The Little Barn, Dauntsey, SN15 4HW
Start: 10.00
Entry Fees: £25.00 per dog.
Contact: Marie Poole marie.poole@me.com
Trial Manager and Judges Reports
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Wed 04 Nov 2020, Dauntsey
Level 4: Judge - Nigel Wilkes
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It was a pleasure to Drive to Dauntsey on a crisp frosty morning for what was a final Level 4 Trial before lockdown. I arrived to find Marie busy getting things ready and running Roger to make sure that the areas where free of any scent. The first 3 entries arrived and we commenced on the vehicle/wall search. Marie had teams coming every 75 minutes and this worked well. The hides were a crack in the wall near to the water tub and on the hose pipe. Some handlers were a little nervous, but it was great to see the wide arrangement of dogs working so well. The second hide Boxes/luggage was in the small room with the hides being in a small box towards the front and a larger box at the back. Again all dogs and handlers did well. It was then outside to the items and this time hides were on the hoover and a smallish bracket, by this time the dogs were really working well and the handlers where looking more relaxed even if they thought they weren’t ! The final hide was inside and I put both hides on chairs around the tables. A couple of handlers alerted incorrectly but all in all it was good work by all teams although we did have a couple of fouling incidents at the start. At the end of the day I hope that the teams enjoyed the searches I set and there was a worthy winner of Hannah and Quest who had travelled the farthest, followed by Marney and Mustard, Mike and Poppy and Julie and Edith. There were 8 out of 9 that qualified and the two teams that stood out for me were Hannah/Quest and Marney/Mustard. The handling and way they approached each search was quiet and they allowed their dogs to work without getting in their way or interrupting them. I would like to thank Marie for keeping me fed and water as well as asking me to judge a very high standard Level 4 trial (Nigel Wilkes – Judge)
Trial Manager – Marie Poole
We were blessed with a beautiful sunny, if somewhat chilly day. The grass that we normally park on at my venue, had become very poached and muddy, so we had to use the hardstanding at my neighbours. I thank the competitors for being understanding regarding the short walk to the searches. Nigel arrived and set up a very interesting L4 test. I loved it as it really helped teams transition from from bags and boxes type searches of Level 4, to the more whole room or area based Level 5 searches. We started with a wall search 25m with 8 placed items at the base. 2nd was the container search that in a fairly small room. The 3rd search was the exterior items. 15 items in a large enclosed concrete area. the final search was table and chairs and perimeter. The perimeter was mainly filing cabinets and steel workshop cupboards with some barriers, a shoe rack and some large storage cases. All the dogs worked well, some were unlucky and got a wrong alert on the distraction odour which were tea and coffee but every team was enjoyable to watch, with great supportive handling even when the dogs were finding it difficult. Thank you Nigel for judging and to the lovely competitors for joining us at the trial.