Ali Brannen

First off I would like to say thank you to Heather Donnelly for asking me to judge her level 4 trial, along with my co judge Karen Denton. Also thanks to my scribe and runners, and the coffee maker always appreciated.

I was tasked with the outside searches, so we started with the vehicle search. The vehicles were on grass which provided the distraction smells for this level, and distracting it seemed to be. The clove scent was placed in the door seam of a van, and the gun oil scent was placed in a small hatch in the bumper of the same vehicle. This vehicle was parked at the far end of the search area, but once through the cones, competitors could start anywhere. 5/10 dogs found both scents, and only 1 dog didn’t find any, with the remaining 4 competitors finding just the one hide, it varied between the cloves and gun oil which scent was found first. This search proved quite tough for some of the teams, dogs wanted to either feast on rabbit poo or go off and smell the grass, meaning their handlers worked very hard to keep them focused on the job at hand. Successful teams were Jill Spur & Drama, Lynda Stangle & Max, Yaz Whitehall & Banjo, Dana Brewis & Buckle and Kathy Killick & Rowan, although Rowan was certain the smell was hidden on the underside of the bumper, but Kathy held out until Rowan finally removed herself from under the rear of the car and tracked to source.

Then it was on to the exterior search. Gun oil was hidden on the clasp of a plastic case, and cloves was hidden at the end of a plastic pipe. The distraction scents were shampoo & tea these were hidden inside a welly & taped to the end of another pipe. 4/10 dogs found both scents, with only 1 dog finding none, the remaining 5 dogs all found 1, the cloves scent seemed to be the easier scent to find. The tea bag seemed to be quite tempting for the dogs, although other random items were also alerted on. The successful teams were Lynda Stangle & Max, Dana Brewis & Buckle, Jill Spur & Drama and Sara Wren & Tia. Again there were some lovely searches, Lyn Bowers’s Chubey has a wonderful indication and has real enthusiasm for the job at hand. Yaz Whitehall’s Banjo is another enthusiastic searcher. Melanie Goble’s Rowan was determined to make her handler’s job really hard, but Melanie kept her composure throughout. Liz Hodgson’s Thomas was thwarted by the tea bag, apparently it’s his favourite tipple. Also Val Ridges & Brace worked hard throughout the trial.

On conclusion the trial ran smoothly. All teams worked very hard throughout the morning, there was some lovely indications along with very competent handling, so well done everybody. I look forward to seeing you all again on the Scentwork UK circuit.

A white dog was ran on all searches.

Karen Denton

It was a chilly but dry day for this Level 4 & 5 Trial and thankfully storm Hannah had tailed off the day before!

I had the pleasure of Ali Brannen’s company to judge the L4 Trial and she volunteered to take the outside searches which I didn’t argue too much about! Cheers Ali! I started with the Tables & Chairs/Perimeter search which included distraction scents. These were vanilla and pet bedding. None of the dogs were distracted by these but only half of them found the two target odours which were both on the perimeter. Next was the Bags & Boxes search which included the same distraction scents. Most dogs got both of the finds and, again, none were distracted with the other odours. It was very pleasing to see that none of the dogs trashed the boxes or jumped all over the luggage so well done folks. I also witnessed some very sympathetic handling and lovely encouragement. Notable teams who put in a super performance were Lynda & Max, Dana & Buckle, Val & Brace, Yaz & Banjo and Kathy & Rowan. Well done folks. Massive congratulations to you all and a huge well done to Dana & Buckle who won the red rosette!

The Level 5 Trial started after lunch and I started with Interior search 1. This was half of the hall plus the committee room. I’d decided to split the hides equally between the three search areas so there were four finds per area overall. Ali ran the white dog blind which I timed and then I decided to allocate the general guideline rule of one minute per find as her dog had found them well within the four minutes. Two finds were in the hall and two in the committee room. Most dogs did very well in this search with many of them earning their bonus ten points for finding all four.

I took the Exterior search next which was more challenging but very few of the dogs were distracted by environmental smells and most stayed on task and worked hard for their handlers which was fabulous.

The second Interior search included the other half of the hall, the lobby area and disabled toilet. In the hall I placed only one scent and in the smaller area I placed three. This foxed quite a few handlers who didn’t always cover the corners and so not many found all four. There is an assumption that the small area will have a small number of finds and the large area will have the majority which isn’t always the case. On the whole, I saw some lovely handling and some wonderful freeze indications but I think one or two handlers should work on their dogs not biting or scratching at the scent especially by the time they’re ready to move on to Level 6. I noticed that the small stopcock cupboard where I’d placed one of the hides got the paintwork scratched which is never good for the Trial manager.

Not everyone passed but a couple only missed it by a very small margin. Congratulations to Katrina & Jumble who took 1st place and Chris & Bailey Boo who came in 2nd, only beaten on time. Well done to everyone who took part in both Trials, I hope you enjoyed it even if you didn’t qualify.

I’d like to thank Heather for inviting me to judge and for lunch! Also thanks to Sue Benson for scribing for me in the morning and Ali Brannen, my co-judge in the morning and for scribing for me in the afternoon. I really enjoyed the day. Look forward to seeing you all again soon.