Thanks everyone for coming along to this L9 trial – what a lovely group of people, it really does make a difference. Thanks to Susan for setting some fun and challenging searches. It’s always lovely as a TM when judges find different ways to use the venue – very inspiring! Thanks also to Leanne for scribing and Jasper for his white dog duties – we couldn’t do it without you.

Judges Report

Susan Elliott – Thank you to Hayley for inviting me to judge and to Leanne for being a great scribe.
Without exception I was absolutely blown away by the high standard of indication from your dogs. Some would say you should expect it at this level but having judged many tier 2 this year this L9 stood out as being exceptional for clear indications. Interior 1 – 4 hides / 5.5 minutes – a few misses in the kitchen, as it was a small area when some teams had found one hide they moved back into the hall without thoroughly checking the remainder of the kitchen. Another hide easily found from one direction but easily missed from the opposite direction was the dog ramp. First search of the day so I think nerves were playing a part, everyone called this area clear which is great but ! it was a large area and teams were calling it clear way too early. Exterior – 5 hides / 5.5 minutes – not a large area but lots of sheds and surfaces to cover (only two added items) excellent searching with a methodical process, Any missed hides just came from slightly cutting a corner or not checking high/low areas – overall a pleasure to watch. Exterior 2 – 3 hides / 2.5 minutes – A straight forward search area albeit a little quirky! easier for those that had worked out by this time how many hides there might be out there, some nice through searching but the hall was getting a bit warm and this was starting to show in the dogs performance.
Maximum points for Teresa and Olive great result – nice times from Jan and Onyx and he was one struggling a little on his final search. Kim and Evie – great searching but Evie was sure she didn’t need to check that final umbrella ! I will check the others but not the important one ! and finally Helen and Preston and Helen and Noodle great searching but being in a position where you don’t know how many hides might be there is very difficult on a final search , you both found the 3 hides well within time but didn’t call clear ! if only we had a crystal ball.
Great work from Noodle and if it hadn’t been for the away from source deduction the result’s could have looked different, but every dog was so precise on indication as a judge you just have to be fair and call what you see.
A great group thank you.