Thank you for asking us to judge Karen.

We had been following the weather forecasts that were predicting terrible conditions, so we had spent the week devising a plan, and selecting articles to use that would protect the scent from the rain.

We arrived at this lovely venue, and began to get everything in place for the day.

We were starting with the Level 3. Exterior, and Tables these were running at the same time, so I headed outside and Geof began inside.

The exterior items proved tricky for some handlers, but the dogs were working well. Queeva-Diva, who went on to Win did a lovely methodical search, she’s a fab little dog. Izzie did a great job too, as did Hugo and Kiwi.
Meanwhile, inside Jazz, Ginny and Lima were working well, and finding both scents.

We then moved on to Vehicles, and Boxes and Luggage.

We had some lovely searches here, although we saw a few handlers convincing themselves the scent must be on the 3rd Vehicle.
Izzie tracked the scents beautifully, as did Lima, Jackie wasn’t 100% but read Lima well and let her track back and stick with the scent.

The Star of this element though was Tomba. He, and Lisa arrived for their go in blustery conditions, but we needn’t have worried Tomba proceeded to do a Perfect Vehicle search, It was a joy to watch, Well done Tomba, and Lisa, Great Teamwork.
Boxes and luggage proved interesting, with a few of the dogs preferring to retrieve and play, and slightly forgetting the indicate part of the task, (guilty confession from Geof;, it was actually nice to watch the dogs having fun !),

Kiwi stepped up to the mark here, and did an awesome search, Geof says this was the best he’d seen her work, cracking!.
Also Judy, and Jaffa saved the best til last, and did a fab search here.

After a lovely lunch. we began the level 4.

Level 4 has the added distractions, we were using Tea and Coffee inside, and Shampoo and toothpaste outside. These did cause some interest, and we did have a few early calls while dogs were investigating them.
This time I was inside, and Geof headed outside.

We began with Tables and Perimeter, and Exterior. We had some nice searching inside, Dolly did a lovely little search here, as did Bear, Gypsy, and Bailey Boo. Sue and Lily did a great job, and Julie kept her nerve as Betty methodically searched the room, and we all held our breath as time was getting close. We needn’t have worried Betty got them both no problem.
With the blustering wind the exterior proved a little difficult for some teams, but there was some lovely searching, the lovely Kaiser ,Betty, and Bear search well, and Bailey-Boo nailed it, finding both scents.

Boxes and luggage, there was some lovely teamwork here. Kathy and Star did a really lovely search, as did Christine and Bailey-Boo. and Bear with Jamie handling was faultless, Bears faultless performance carried on to the Vehicle search, meaning that not only did he win the Red, he also achieved his Excellent Rosette too, an amazing team, who were a pleasure to watch all afternoon.

Vehicle search also highlighted some other great teams . Dolores and Gypsy were very impressive here, and Poppy did a lovely search here, handled beautifully by Jackie.

Well Done everyone, Congratulations to everyone who was placed, but also, as we said on the day, even though there were some teams that didn’t qualify, there were some elements you should all be extremely proud of.

Lastly, thank you to everyone involved, from making sure we were fed and watered, to getting everyone in the right place at the right time, and our fab scribes.

Hope to see you all again soon.