Many thanks to Becky Harris for inviting me to judge the L2 & 5 trial held at Roade Village hall which was a most superb venue. The trial was very swiftly run with the aid of some really good helpers who are the back bone of any trial. Well done to Becky & Rob for organising, Tracey Inwood for scribing both the L2 & some of the L5’s searches and Geof Dixon for scribing the L5, running and also helping with the scores at the end of the day, your efforts are much appreciated.

I judged the table & chairs and ‘Boxes & Luggage’ searches whilst my co-judge Sue Abbott-Dixon judged the outside searches. I must admit my general impression of the standard of the L2’s was very good. Some of these teams I have seen before and they have come on enormously so a very well done to Charlotte & Bea and Steve & Elsa for upping your game since the last time I saw you both. In the past both Bea & Elsa have been so subtle in their indication and I can see that both Charlotte & Steve have worked so hard in achieving a good freeze behaviour, so well done both of you. Also another impressive team that I have seen before are Rachael & Logan. I just love the relationship between these two with Rachael managing Logan’s mobility which is restrictive only having 3 legs. The winner was Janet & Dice. I was very impressed with this handler’s very quiet & calm handling of this rather enthusiastic dog, it was a pleasure judging this team. And finally a special mention to Emily Pearson for keeping your nerve right up until the end search and gaining a well deserved L2 qualification. Oscar had a shut down moment in the tables & chairs search and despite Emily’s efforts he just refused to work. Emily pulled out all the stops in the ‘Boxes & Luggage’, usually the search where a lot of teams fall, so well done Emily for not giving up despite being two ‘Finds’ down at the very beginning.

We started the L5 searches around mid day and finished around 6’oclock which was very good time management as L5 had attracted a good entry of 15 runners. I don’t usually give individual feed back to the competitors at this level as they probably know their dogs better than me and one never knows what individual journeys people have come through with their dogs. However for general feedback, most competitors covered all 3 search sites efficiently and in good time, the majority of competitors were good at suggesting to their dogs to search the frequently missed areas such as doorways, areas close to the barrier tape and no one was caught out by my rather random placement of the ‘hides’. However many neglected, to their cost some of the corners and only one dog found the scented article hidden under the dado rail in the corner in the first search. Some competitors handled this well whilst others didn’t suggest this area at all resulting in many teams missing this ‘Find’. During the exterior search I hid one in the fence area which appeared to be a very doggy fouled area. I was surprised how many handlers didn’t ask their dogs to search the higher up places on the middle and top rung of the fence. Most dogs searched fairly low down and actually weren’t searching but sniffing the dog odour instead. I was surprised by how many handlers didn’t know this and this is something I see this all too often. Also I think that a lot of dogs know that their handler doesn’t know too! So out of the 15 runners we had 13 qualifiers and the placing were as follows:

1st Jennie & Reo – I have judged this team before and just love this special bond that Jennie has with this dog. Reo has his health issues and Jennie just treats every trial with Reo as a bonus and doesn’t have any expectations on his performance at all. A well deserved first place, attaining the only ‘clean sweep’ and also gaining their ‘Ex’ L5 title to boot. Well done.

2nd Nicola & Acer – I have judged this team before and thought that Nicola now has put that extra bit of polish on her performance. Nicola was one of the few who swiftly moved past the large brick walled area, that didn’t have any potential hiding places and spent more time on the fencing where there were plenty of hiding places and where one was hidden. I thought Nicola’s handling was one of the most systematic of the trial, well done.

3rd Sue & Lily – First time in L5 for this team and Sue took on the challenges of L5 really well. Lily is a very keen & enthusiastic search dog and when Sue gains more L5-8 know how there won’t be any stopping this team well done.

4th Tracey & Hardy – Similar comments to above with Hardy showing great enthusiasm for finding the scented articles. Just a little more suggesting from Tracey making sure that Hardy checks out those regularly missed areas and difficult areas, will make this team ready for the L-8 challenges.

Heather Donnelly

Thank you for inviting me to be part of the Judging team at Roade.

Level 2,

I was judging the outside elements at this great venue, we were lucky that the weather was kind to us, and I was looking forward to seeing everyone again.

We began with the Exterior, the area was a nice size and allowed everyone to move around the articles freely. The gravel proved to be very interesting for alot of dogs, we also had a few local dogs that clearly thought they needed to be Scentwork dogs too, and popped over to watch, and then we had a football team turn up, only to find they were in the wrong place, so decided to wheel spin their little convoy back out of the Car Park, I have to give a special mention here to little Olive, handled beautifully by Laura, they coped with all this going on, and carried on as if nothing was happening. Well done Laura.
Steve with Elsa had a lovely round, tracking to the scent on the step ladder perfectly.
O
scar, and Logan both worked well too, both dogs are a little wary of unfamiliar dogs, but continued to work the scents despite all the dog walkers enjoying the sunshine.

Bea, and Dice showed us how it should be done, both with faultless performances,
and Bentley despite thinking each bit of gravel needed to be inspected just incase there was a scent on one, found both scents, well handled Clare.

We moved on to the Vehicle search next, which proved alot less eventful, and we had some really nice searches here by everyone.

Lucy picked up the scent on the 3rd vehicle as she was moving on to the 2nd vehicle and shot across to indicate on it, such an honest lovely girl.

Bea had another faultless performance, and is a joy to watch.

Oscar was a little star, finding both easily.

It was great watching Elsa track the 2nd scent to source. Eddie did a great job, as did Dice, and it was incredible to watch Logan, a 3 legged Rottie, not phased by the fact he was on gravel, or by the fact to had to search 3 cars, he just got on with the job in hand and found both scents easily.

I hope you all enjoyed your day, as much as I enjoyed watching you all.

I would like to say thank you to Janet, my scribe for the morning, you were a star, and thank you to the runners who made sure people were ready to go, it really does make for a smooth day.

Sue Abbott Dixon