Level 2 Judges report

Another extremely well organised event. The team understands the needs of those entered and works to help the day run smoothly. I must thank Jacky, my very professional and thorough scribe.

Lockdown has meant so many dogs and handlers have had to rely on ‘homeschooling’ for many months and I believe this had an impact on some of the searches. Although everyone had been to a trial before, getting back into the swing of things does take time. Things like remembering the rules and regulations and that 1 minute can seem like an eternity, so not to rush things. I know some people are working towards excellence awards and this can add pressure to the search.
It was good to see different breeds and dog with different backgrounds working and handlers being aware of their dog’s approach to the search. Working as a team is important and I think a couple of people forgot the dog knows more than us when it is searching and did ignore the dog. During a trial, there are so many thoughts racing through our minds. So it is easy to not realise the dog may be onto something. I think the lack on practice in a real situation probably added to the errors.
My aim was to provide 4 searches that challenged the dogs a little more than a L1, but to try and make the search fun and sensible for a dog at this stage in its scentwork journey. What was so pleasing was handlers worried that they were doing the trial too soon and being delighted that their dogs did not agree and worked so well. A great group of handlers and dogs and I very much enjoyed seeing everyone working.