I would first like to thank Marianne for inviting me to judge, it is such a pleasure to watch dogs having so much fun working alongside their handlers.

It was a chilly day and everyone needed to wrap up but luckily the rain stayed away. Marianne and I started off by discussing the running plan for the day while I warmed up with a nice hot coffee, thanks to my awesome helpers. We started the trial with the level 2 dogs, 11 were entered, one of which was using a different scent. We then moved onto the 12 level 3 teams in the afternoon.

After preparing the first 2 search areas and running Lacey my ‘white dog’ on the boxes and luggage search I met with everyone for a briefing, answered some questions and wished everyone a fun morning with their dogs. As we were short of vehicles to search I decided to run this search last in the hope that we had some of the Level 3 handlers arriving early. I didn’t have to worry though as Geof was on the case and the vehicles were lined up ready when we needed to prepare them.

Some of the dogs struggled with our first search, the boxes and luggage, where we saw a few false indications, the level 2 winners Lynne and Foxy came in and effortlessly found both scents in less than 1 minute. The dogs seemed to settle for the exterior search which was next, there were some lovely focussed searches, the quickest was Sharon with Inca who completed it in a speedy 35 seconds, a very tidy search. I must also mention Abbie and George who unfortunately didn’t qualify on the day but worked so well as a team and completed a super exterior search.

We moved back inside next for the tables/chairs and perimeter search, Caroline’s Wilson covered the search area beautifully giving a very clear freeze indication for Caroline to read, great teamwork and quick too.

Both levels finished with the vehicle searches, this was an area that was split, there were some awesome vehicle searches, where the dogs smoothly covered searching the cars, offering a tidy indication and the dogs and handlers worked as a team and they really were exciting to watch, just to name a few, but not exclusively were, Jayde with Chase, Nikki with Zig Zag and Tracey with Boswell, Karen with Barley in the Level 3. Some of the teams appeared a little less experienced with vehicle searches, which may have been down to nerves on the day.

As we finished a little later than planned I went straight into preparing the level 3 searches, I grabbed some lunch to eat while I took Lacey out for a quick toilet and leg stretch, she then went straight into her ‘white dog’ duties and cleared the first level 3 search, the tables/chairs and perimeter.

The level 3 dogs were off to a great start, Jenny’s Harvey confidently cleared the search wasting no time, with full marks in 56 seconds, the quickest time and lovely to watch. Georgina and her keen choccie lab Archie were also very quick and I was very impressed with how well Georgina read Archie throughout the whole trial, even when he was having a cheeky moment. We went straight onto the exterior search, where a couple of the dogs were quite keen to return to the first find when looking for the second, especially when the first find was cloves. Bearing in mind this is the first level the dogs are challenged with a found scent remaining in the search area I’m sure with a bit more experience and practise this will not be an issue at their next trial. Jayde and Impi completed this search in a tidy manner and super quick time.

The boxes and luggage search followed with both of the finds being placed in boxes, all qualifying teams found both scents and overall this was a super search, well done everyone! As it was getting very cold out and the teams had been waiting outside all afternoon I think they appreciated the vehicle search being last as this meant they would go inside the hall and defrost.

I must give a special mention to Jayde Smith who had a dog entered in each of the levels, working so well as a team with both dogs Jayde gained full handling marks through both levels.

Also massive congratulations to Lynne Bowers who did the double and gained 1st place in both the level 2 and 3, another handler working as a team with her dogs and a pleasure to watch.

Huge thank you to the helpers, Kathy Killick for scribing the Level 2 and Sue Abbott-Dixon and Geof Dixon for coming along to help in many roles all day even when they weren’t entered. Thank you so much!

I really look forward to watching some of these dogs in future trials.