A huge thank you to everyone who attended the trial today. Denise was an excellent trial manger, wrangling people to where they needed to be, and having Katie scribing and timekeeping was a bonus as usual.
This is such a fun venue to work with, but it does tend to throw some challenges at us! Today we were blessed with very few. We decided to run the exterior first in case there was more foot traffic due to the school holidays.
The Split today was 5-4-3, but all in rather larger areas than maybe most are used to.
The exterior is a long seating area, with 4 picnic benches, multiple single chairs and a few single benches. One ramp moving into a small alcove with a couple of door frames.
I placed 5 finds and allowed 5.5 mins.
1. (G) On the corner of a single bench seated height 7/7
2. (G) in the alcove on the metal base of the bench at floor level 7/7
3. (C) on the end of the middle picnic bench (7/7)
4. (T) on the opposite end, opposite corner of the same bench (4/7)
5. (T) under a small table at the far end of the area (7/7)
The finds causing issues here were number 4, I think mainly due to the direction of the wind, most dogs picked the odour up on the far bench and worked back towards but ended up working round the table instead of pulling to the next.
There were also 2 wrong alerts on find 5, where the dogs had not quite worked into source.
The other wrong alert called in this area was on another picnic table, but I think this was just calling on interest.
Interior 1 – This was two changing rooms and a corridor. The added twist here that the handlers had to open a door to take themselves into one of the changing rooms.
4 finds allowing 4 mins.
1. (C) in the changing area to the right under the bench. (7/7)
2. (G) on the floor by the mat at the end of the corridor (5/7)
3. (C) to the left of the inside of the closed door (7/7)
4. (T) on the far end of the massage table just above floor level. (2/7)
The two false calls we had were the opposite side of the door, before the handlers opened the door to let the dogs in. The odour was very strong and really pulling them to the doorway. All the dogs were very clear they wanted to work through the doorway.
The second find in this room was the one mainly missed. Again the dogs picked up the odour but were mainly focusing on the benching round the edge rather than noticing the table in the middle.
Interior 2 – with three finds left and a large area left to work, I allowed 4.5 mins for the 3 finds. I put these right out in the open to give the dogs a good chance to pick up and work into the odour.
1. (C) In the top corner on the chair (6/7)
2. (T) on the 3rd benching along (5/7)
3. (G) on the table leg by the grey door. (1/7)
Most of the dogs came straight in and worked into the clove instantly, they then worked along the benching and into the Truffle. However, then people got moved into working the pool tables, Despite white dogging prior to putting out scent and then again, post setting, we had a couple of false calls on the pool table. The previous search we ran here there were also false calls on the table, I think due to the glue used to stick the notice on. I tried very hard to get the white dog to show any interest there but he would not.
The Gun oil on the table leg was missed by all but one of the dogs, they all picked up the odour but did not quite manage to work into the find which was on the base of the table leg.
Once again in this trial most of the finds missed were those situated at floor level.
I know this trial presented a few challenges to the partnerships entered but I do hope you enjoyed them. It is a fun area to work and not one we get to play on as often as I would like. Possibly more environmental than some are used to with longer search times added as well.
It was lovely to watch all of you work and the dogs all did some incredible stuff.
Well done everyone and happy sniffing for the future.
A huge thank you to everyone who attended the trial today. Denise was an excellent trial manger, wrangling people to where they needed to be, and having Katie scribing and timekeeping was a bonus as usual.
This is such a fun venue to work with, but it does tend to throw some challenges at us! Today we were blessed with very few. We decided to run the exterior first in case there was more foot traffic due to the school holidays.
The Split today was 5-4-3, but all in rather larger areas than maybe most are used to.
The exterior is a long seating area, with 4 picnic benches, multiple single chairs and a few single benches. One ramp moving into a small alcove with a couple of door frames.
I placed 5 finds and allowed 5.5 mins.
1. (G) On the corner of a single bench seated height 7/7
2. (G) in the alcove on the metal base of the bench at floor level 7/7
3. (C) on the end of the middle picnic bench (7/7)
4. (T) on the opposite end, opposite corner of the same bench (4/7)
5. (T) under a small table at the far end of the area (7/7)
The finds causing issues here were number 4, I think mainly due to the direction of the wind, most dogs picked the odour up on the far bench and worked back towards but ended up working round the table instead of pulling to the next.
There were also 2 wrong alerts on find 5, where the dogs had not quite worked into source.
The other wrong alert called in this area was on another picnic table, but I think this was just calling on interest.
Interior 1 – This was two changing rooms and a corridor. The added twist here that the handlers had to open a door to take themselves into one of the changing rooms.
4 finds allowing 4 mins.
1. (C) in the changing area to the right under the bench. (7/7)
2. (G) on the floor by the mat at the end of the corridor (5/7)
3. (C) to the left of the inside of the closed door (7/7)
4. (T) on the far end of the massage table just above floor level. (2/7)
The two false calls we had were the opposite side of the door, before the handlers opened the door to let the dogs in. The odour was very strong and really pulling them to the doorway. All the dogs were very clear they wanted to work through the doorway.
The second find in this room was the one mainly missed. Again the dogs picked up the odour but were mainly focusing on the benching round the edge rather than noticing the table in the middle.
Interior 2 – with three finds left and a large area left to work, I allowed 4.5 mins for the 3 finds. I put these right out in the open to give the dogs a good chance to pick up and work into the odour.
1. (C) In the top corner on the chair (6/7)
2. (T) on the 3rd benching along (5/7)
3. (G) on the table leg by the grey door. (1/7)
Most of the dogs came straight in and worked into the clove instantly, they then worked along the benching and into the Truffle. However, then people got moved into working the pool tables, Despite white dogging prior to putting out scent and then again, post setting, we had a couple of false calls on the pool table. The previous search we ran here there were also false calls on the table, I think due to the glue used to stick the notice on. I tried very hard to get the white dog to show any interest there but he would not.
The Gun oil on the table leg was missed by all but one of the dogs, they all picked up the odour but did not quite manage to work into the find which was on the base of the table leg.
Once again in this trial most of the finds missed were those situated at floor level.
I know this trial presented a few challenges to the partnerships entered but I do hope you enjoyed them. It is a fun area to work and not one we get to play on as often as I would like. Possibly more environmental than some are used to with longer search times added as well.
It was lovely to watch all of you work and the dogs all did some incredible stuff.
Well done everyone and happy sniffing for the future.