. This was a 3 minute search and there were 3 hides – one in a wall, one in a tree and one on a post. The 3 different scents were used for each. The area wasn’t very big but it did mean there wasn’t a lot of time to over search areas which some teams did. Most dogs found the competing environmental odours more interesting and handlers struggled to get their dogs to concentrate. This resulted in the teams doing poorly in this area.

Interior 2 was easier for the dogs and included the top half of the hall and the committee room. Here there were 4 hides
and most of the teams were much more comfortable inside and put in a good performance.

Sadly, Lisa had to withdraw because her dog wasn’t himself which left us with 8 teams. Of these 5 qualified so well done everyone. Special congratulations to Yaz & Banjo who only came to use the occasion as a training exercise but came 1st! 2nd place went to Lynn & Passi, 3rd to Alison & Dylan who also achieved their Excellent status and 4th to Peter & Dolly.

I really enjoyed the afternoon and I hope you did too.

See you soon folks.

Karen Denton