Another lovely trial at Wichenford Memorial Hall in the Worcestershire countryside – the first L2. It was very small but very well run and delicious cake!

We started off inside with Tables and Chairs. The odours were placed on the first chair inside the starting gate and the second was on a plastic cutlery holder on the left hand side exterior of the room; neither caused any particular problems. Most dogs picked up the exterior item first. Debbie & Dylan worked this beautifully and she read him really well.

We then went outside for a wall search – this was an L shape round the edge of the building. The first was on an air vent at the start of the wall, with the second being in a hole beyond a door towards the end of the wall. Generally the second odour was found first as the dogs needed to get into their sniffing. Nicky & Evie handled this so nicely it was lovely to watch and very speedy as well – she knew her job!

Back inside to boxes and bags – 10 items, with the odour on a wheely bag handle in the middle of the room and the box was placed at the back of the room. The bag caused no significant problems with a number of the dogs working right to source, the box once found gave no issues but some dogs found other boxes of interest as well. Lucy & Bailee were so methodical despite her being the only off lead dog, whereas Paul & Fenton worked well together but he did like to trample on everything however, called perfectly.

Finally, the exterior search where we had 11 items. The first was a large wooden planter at the beginning of the search, this got missed early on as the odour was on the far side so dogs hit it coming back. The second was a metal clothes airer and this was picked up very quickly by all dogs. The environment was challenging for some dogs on this search especially an area of fencing. Joyce & Buster were very quick and he definitely knows what he is doing so trust him! Bridget & Salvo worked really well together and when they found the final odour in the celebration Bridget nearly knocked Salvo out on the planter…maybe watch where your dog is

Overall, the standard was very good and look forward to seeing these dogs progress. Congratulations to Nicky & Evie who won the trial and got their excellence plus also to all the other placings and qualifiers. Thanks very much to Pauline (TM), Judy (Scribe) and Nikki (Runner) who made the morning run so swiftly and efficiently.