Many thanks to Ewan Cubitt for inviting me to co-judge the level 1 and 2 trials with Susanne Broughton at Weedon. Special thanks to my scribes Jane Appleton and Rachael Devonish who did an amazing job, and to Ewan for organizing such a great day and ensuring everything went as smoothly as possible. A special thanks to Jane and Susanne for providing the white dogs, Skipper and Poco.
The standard of the level 1 trial was very high with everyone qualifying and some excellent teamwork demonstrated. I judged the exterior searches and everyone coped well in what was quite blustery conditions. We started with the vehicle search and both Kirsty & Molly and Courtney & Misty were on fire and found the hide in 16 and 17 seconds respectively. The fact that so many of you trusted your dogs and allowed them to follow the scent cone resulted in some fast times. In the exterior search, we again had some incredible times with Claire & Eddy and again Courtney & Misty being taken straight to the scented article in 5 and 9 seconds respectively. The wind conditions meant that many of the dogs could be seen taking in the odour from the start line and there were some very fast times in this search.
Congratulations to:
Courtney and Misty – 1st Place. Extremely accurate and quick searches from this team. Lovely handling from Courtney, with Misty providing super confident indications. Congratulations.
Rebecca and Pixie – 2nd Place. A great partnership and I just loved watching the vehicle search where Pixie responded beautifully to Rebecca’s search request and produced a lovely focused search. Well done
Janice and Nigel – 3rd Place. Some really nice teamwork and sensitive handling. It was lovely to be able to watch you work together. Well done.
Verity and Hermione – 4th Place. A great team and it was lovely to see how you gave Hermione the freedom to work to the scented article and provide you with a great indication in the blustery conditions. Well done.
A special mention to Rachael and Esme who also achieved a clean sweep at this level. It was great to see how Esme’s confidence had grown in such a distracting environment.

For the level 2 trial, I again judged the exterior searches and after a last-minute change to the format we utilized three cars for the vehicle search. The conditions for this search were quite challenging with some blustery winds, but despite this we had Valerie & Jasper and Sally & Eliie finding both hides within 44 and 48 seconds respectively. Sally & Ellie again gave a great performance in the exterior search finding both hides within 19 seconds, closely followed by Rebecca and Marvel at 24 seconds. It was lovely to see so many of you work with the conditions and allow your dogs the freedom to move around the area freely and focus in on where they were picking up the strongest odour – as the wind was certainly moving the scent around.
Congratulations to:
Melinda and Lady – 1st Place. A fantastic partnership and a well-deserved first place. Lady clearly enjoyed working. Congratulations
Meghan and Rocket – 2nd Place. Great searching from this team and you worked hard to retain the focus in the vehicle search. Well done.
Rosemary and Berti – 3rd Place. It was lovely to see that despite some longer searches this partnership worked so well together they were in the placings. Congratulations.
Helen and Bella – 4th Place. A lovely partnership who worked hard in the very distracting environment of the vehicle search. Well done.
This was a really enjoyable trial to judge with fantastic competitors. I hope you all enjoyed it.
I look forward to seeing you all continue to progress on your Scentwork journey

Judge Susanne Broughton
I would like to say thank you to Ewan for running an excellent trial (his first one) to my amazing scribes Jan and Mel, and to fellow Judge Janet and her wonderful scribes for helping making a cold and windy Sunday fun. Amazing jobs by all.
I judged the interior search of both level 1 and 2. Janet judged the exterior searches.
There were a total of 10 teams on both trials and all made it despite an accident on the motorway holding a few up.
I Have to say I was totally blown away by the standard of handling and work ethic from the novice dogs. We started on boxes and luggage on the level 1 search, with finds of 10 seconds from Claire and Eddy and 14 seconds from Rebecca and Pixie. All of these new dogs worked amazingly under the conditions of a dog day care floor, We finished on Tables and chairs with the fastest find going to Jane with Hector at 17seconds. The level 2 started with tables and chairs, Pauline and Maddy with a fabulous 32 seconds. I also need to mention that I have seen the most thorough chair search from Marvel it totally blew mw away, we moved to boxes and luggage which the dogs found a little more difficult but with encouragement from their brilliant handlers most managed to call both hides correctly, the fastest times were Lady and Melinda with 32 seconds who went on to take first place.
Massive congratulations to all of the teams, I have seen some outstanding handling today and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.