It was a fine but cold day when I went along to Bourneheath village Hall to judge the L4 &5 trial which was run by Karen Denton in her usual relaxed and organised manner.

Myself and co-judge Marianne judged the L4 which consisted of 10 entries. I judged the indoor searches whilst Marianne braved it outside. L4 is tough and has the reputation of once qualifying to move on quickly into L5. I hid toothpaste and dog odour distractions and it was the dog odour that a lot of the dogs wrongly alerted on resulting in the loss of 4 teams. However we had six qualifiers and the place getters were:

1) Chris Clements & Queeva – Very good handling of this 13yr old rather excitable collie Chris. Just a slight blip with the small kidney shaped handbag but otherwise the team work has improved enormously. Well done.
2) Jeni Pirie & Sully – A rather excitable Sully meant that Jeni had to pull out all the stops today but Jeni’s training experienced showed enabling her to steer Sully through to a very well deserved 2nd place.
3) Helen Bryne & Nellie – Nellie decided to go for both the decoys in the first search so Helen had to pull out all the stops in the next three searches. Well done Helen for remaining so positive and cheerful even when the odds were stacked against you.
4) Annette Leslie & Disney. This team has come on tremendously as Disney was inclined to do ‘Heelwork to Music’ moves on some of the items in the past. Annette gave us a heart stopping moment when she left it to the very last second in which to call the small pink bag which she needed to qualify, so well done Annette for keeping your cool.

Also COM were Anne & Ozzie a Springer Spaniel and Shelia & Zak a Boxer.

So after a quick lunch break the L5 started and I hid 4 scented articles in 2 small rooms. Everyone gave this a pretty good go with most getting all 4 finds within time. The exterior Search proved quite difficult as there was a lot of fencing around a play area to search but if competitors understood how to use the wind it would have made their job a lot easier and saved a lot of time. Also a lot of the dogs were sniffing the ground and the handlers that managed to keep their dog’s head up fared better than those that didn’t. The last search was straight forward which involved just the main hall with items scattered around and a table abandoned in the middle. Again quite a few teams managed to recover all 5. So at the end of the day everyone qualified which is very unusual for this level but all were very worthy qualifiers. Well done everyone.

1) Jennie Dean & Reo – I just loved Jennie’s sympathetic handling of this lovely dog. Reo had a slight wobbly moment just before the last search and Jennie was quite prepared to withdraw him if necessary, such is the sportsmanship of Jennie always putting the wellbeing of her dog first. Reo certainly excelled himself today and worked all 3 searches competently.
2) Heather & Timmy – Fantastic handling from this team. Heather not only knows how to handle this challenging breed but really knows how a judge thinks! I predict this team will go far.
3) Chris Clements & Bailey First time in L5 for this team so they did really well for coming 3rd. Just needs to tidy up a little more in some parts otherwise a very competent performance.
4) Karen Smith & Reggie – A super keen Labrador who didn’t want to tell mum Karen where some of the scents were hidden, however it appeared that Karen knew this and insisted that Reggie went back and told her. Well handled and spotted.

Also a special mention to Liz and Archie the Poodle. If you wish to see sympathetic and calm handling this team is the one to watch.

So again thank you to Karen Denton for organising today’s trial especially as you were hard at it all weekend. Also my thanks to Michelle for scribing for me in the morning and Dolores in the afternoon, both being such good company too. Also to the helpers Lisa Finney, Jackie Hodges & Nicki Hetfield- Rogerson.

Heather Donnelly