Level 1
1st Val – Brace :- 100
2nd Janet – Dice :- 100
3rd Michelle – Pye :- 99.7
4th Rachael – Logan :- 99.5
5th Wendy – Quincy :- 99.35
6th Emily – Oscar :- 99.1
7th Meadow – Mr Wilson :- 98.85
8th Michelle – Sully :- 79.5
9th Belinda – Miage :- 78.95
10th Tiggy – Lucy :- 78.8
11th Ingrid – Teasle :- 78.6
12th Wendy – Chilli :- 78.25
13th Stacey – Kylo :- 78.25
Level 4
1st Hazel – Gem :- 99.75
2nd Jayde – Chase :- 89.8
3rd Jayde – Impi :- 89.7
4th Chris Clements – BaileyBoo :- 89.7
5th Lynda – Teddy :- 79.65
6th Sue – Lily :- 79.4
7th Tracey – Boswell :- 78.75
8th Kathy Killick – Star :- 78.25
9th Dolores – Gypsy :- 77.85
I was really looking forward to hosting our first Scent Detectives trial, so I arrived at the venue nice and early to set up. We were running a Level 1 in the morning and a Level 4 in the afternoon.
I was very lucky that Marianne Tembey and Rob Harris agreed to judge for trial, both arrived in plenty of time to set up their first searches. Marianne was judging the exterior searches for the Level 1 and Rob judged the interior searches. After a break to refuel and get some lunch the judges swapped locations for the Level 4 with Marianne judging boxes/luggage and tables/chairs & perimeter, rob then judged the outside searches, exterior articles and vehicles. The 2 distraction scents chosen for the Level 4 were coffee and dog odour. I’ll let them both share their reports on the brilliant dogs we had entered on the day.
We were very lucky with the weather, it was dry all day, a bit chilly to start but the sun made an appearance at lunchtime.
We had a couple of dogs that needed space in both levels so we had this in our mind when we planned the layout of the venue, Geof Dixon did an awesome job of being our caller for the day and made sure these dog had plenty of space going to and from the searches.
We had an amazing group of helpers for the day, for some it was their first time helping at a trial, Sue Abbott Dixon, Charlotte Jarrad, Emma Conslik and Karen Smith all did a great job of scribing for the judges. As I mentioned Geof did a super job of keeping everything flowing with competitors going to the correct searches. Sue and Geof also put together a fantastic lunch and of course brownies too for our judges and helpers. Thank you all so much.
Thank you to Marianne and Rob for giving up your time and coming along to judge, I spoke to lots of people who really appreciated the feedback you both gave and said how much you put them at ease.
I hope you all enjoyed your day with us, whether things went to plan or not, you all took the best dog home. It was a pleasure spending the day with you all.
Becky Harris
Trial Manager
The day started off with Becky (trial manager) and Marianne (fellow judge) giving the trial briefings.
We started with level ones and I was charged with judging both indoor elements. I started with the tables and chairs to settle the competitors into their searches for the day. I set up with two separate tables and with 4 chairs on each. one to each side. This did seem to unsettle a few people but every one work the area well. I decided on this set to give each team the opportunity to work the odour into the correct chair without to much distraction by the other chairs in close proximity. Two standouts during this search were Meadow (who is only 6) and Mr Wilson along with Wendy and Quincy who decided to trace the odour up and over the top of the table to the correct chair.
2nd up was the boxes and luggage. After a false start where the odour I set up in one piece of luggage seemed to get sealed inside by the excess material, I called for a restart and change of object and off we went. Again there were some great searches, unfortunately we did encounter a few false indications on different objects which seemed to originate from the handler consistently tasking to or hoovering near to an object that their dog had paid interest to.
The winner for the day consistently performed during each of my elements and I was glad to see that this also carried over into Marianne’s exercises.
After the awards were given and a quick bite to eat from an amazing buffet provide by Sue and Geoff we started the level 4 briefing.
On this level I swapped to the two outside elements. First up was the exterior. I set the search up into the wind. One target was at the far right corner in a spade with the dog odour distractor 3 ft to the left. The second target was located midway down the search on the far left in a small child’s toy car with the coffee odour distractor 2 ft immediately in front. All dogs coped with the distractor well. The spade target did seem to be a problem for some of the handlers. I say handlers as all dogs located this target very well but a number of people really did test their dogs commitment as on first look there didn’t appear to be anywhere to hide the scent on this object. I must say that all the dogs performed very well. Jayde with Chase and Lynda with Teddy were very consistent and methodical in the search resulting in two quick finds and confident calls.
Next up was the vehicle search. I left the first two vehicles blank and placed both targets on the last vehicle. This allowed me to assess the teams approach to the search. The wind was swirling between the vehicles and when people got close to the first target, which was placed mid way down the vehicle in the middle of the lower right door shut, a number of dogs did try to cross from one vehicle to the other and were worked away or called off. The second hide was placed around the corner from the first on the front lower left of the bumper at the corner, this did prove difficult for some teams resulting in a miss or a having to work over the first two vehicles before coming back to the third to try again. Hazel and Gem worked this exercise in text book fashion finding both targets well within time.
