1 Sarah Taylor – Hugo – 149.75
2 Sue Abbott-Dixon- – Halle – 129.75
3 Alison Williamson – Peppa – 118.8
4 Helen Byrne – Nellie – 109.75
5 Dolores Palmer – Gypsy – 109.5
6 Janet Wykes – Jess – 109.5
7 Marianne Tembey – Mister Kai – 100
8 Matilda Bell – Mitford 96.75
I was up bright and early for today it was the Level 6 Trial with 16 entries. Unfortunately, my morning was slightly dampened as I had received two indications that competitor and dog was unable to attend due to sickness of one dog and another competitor had to withdraw due to another of her dogs being taken very ill. My good luck in getting better to this dog.
I arrived at the hall and was greeted by at least 4 teams who had arrived earlier, which showed that we were up for a good day. The Judge and scribe had arrived and Ali was soon in the kitchen for her normal 25 cups of coffee a day, just to survive!!
It was also good to see so many new friends, met by attending trials and training within Scentworkuk. The weather was overcast but I suppose that was good for the dogs.
We started a little late and had now only 14 teams, but they were all very strong and I was looking forward to seeing who would hold their nerve the most.
Berit scribed for the first session as I made sure that the teams were ready so that the judge would not have to wait. The second session was scribed by Yvette and the third session by myself (poor Ali)
I would like to thank the Judge Ali who made some hard but fair finds as well as Yvette and Berit for helping. Also thanks to Tina who came and quickly added the score so that nobody was kept waiting and for her cleaning the hall whilst the presentations were being done.
I hope that you all had a good day and I look forward to seeing you and your dog’s again very soon.
Nigel
First off I would like to thank Nigel for asking me to judge this trial and for keeping me coffee fuelled, also thanks to my scribes for helping out all day.
We had a lovely day for a trial, with the weather being fine and not to hot and with 14 competitors we wasted no time in getting on with the trial.
We started with Interior 1 which we held in the main hall, the hides from left to right were, under a white board, radiator pipe, the room partition curtain and inside of a door frame. 6/14 competitors found all 4 hides and they were Lynne & Wotton, Marianne & Kai, Helen & Nellie, Sarah & Hugo, Alison & Peppa and Delores & Gypsy. 5/14 found 3 hides and they were Chris & Bailey Boo, Janet & Jess, Geoff & Bug, Matilda & Mitford and Sue & Hallie. 1 team found 2 hides and that was Heather & Timmy, and 2 teams found just 1 hide and they were Yvette & Anya & Annette & Disney. The most missed hide in this search was the radiator pipe. 2 teams falsely indicated on a chair in the middle of the room, on inspection there was nothing visible on the chair so I can only assume there was some residual smell on it which highlights for me the importance of teaching our dogs threshold especially when we generally compete in halls that have been used previously for training.
Next to the exterior search, the hides from left to right were a hole in a post, the 2nd tree, underneath a step and the bracket of a drain pipe. The search area consisted of the area in front of the building and part of the driveway bordered by a small wall. 3/14 teams found 4 and they were Sarah & Hugo, Janet & Jess and Sue & Hallie. 4/14 teams found 3 hides and they were Yvette & Anya, Delores & Gypsy, Geoff & Bug and Helen & Nellie. 4/14 found 2 hides and they were Matilda & Mitford, Marianne & Kai, Chris & Bailey Boo and Alison & Peppa. 3/14 teams found 1 and they were Heather & Timmy, Annette & Disney and Lynne & Wotton. The most commonly missed hide was the post bordering the area in front of the building.
