BARD, Dungannon 19th July 2025

Club

Judge: Antoinette Traynor

Trial held at the BARD in a large room with one part sectioned off using tables on their side.

The rest of the room was a mix of stacked chairs, folded tables against the wall, exit door to another room plus fire exit, cabinet plus a random table and a few chairs in the centre of the area.

The hide was located about 3" from ground level on one of the folded tables against the wall.

All dogs worked the room well but a few were unable to locate the hide.

Handlers did some nice lead handling while others let their dogs free search and tasked were necessary.

There were some really good solid indications at source along with teams really rewarding their dogs nicely at the finish.

It was lovely to watch the new teams and seasoned teams working their dogs with enthusiasm and encouragement.

1st Eileen Toye and Sunny 80.5

2nd Janine Brownlees and Maverick 78

3rd Andrea Neuhold and Rolo 74

4th Sandra Haveron and Woody 67

5th Kerry Fry and Freddie 63.5

6th Carrie Haveron and Buzz 62

SCENT OPS BRONZE am TRIAL - BARD Dungannon

Saaturday 19 July 2025

Judge: Lesley Clements

1st Joanne Cairns and Puck 87 points

2nd Antoinette Traynor and Buddy 78.5 points

3rd Sandra Haveron and Woody 77.5 points

4th Andrea Neuhold and Silver 76 points

5th Jemma Elliott and Arlo 75.5 points

6th Eileen Toye and Buddy 74.25 points

The search area was in the upstairs of a converted and extended farmhouse now used as a community facility. The area is a long narrowish room leading to other rooms at the far end of it accessed by three steps. There are several floor level recessed sash windows and doorways with and a large supporting pillar forming an alcove at one end. There was a large display cabinet in the alcove. There were a few chairs lined up along one side with a filing cabinet and floor safe at one end.

The room was quite warm and stuffy so the windows were opened as they had safety bars to prevent the dogs from accessing the openings.

Both hides were accessible to all dogs. One hide was placed at floor level just where the alcove pillar reached the floor. The other was placed just behind the handle of the floor safe about a foot off the floor.

All teams worked on gun oil. The hide on the floor was heavily influenced by the open window just to one side of it which pushed the odour high and into the alcove itself. It was interesting how many dogs picked up the odour from that area and how handlers became convinced that the odour was high. This belief was compounded by a little shelf running around the pillar at about waist height and many handlers kept tasking their dogs to that. Stepping back, and allowing the dog to drop their head and track the odour back along the floor to source proved the most successful strategy and some handlers had the foresight to task low as well as high.

Most allowed their dogs to free search the room. Some handlers showed evidence of having a clear plan for the search which contributed to their success.

Most dogs located at least one hide. All teams worked really well.

Well done everyone, lovely teamwork!

Saturday 19 July 2025 – the BARD – Bronze (pm)

1st Antoinette Traynor and Tiggie 92

2nd Lesley Clements and Gavita (D) 91

3rd Jemma Elliot and Arlo 75

4th Susan Anderson and Kuro 73

5th Andrea Neuhold and Silver 73

6th Mandy Ring and Diva 72

The bronze trial took place in an upstairs space of a rural community centre. The search area comprised a medium sized meeting room which had a large desk, and some chairs both stacked beside the desk and set around the permitter. There were a number of bean bags, filled black bin bags and Christmas decorations stacked in one of the corners which created interest and clutter. Off this room was a bathroom area with a small pedestal wash hand basin with two separate chairs either side, and a shower cubicle space with WC was beyond that.

Each of the 10 competitors entered via a door into the meeting room. The door was closed behind them. The first hide was placed at the bottom of the stacked chairs to the left of the door upon entry. The large desk was placed very close to these chairs and many dogs found it difficult to get to source, as the handler had to move around the desk, that is away from the odour, to get closer to hide. Needless-to-say those who worked their dogs off lead were more successful.

A few dogs found the Christmas Elf a distraction (hard to resist I know!), but thankfully we had no false alerts there.

The second hide was underneath a chair to the right of the wash hand basin opposite the door into the en-suite. Most dogs found this hide with some lovely head-knocks.

A number of teams spent very little time in the shower area and in general space was not well cleared.

This was a relatively simple bronze test, and all teams worked beautifully. Without exception each handler got the best from their dog, and vice versa. This resulted in very competent scoring across the board.