Thankyou Mandy for inviting me along to the lodge to judge this level 1.Also a big Thankyou must go to my scribe,Ruby Kwok and my lovely runner,Jane Mathews.
It was quite a nice morning,mild with little or no breeze to speak of and thankfully dry.
A white dog was used prior to all the searches commencing.
We had 12 teams competing,some of whom I knew but it was lovely to see some new faces.
Tables and Chairs
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I set up the tables in the centre of the large hall in the standard square pattern with 8 chairs suitably placed around.
The cloves scent was hidden underneath the 2nd chair to the right.
Ten of the teams were successful here in identifying the hidden scent with reasonable ease.The majority of handlers choosing to go around the table in both directions,at this level that was nice to see,better safe than sorry.
The exception here was Stanley with Loki who made a bee line for the scent and giving a lovely indication in some 9 seconds.Closely followed home by Emma and Jess and Janice and Saffie in some 24 and 3O secs respectively.
Anne and Luca started the search of lead and it was nice to Anne putting the lead back to complete the search successfully.
Lovely patient handling shown by Karen and Freddie.
Exterior
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Moving outside,the exterior search area was set up to the right hand side of the car park.
12 items were laid out here,the 3 items in question were a pink stool,right front of the area,a wooden drainer,left rear of the area, and the scented article,a caravan mirror was placed in the centre.
All teams were successful here in finding the hidden scent.
Some lovely handling shown all round.A mention here to Katherine and Dexter,Katie and Maggie and Karen and Freddie,all giving a lovely display in some,10,16 and 19 seconds respectively.Some lovely skills also shown by,Emma and Jess,Stanley and Loki and Janice and Saffie.
Boxes and Luggage
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These were laid out in the main hall,the scent being concealed in the zip,of a black bag,this was placed to the rear of the search area.
Only 6 of the teams were to find the hidden scent,the remaining 6 choosing various other bags to indicate on.
David and Rudi were the fore runners here,working of lead and showing us how it should be done in some 17 seconds.Closely followed home by Kate and Maggie who did a lovely switch back on passing the scented bag.Anne and Luca also giving us a nice controlled search.
Vehicle
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This was sited to the rear of the building,side on to the start line.The scent was concealed in the front grill passenger side,some 30cm from ground level.
10 of our teams finding the hidden scent here with reasonable ease.
A good display of handling skills shown by all here but a special mention to a couple.
Lovely patient handling shown by Anne and Luca who showed a lot of interest to the rear of the vehicle,eventually working their way round to source.Emma and Jess,straight to source in some 9 seconds.Lovely steady indication shown by Collette and Clemmy.

A lovely way to spend a Sunday morning watching these new up and coming teams.
A little more practice perhaps for some on the boxes and luggage search.
Overall a very good display shown by the majority.
We had 9 qualifiers on the day,the top 3 places all achieving 100 points, being separated by time only.
My congratulations go to the eventual rossete winners.
1…Katie and Maggie…Anne and Luca…3…Karen and Freddie…4…Katherine and Dexter.
I wish you all the best of luck in your future trials and hope to meet up with some of you again,if not all of you.