Thank you to Marianne for asking me to judge on Sunday 23 October.

As I failed to say this on the day, I must thank her family- Nicki (in the kitchen) and Darren (in the car park) as well as Marianne for the hard work they put in. I know Marianne got up before 6 am on Sunday but she had also spent many hours in the previous weeks to ensure that all ran smoothly and I forgot to thank her! Sorry Marianne. It is no mean task to both manage the trial and scribe as well, as you did.

Also, serious thanks are due to everyone else who washed their cars so we could use them, organised the draw and kept people coming, moved items around (esp. in the level 2 tests) and waited patiently –all so we could crack on and finish before 6pm. You know who you are. I am afraid no-one got feedback unless they asked me, just so we could keep everything moving.

It was really interesting to be able to watch all of you work your dogs.

We did tables and chairs first as it’s generally considered a nice introduction. In Level 1 we had a 78% success rate. Winter, a white Spitz, knew what he was there for –well trained Julia- and took exactly 11 seconds to find the scent. I was not surprised when he eventually turned out to have won level 1. However, nerves were inevitable for everyone and some of the dogs like Halle took a second or two to settle but Sue got him concentrating and he did his job. Level 2 had a 100% success. In level 2 Sally was working her two dogs, both Shelties. It takes some skill to work each dog appropriately and she did this. Poppy went first and the team’s persistence paid off as she kept coming back to the chair scent. Remus, however, did not waste a second. It was great to see all of level 2 start with their dogs off lead but I thought Jennie made a good decision when she put her Cairn, Mischief on the lead to get his concentration and it paid off.

On the vehicles in level 1 Rob’s BC Lacey and Irene’s springer Gem did this test in a professional 9 and 11 seconds respectively. Nice work. I was hugely relieved that the liver flat coat Nikan, who had had a mental blank on tables and chairs, now got into his stride and found the scent in 21 seconds (3rd best after 2 dogs that do scentwork for a living-well done Dave) and eventually passed level 1. I was also impressed that Pam had the good sense to ask to stop the test until people who were distracting her GSD Riley walked by. Yet, despite the distractions of pedestrians, clay pigeon shooting and an ice cream van plus the wind shifting several times we had 88% success at level 1 and 100% at level 2. Indeed, in level 2 Archie the poodle did really well as Liz said he is more noise sensitive since a recent illness and he still found his scents outside and then went on to win level 2. Congratulations. I must add a word of praise to Jennie who managed to work Mischief in both these outside tests without him fouling the ground which you said has been a big issue for you. I also really enjoyed watching Helen work her BC Trek and Teresa, her yellow lab, Archie as both were particularly good at watching their dogs in this test and letting them follow their noses while still being aware of what the dogs had and hadn’t covered.

After the lunch break, the exterior items search was set up in a fenced enclosure on grass. Thank you Kate and her terrier Kula who were patient with me while I got to grips with the 3 items arrangements for level 1. However despite this glitch she went on to find the scent in a folded chair in short order. Again it was great to see dogs like Georgina’s lab Archie working off lead with great success. However, some dogs found the football game at the end of the rec ground a challenge and before she started the test I quite understood why Nikki worked her black lab Ellie on lead. However as soon as Ellie was given the command she concentrated completely. Most impressive. A level one dog had been withdrawn by this stage as his recent stud dog activities were definitely affecting his concentration. So we had 100% success at level 1 and at level 2, 75% found two scents and 25% one scent.

Back inside, we did the bags and boxes. In level 1 87.5% found the scent. In level 2, 37.5% found both scents and 50% found one scent. I was glad of this result on level 2 as Kai, Marianne’s BC as our white dog, nearly gave me a breakdown by really taking his time to just mention in passing that he could maybe smell a couple of scents, if we cared, before we could start level 2 judging. I was beginning to think we would have to set the whole test up again. However I was grateful to Marianne for bringing her dogs, Kai and Merri, to act as white dogs. I should also mention a team that stood out throughout this trial in their determination and training-Jenny and her clumber spaniel Harvey who just kept going. They found all the scents in level 2 trial and despite the time it took, Jenny didn’t let it faze her and managed to keep Harvey’s concentration. It was a good job well done.

Marianne then provided us with tea and cakes while she added up marks and wrote certificates. (I think you have the gift of hospitality, Marianne.) We then handed out certificates and took the photos and started for home.

Well done everyone.