1st Gerry Briggs – Sasha :- 89
2nd Helen Weir – Morgan :- 88.5
3rd Hazel Ralstow – Isla :- 80
4th Felicity Wilash – Danni Darko :- 79.5
5th Fumiko Onslow- Roxy :- 77
A huge thanks to the judge Kevin Motion and the scribe Phil Onslow for giving up their time and making the competitors feeling at ease and for the constructive feedback.
Thanks to all the competitors and their dogs for coming.
It was a lovely Sunday morning. The weather stayed fair except for a little drizzle during the vehicle searches.
We had a short delay due to one of the competitors searching for the different scent.
The dogs did really well, considering that two of them travelled a few hours to get to the trial.
We started with the container searches, followed by the vehicle searches, then tables and chairs and the outdoor search being last.
The atmosphere of the trial was great and everyone had a good time.
We finished the trial with the prize giving and hot beverages.
Congratulations to all 5 qualifiers and to Felicity and Danni Darko for achieving the Excellent title.
Firstly, I would like to thank Sandra for asking me to judge today. Another thanks to my scribe Phil.
Well done to all the teams that stepped up and put themselves forward for this trial. Out of the 6 teams that took part 5 qualified with winning team winning by only half a mark.
Starting with the containers search, there was 4 clean sweeps and two false indications from two teams. All the teams were quick on this search with no team taking longer than 2 minuets and Helen & Morgan only took 35 seconds to get both finds. All the calls on the box were correct but two teams forgot that it would be on a box AND a bag and called it on another box, which was such a shame for teams.
Vehicles were next, and a few teams struggled with this one, the wind really didn’t help them out either. Out of the 6 teams 3 got a clean sweep while 2 called one false and one team called 2 false alerts. All the teams were unsure on this search and you could see a few of the handler’s reluctance to call the finds which only cost them time.
Next up was the table, chairs and perimeter search. We have 4 clean sweeps, 1 false call and 1 team getting none. I placed the scent in one of the early chairs as a test for the teams, it did prove a test to Felicity & Darko who called a false on a wrong chair, however they did a lovely perimeter search. The perimeter hind was low to the ground and everyone bar the one team got this one.
Finally, the outdoor items search. Felicity & Darko super quick search in just 28 seconds, while Helen & Morgan did it in 38 seconds. The wind again played its part in this search with 3 teams calling false alerts and 3 getting it perfectly right. The difference from the teams that got it correct was they allowed their dogs to work back to the source and then called. It was very interesting to note that all the dogs called on the same item first and it was the second item that caused the problem for the 3 false calls.
Nerves and the wind definitely play its part today, no clean sweeps but still 5 qualifiers.
| A/F = Alert Find | H = Handling | T = Time (seconds) | |||||||||||||||
| Tables & Chairs | Exterior Search | Vehicle Search | Boxes & Luggage | Totals | |||||||||||||
| Name of Handler & Dog | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | A/F | H | T | Marks | Time | |||
| 1 | Gerry Briggs – Sasha | 20 | 5 | 124 | 20 | 4.5 | 144 | 20 | 5 | 116 | 10 | 4.5 | 120 | 89 | 504 | ||
| 2 | Helen Weir – Morgan | 20 | 4.5 | 108 | 10 | 5 | 38 | 20 | 4 | 136 | 20 | 5 | 35 | 88.5 | 317 | ||
| 3 | Hazel Ralstow – Isla | 20 | 5 | 155 | 20 | 5 | 59 | 0 | 5 | 113 | 20 | 5 | 60 | 80 | 387 | ||
| 4 | Felicity Wilash – Danni Darko | 10 | 5 | 111 | 20 | 5 | 28 | 20 | 4.5 | 201 | 10 | 5 | 49 | 79.5 | 389 | ||
| 5 | Fumiko Onslow- Roxy | 20 | 5 | 59 | 10 | 4 | 130 | 10 | 4 | 130 | 20 | 4 | 146 | 77 | 465 | ||