After receiving the dreadful news that Karen, the judge for the day, had been involved in an accident on her way to the trial it was decided that I would stand in and judge the Level 4’s.

Having not seen some of the competitors work their dogs since training for their earlier levels it was wonderful to see how far everyone had progressed.

We started with the vehicles, tricky conditions meant the dog & handler teams really had to work, a few nerves started to creep in on a few as their search time went on and a couple of panic calls resulted in false alerts but on a whole the majority coped very well. Lovely searches from Amanda with Thai & Caroline with Balian, but the best vehicle search of the day was Aaron with Delilah.

Pippa popped in and was quickly tasked to helping Rick set up the next search areas so we could keep everyone flowing.
We then went inside for the boxes & luggage.Our distractions for the day were Dog odour & Vanilla Extract, considering one of the distraction scents has only recently been introduced I was very impressed overall with how well the handlers read their dogs, the clear solid indications that were given gave the handlers the confidence to call the finds correctly.
Julie & Ben wasted no time completing the search in 25 seconds, as did Neil & Oscar. Closely followed by Janet with Echo.Mick’s ability to read Cookie came through as Cookie was showing a lot of interest on one of the distractions before moving on to the correct box.

We went back outside for the Exterior search; the articles Rick & Pippa had managed to put out were brilliant. We had the base of a cement mixer, ladder, bricks and bits of pipe to name but a few. The exterior search really did look like they were searching a real-life building site.

Anni with Maisie carried out a faultless search along with Julie & Ben. Dudley the GSP’s enthusiasm to work is a joy to see, Ren handles him brilliantly.Chester thoroughly enjoying his job works like a train and Monique does well to keep pace with him. Caroline’s quiet and efficient handling of Balian make them a great team that are a total pleasure to watch.

Finishing off with the tables, chairs & perimeter a few of the dogs were starting to tire making the distraction scents a little more inviting. Except Alfred the HWV, who came in with the same energy & enthusiasm as he did in his first search!
Flis carried out an impressive detailed search with Jet, Jet leaving the indication Flis had been looking for all day to the very last find.Warwick, an incredibly laid back Lurcher, was not having much of a problem with the distraction scents but found a rug a little too much of a temptation and decided to have a lie down – Such a lovely character only just missing out on qualifying this time – I have no doubt he will go through next time.

Thank you to my superscribe Sue Dawes who is just brilliant, as someone once said truly a Judges best friend. Steve & Liza the runners who work so hard in the background keeping everyone flowing, Pippa who jumped in at last minute to help out and Rick for throwing me in the hot seat. I thoroughly enjoyed my day watching everyone and seeing so many dogs enjoying themselves.

Finally, a thank you to all the competitors for their understanding, fabulous sportsmanship and keeping such high spirits in what turned out to be very wet & cold conditions. Congratulations to all. You should all be so proud of your achievement and how far you have all come. Your hard work and commitment really shone through today. Looking forward to seeing you all at Level 5!

So pleased to hear that Karen has no serious injuries and managed to walk away from what sounded like an horrific incident.

Kate Kemp