My thanks to Lyn Bowers & Lyn Church for the invitation to judge their L2 & 6 mid week trial. Also thank you to Caroline Nicholson for general duties and a newbie runner, who unfortunately I didn’t catch her name. I always enjoy judging for this club as the club members are a very positive friendly group and the home made cakes are always to die for , thank you Lyn!
There were 7 runners in L2 and the standard was extremely high with 3 scoring the perfect score of 100.
1st place went to Margret & Time. This pairing was on top form today with all 4 searches being completed in record times; Exterior 37 secs, Vehicle/Wall 26 sec, Boxes/luggage 25 secs & T & C 37 secs. This young dog’s odour obedience was very impressive for one so young refusing to abandon a scented article once located. Time worked with great enthusiasm and speed resulting in poor Margret trying her best to try and keep up which she managed to do. A very impressive team, well done.
2nd place was Julie & Inca a lovely sensitive black Labrador. This team improved as the day went on and Julie’s handling stepped up a gear particularly in the T & C search. A super speedy vehicle/wall search which Julie handled very well when Inca appeared to bounce from the vehicle hide straight onto the wall ‘hide’ without even taking breathe! Well done on gaining your ‘Ex’ title today.
3rd Caroline & Gus again a very good accurate performance with Gus back in the groove again. The first team to break the spell finding both hides in the Boxes & Luggage search the search that always seems to throw up it’s challenges. Well done Caroline for making this part of the test look so straight forward.
4th Helen & Hazel a rather sensitive WS and after Helen’s encouragement Hazel stepped up and started to enjoy her day and showed Helen that she does know what scentwork is all about. Hazel’s indication is rather fleeting and Helen was good at spotting Hazel’s subtle indication. Well done.

L6
We ended up with 6 runners as 2 competitors unfortunately had to withdraw one of which had 2 two dogs ‘entered. I set quite a difficult test as L6 is ‘stepping’ up and the standard of the L6 competitor is so much higher than it was a couple of years ago. I brought in a bit of psychology as I know at this level competitors are competitor savvy and also I wanted to bring in some of the elements of a L7.

1st Richard & Ziggy – Although dropping just one hide in the first search the other two searches were executed really well. The ‘Exterior was particularly impressive and I feel that Richard’s calm natural manner really gives this team the edge. Although Richard remains focused this team appear to look as if they are having a training round which brings a near perfect performance from Ziggy. Well done.
2nd Helen & Preston – Preston’s tenacious searching in Interior 1 & the ‘Exterior’ was just Wow! Preston has such determination for finding the source when other dogs can so quickly give up on a difficult find. Preston seemed to run out of puff in the last search but still put out an excellent overall performance gained a credible 2nd place. Well done.
3rd Laura & Peanut – Just love watching this team and today Peanut put in a near perfect performance. Just an unlucky handler error in the exterior search but fabulous detailing in the Interior 2 search enabled this team to mop up most of the hides today, well done.
4th Jan & Mattie – Lovely handling from Jan particularly in the Interior 1 finding the hide around the bin area which many others teams had missed. Jan also pulled out all the stops in the last search needing at least 2 to qualify after previous teams were only managing to find one. Again Jan stepped in and helped Mattie just at the right time enabled this team to gain a worthy qualification. Well done.