Lastly it was the 2nd interior search which we held in the bar area. The hides from left to right were a door hinge, gap in the floor by the radiator, underneath a table and the fourth hole in the floor. 6/13 teams found all 4 hides and they were Sue & Hallie, Alison & Peppa, Yvette & Anya, Sarah & Hugo, Annette & Disney and Matilda & Mitford. 4/13 team found 3 and they were Helen & Nellie, Marianne & Kai, Janet & Jess and Delores & Gypsy. 3/13 teams found 2 and they were Chris & Bailey Boo, Geoff & Bug and Lynne & Wotton. The most commonly missed hide was the hole in the floor. There was an issue with this search to start with, I white dogged the area and noticed Chase had a problem targeting a clove swatch under the radiator, I rearranged the scent to expose more but noticed that I could only pick up a small amount of cloves scent, he did finally target it, but I made a note to watch the first dog in the search area. The first team in were Delores & Gypsy, and Gypsy really seemed to struggle although she had sniffed at the hides but with very little commitment. After only finding 1 and after discussing things with Nigel, it was decided to ask Delores to re-run at the end of searches and the hides were replaced with alternative swatches. This did seem to resolve the problem, as the next team in found all 4 hides. We had previously had an issue with the Truffle swatches as they didn’t have that pungent and very distinctive smell about them but fortunately I had a jar with me that was definitely Truffle so that issue was resolved fairly quickly.
The qualifiers were Sarah & Hugo 1st, Sue & Hallie 2nd, Alison & Peppa 3rd, Helen & Nellie 4th, Delores & Gypsy 5th, Janet & Jess 6th, Marianne & Kai 7th, and Matilda & Mitford 8th.
It was a long day for all involved, but the teams remained upbeat throughout. Well done to everyone who competed and congratulations to all the qualifier’s on the day. You all worked incredibly hard and showed a great level of handling and teamwork. I hope to see you all again soon.
A white dog was ran on every search area. All hides were surface hides as per Scentwork UK rules.
Ali Brannen
| WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | P+B+D | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WA = Wrong Alerts ( 4 = elimination ) | P = Points (articles found X 10) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| B = Bonus (10 if all items found) | D = Deductions | T = time (seconds) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Interior Search 1 | Interior Search 2 | Exterior Search | Totals | |||||||||||||||||||
| No of items | Time allowed | No of items | Time allowed | No of items | Time allowed | P+B-D = Points + Bonus - Deductions | ||||||||||||||||
| WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | T | WA | P | B | D | P+B-D | Time | ||
| 1 | Sarah Taylor – Hugo | 0 | 40 | 10 | 0.25 | 238 | 0 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 133 | 0 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 151 | 0 | 120 | 30 | 0.25 | 149.75 | 522 |
| 2 | Sue Abbott-Dixon- - Halle | 1 | 30 | 0 | 0.25 | 240 | 0 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 240 | 0 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 224 | 1 | 110 | 20 | 0.25 | 129.75 | 704 |
| 3 | Alison Williamson – Peppa | 0 | 40 | 10 | 0.5 | 154 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0.5 | 240 | 0 | 40 | 10 | 0.2 | 240 | 0 | 100 | 20 | 1.2 | 118.8 | 634 |
| 4 | Helen Byrne – Nellie | 0 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 62 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 240 | 1 | 30 | 0 | 0.25 | 240 | 1 | 100 | 10 | 0.25 | 109.75 | 542 |
| 5 | Dolores Palmer – Gypsy | 0 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 138 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0.25 | 240 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0.25 | 213 | 0 | 100 | 10 | 0.5 | 109.5 | 591 |
| 6 | Janet Wykes – Jess | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0.25 | 240 | 0 | 40 | 10 | 0.25 | 240 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 240 | 0 | 100 | 10 | 0.5 | 109.5 | 720 |
| 7 | Marianne Tembey – Mister Kai | 1 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 231 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 240 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 240 | 1 | 90 | 10 | 0 | 100 | 711 |
| 8 | Matilda Bell – Mitford | 0 | 30 | 0 | 1.5 | 240 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0.75 | 240 | 0 | 40 | 10 | 1 | 240 | 0 | 90 | 10 | 3.25 | 96.75 | 720 |