Thank you to Mandy for asking me to judge the Level 5 at Solihull on 19th February. Thanks also to my brilliant scribe Ruby who was fully on top of the scoring – her first scribing at level 5 and Claire our runner who kept things moving brilliantly. Thanks also to all the competitors, the standard was very high and enjoyed watching all your dogs.
Interior 1 was a storage cupboard and an area of the main hall which ran across the stage, there were two odours in the storage room and two along the stage area. This initial area proved very successful for many dogs with most getting all finds easily within time. The few false alerts (all indifferent places) proved costly for the later placings.
Exterior was across the front of the building with an interesting area of doors and various objects attached to the wall. Again we had several teams with full marks on this area, leaving me to wonder if I’d made the test too easy!
Interior 2 was back inside the main hall with a cornered off area and the entrance foyer and the area between the doors and the shutter. I place one area in the latter area and this was a real draw for the dogs, some dogs took a long time to precisely source this one which proved too costly in terms of time. There was one odour in the foyer on a chair and this was harder to find unless the dogs had been tasked to the chair – those that were found it easily. Two odours in the main hall, one under a table leg and one higher on the underneath of a bar stool. These two were found by most teams and it was lovely to watch the dogs work to source.
Overall I saw some lovely handling with awareness of their dogs’ individual needs, very sensitive handling for nervous dogs and knowing when to step back and allow the dogs to work the odour to source. It was a very enjoyable trial to judge. I look forward to seeing you all again soon.
1st Joyce Oliver- Duckhouse & Loki
2nd Sarah Stonton & Jack
3rd Emma Conlisk & Rupert
4th Nikki Inglis & Peppa