At this point I would like to say a huge thank you to the scribes for the day Sue and first timers Charlotte, Karen and Emma. Also I must congratulate Geoff our caller for the day. With his efficient organising of each competitor it allowed both Marianne and I to give a short piece of constructive feedback to each team when they completed the exercises. I do hope you found this helpful
I would like to extend my congratulations to Becky (along with a dedicated team of helpers) for a very well organised and run 1st trial. I really enjoyed the day
| A/F = Alert Find | H = Handling | T = Time (seconds) | |||||||||||||||
| Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | |||||||||||||
| Level 1 | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |||
| 1 | Val – Brace | 20 | 5 | 11 | 20 | 5 | 32 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 30 | 100 | 93 | ||
| 2 | Janet – Dice | 20 | 5 | 24 | 20 | 5 | 31 | 20 | 5 | 12 | 20 | 5 | 29 | 100 | 96 | ||
| 3 | Michelle – Pye | 20 | 4.75 | 34 | 20 | 4.95 | 42 | 20 | 5 | 19 | 20 | 5 | 14 | 99.7 | 109 | ||
| 4 | Rachael – Logan | 20 | 5 | 36 | 20 | 5 | 16 | 20 | 5 | 31 | 20 | 4.5 | 121 | 99.5 | 204 | ||
| 5 | Wendy – Quincy | 20 | 5 | 63 | 20 | 4.5 | 110 | 20 | 4.85 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 18 | 99.35 | 211 | ||
| 6 | Emily – Oscar | 20 | 4.5 | 88 | 20 | 5 | 23 | 20 | 4.85 | 33 | 20 | 4.75 | 39 | 99.1 | 183 | ||
| 7 | Meadow – Mr Wilson | 20 | 5 | 37 | 20 | 4.85 | 113 | 20 | 5 | 33 | 20 | 4 | 116 | 98.85 | 299 | ||
| 8 | Michelle – Sully | 20 | 5 | 22 | 20 | 5 | 24 | 20 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 4.5 | 22 | 79.5 | 79 | ||
| 9 | Belinda – Miage | 20 | 4.5 | 39 | 20 | 5 | 11 | 20 | 4.95 | 15 | 0 | 4.5 | 8 | 78.95 | 73 | ||
| 10 | Tiggy – Lucy | 20 | 4.75 | 41 | 20 | 4.7 | 60 | 20 | 4.85 | 62 | 0 | 4.5 | 18 | 78.8 | 181 | ||
| 11 | Ingrid – Teasle | 20 | 4.75 | 27 | 20 | 4.85 | 37 | 20 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 60 | 78.6 | 134 | ||
| 12 | Wendy – Chilli | 20 | 4.5 | 23 | 20 | 4.8 | 46 | 20 | 4.95 | 29 | 0 | 4 | 45 | 78.25 | 143 | ||
| 13 | Stacey – Kylo | 20 | 5 | 16 | 0 | 4.25 | 300 | 20 | 4 | 120 | 20 | 5 | 21 | 78.25 | 457 | ||
| Level 4 | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |||
| 1 | Hazel – Gem | 20 | 5 | 98 | 20 | 4.75 | 58 | 20 | 5 | 92 | 20 | 5 | 43 | 99.75 | 291 | ||
| 2 | Jayde – Chase | 20 | 5 | 85 | 20 | 5 | 31 | 20 | 5 | 94 | 10 | 4.8 | 85 | 89.8 | 295 | ||
| 3 | Jayde – Impi | 20 | 5 | 57 | 20 | 5 | 60 | 20 | 5 | 157 | 10 | 4.7 | 35 | 89.7 | 309 | ||
| 4 | Chris Clements – BaileyBoo | 10 | 4.95 | 46 | 20 | 4.75 | 75 | 20 | 5 | 215 | 20 | 5 | 59 | 89.7 | 395 | ||
| 5 | Lynda – Teddy | 10 | 4.95 | 50 | 20 | 5 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 136 | 10 | 4.7 | 117 | 79.65 | 323 | ||
| 6 | Sue – Lily | 10 | 4.8 | 87 | 20 | 4.75 | 110 | 20 | 5 | 130 | 10 | 4.85 | 75 | 79.4 | 402 | ||
| 7 | Tracey – Boswell | 20 | 5 | 99 | 20 | 4.75 | 69 | 10 | 4.5 | 300 | 10 | 4.5 | 80 | 78.75 | 548 | ||
| 8 | Kathy Killick – Star | 20 | 5 | 152 | 20 | 4.5 | 148 | 10 | 4.25 | 237 | 10 | 4.5 | 116 | 78.25 | 653 | ||
| 9 | Dolores – Gypsy | 20 | 4.85 | 229 | 20 | 4.75 | 112 | 10 | 4 | 300 | 10 | 4.25 | 139 | 77.85 | 780 | ||