Sue Kirkham

Thankyou Sue for asking me to judge level 1, and thank you for the picnic tea – very thoughtful of you.Thankyou to Sandy for scribing and Lisa who kept the competitors flowing.

I shared the judging with Nicola Inglis and there were 12 entered for level 1 .

Exterior:
The scent was placed on an upside down collander, the other two items if the competitors wanted to know were a wicker basket and a boot. John and Whisper, Gill and Dora, Jackie and Kona, Julie and Wren had lovely calm handling allowing their dogs to search all items. Some dogs were investigating not indicating and handlers calling too soon. . 9 out of 12 successful finds.

Tables and Chairs
There were some super quick times, Jackie and Kona 12 seconds, Julie and Wren 13 seconds, Jazmine and Scout 25 seconds and Dave and Guliver 33 seconds. 3 teams worked off lead allowing freedom to search. 11 out of 12 had successful finds.

It was a pleasure to watch your dogs work. Congratulations to Jackie and Kona for their excellent award.
Enjoy your dogs.

Nikki Inglis

Thank you to Sue Gardner for inviting me to judge at the Trial alongside Sue Kirkham. We were doing both outside searches first, then both inside searches to beat the evening turning to dusk. It is always nice to go to new venues and to meet people whom you have met previously at trials in their home environment. Fantastic facilities loads of room.

Sue was super efficient and had ready prepared all the paperwork as well as a judge’s sheet with everyone in order for the 2 sections I was judging plus space for me to make notes. Much better than my normal scribble. I was to judge the Vehicle search and the dreaded Boxes and Luggage, this is my nemesis with my young dog so I understand how people feel.

First up the car search we were parked alongside the building in a wide alley the wind was consistent for every competitor, the hide was on the outside back top wheel nut. There were a couple of misses on this search where competitors either called early when their dogs were not really searching – more investigating or just not switched on, more to do with the handlers nerves than the dogs. A couple of dogs also scratched at the wheel out of frustration at their owner not calling, easy to say when you know where the hide is. Having said that Julie with Wren and Jackie and Kona both found in under 12 seconds, and John and Whisper coming in under 20 seconds, all with positive alerts. Karen and Max had a good find once Max started to work and Karen listened to him. Mawgan told Laine exactly where he wanted to go to search on the car, and Guliver and Dave have a strong partnership when working outside on the vehicle.

Interestingly for me I had a comment made recently about my own handling which I then saw demonstrated during the trial, so I have stolen it and used it tonight “try not to be the preying hawk hovering over the dog, instead be the fluttering skylark watching from above” those that heard me know who you are.

We went inside to finish with the Boxes and Luggage/container search {sometimes I think we forget that the rules say containers and we all stick to Boxes and Luggage which we know can lead to trashing?}. The hide was in a box seam exposed to the air and facing the front approximately half way through the items, we had a real 50/50 result which was very scary for me as the judge. Quite a few people did not wait for their dog to indicate but took their interest as an indication or waited too long by the wrong item causing the dog to remain in place. Freddie the spaniel gave Natalie some really good rejection of items and a good solid if enthusiastic indication. Little Dora and worked beautifully when independent and Gill gave the space to search unaided but was nearby when needed.

What was particularly nice was the people who had taken on board any hopefully helpful advice or comments from earlier. Jeanette made huge efforts to stand up and back so that she could see where Buddy was searching and Maria with Truffle kept her hand out of the way tasking Truffle in then moving back. Fiona and Murphy are working on their partnership with neither of them quite confident enough to allow Murphy to search unaided but I think in the future this team will grow. Jazmine and Scout had beautiful methodical searches throughout.

Eight out of twelve qualifying was a good outcome for a busy evening. When the results were in: Julie and Wren 1st, Jackie 2nd Plus an Excellent with Kona {L1ex}! John and Whisper 3rd, Jazmine and Scout 4th, and Gill and Dora had a Clean Sweep, with Qualifiers Dave and Guliver, Laine and Mawgan and Natalie and Freddie.