A big thank you to Justine and Nikki for the invitation to judge the L7 at the glorious Yarwell venue. A big thank you to Corrine for keeping accurate scores throughout the afternoon. I can not emphasize enough how important the scribe is in these advanced levels when several scented articles can be hidden on similar items as was the case in the ‘Exterior Search’ when 4 scented articles were hidden on the brick buttresses along a wall.
I placed 3 scented articles in a very large room, 5 outside in a smaller narrow galley way and 4 in the toilet and corridor areas. My thinking was that competitors would make the assumption of how many scented articles would be hidden according to the size of the room but this isn’t necessarily the case. Also I hid 5 outside in the ‘Exterior search’ to rebalance the overall search performance with 40% of the scented articles being outside. The ‘Exterior Search’ was executed really well will Kathy & Rowan finding all 5 however I was surprised that some teams missed the early although Sara & Tia worked this really well resulting in Sara taking advantage of the opportunity of giving Tia a quick reward for the find.
The 3 hidden scented articles in the main hall were all fairly close together with the scent hidden on the table leg merging with the clove on top of a table placed fairly close. It seemed that most dogs detected the 2 odours but didn’t know how to work out the scenario. No teams managed all 3 finds in this area although Karen & Barley did handle the emergence situation really well.
The final Interior 2 search resulted in rather mixed results and maybe it was because most handlers needed 3 to qualifier which put the pressure on. Justine & Chumley were first up and did a very good search and the last team Rebecca & Marvel probably handed this search the best. Rebecca handled this area like a true competitor by ending the search before time, calling the ‘All Clear’ withdrawing her dog to prevent possible false alerts. This paid dividends as Marvel had found them all anyway resulting in this team to be the only team to gain the 10 bonus points throughout the day. Well done on your well deserved win.
Karen & Barley came 2nd gaining their ‘Ex’ on the day and 3rd was Wendy and Chillie. Chillie is so serious about his scentwork but with Wendy’s calm and natural handling makes this a very competent team. Lovely to watch.
Kathy & Rowan, Peter & Dolly just missed out with 8 finds although Peter was one of a few who bravely called the ‘All Clear’ on the ‘Exterior search’. Better luck to all those that didn’t qualify this time at the next L7 trial.