Breckenhill Club and Bronze 23/11/2025

Club Trial at Breckenhill 23/11/25

Judge Nicky Rodgers

1st Stacey Elliott Downs and Beep

2nd Geraldine Martin and Ellie

3rd Julia Patterson and Jasmine

4th Lorraine Brownlie and Jules

The Club Trial took place at the lovely venue Breckenhill.

Thank you for inviting me to judge. I thoroughly enjoyed watching each team as they worked through the area .

The search area was a long rectangle shape room , containing various items tables chairs , metal beams , wooden benches and stools , old wooden barrels , wooden screens , sofas, several doors windows and a huge leafy display ring on a stand provided an interesting search environment for the teams. The hide was located on a metal beam about a foot off the floor partially covered by a curtain.

I had 4 teams competing and 4 teams entered as NFC (having already won out but wanting more trial experience at single hide searches)

Each team covered the area well, with dogs demonstrating good understanding of their odour and working it into source.

Some handlers had the opportunity to cover the whole area demonstrating good tasking, the ability to allow the dogs to work freely, recognising when their dogs were in odour and allowing their dogs time to get to source and with some lovely indications.

Some dogs came across the odour with nice indications very quickly thus limiting the area covered though handlers ability to read the dogs was good .

The NFC teams had good relaxed experiences with the chance to build confidences for both dogs and handlers and there was some lovely searching from our youngest dogs .

Breckenhill 23rd November Bronze am Trial

Judge Lesley Clements

1st Antoinette Traynor and Gan

2nd Stacey Elliot Downs and Beep

3rd Dawne Wilson and Reggie

4th Andrea Neuhold and Silver

5th Joanne Marshall and Harry

6th Esther Thorpe and Max

The search area was within a large log store with a workshop at one end, logs piled up for drying and some loose logs not yet stacked and some random items of equipment from the wedding venue and outdoor activity centre. I used one end of the store where log piles and equipment made for some interesting ‘aisles’, nooks and crannies. An area around a large boiler was sectioned off. The area was busy and looked complicated but if approached systematically was fairly straightforward.

The first hide was located about eighteen inches from floor level within a large log pile. This was the easier of the two not requiring the dogs to venture off the main access route into the search. The second hide was located at floor level tucked under the base rim of an empty beer barrel pretty near the entrance to one of the ‘aisles’. Odour from both hides was fully accessible without the hides themselves being available to the dogs.

Teams met the challenge of the area with varying degrees of success. Most teams located the hide in the log pile with dogs picking up the odour from beyond and working it back. The hide under the beer barrel proved more difficult for some with a few dogs not wanting to go into the ‘aisle’ even though the beer barrel was near the entrance and a number of handlers only thinking to task at one level. There were some ‘not quite’ calls on the items around the barrel as a result. However most teams found both hides eventually.

Those that placed approached the search systematically, read their dogs well and thought about tasking at various levels.

This was a new area made available to us at this venue and it will no doubt prove useful again. I really enjoyed watching the various teams tackle it.

Well done to all who took part!

Breckenhill 23rd November Bronze Trial pm

Judge Tania Carron

1st Sandra Haveron and Woody

2nd Lesley Clements and Gavita (DIAMOND LEAGUE)

3rd Susan Anderson and Kuro

4th Margaret Thompson and Alfie

5th Esther Thorpe and Max

6th Geraldine Martin and Ellie

The search area was a large L shaped function room. Upon entry into the search area there was a games table slightly to the right. Going forward there was a long table with wooden chairs on one side running parallel with the right hand perimeter wall and a heavy wooden bench on the left side of the table. Beyond this was a second long table also with wooden chairs on the right side and wooden stools on the left. After the second long table was the back wall. Wooden chairs were also placed along the right perimeter wall on either side of the windows and door that overlooked the long tables. To the left of the search area there was a bar seating area containing four two seater couches and another smaller square table.

Overall the area appeared simple but it needed to be handled with a system in mind in order to cover it all.

The first hide was placed under the faraway leg of the heavy wooden bench. Most team plans included searching the bar seating area first, followed by a perimeter search of the whole search area. This left the centre table areas the last areas to be searched except for the winning team who included this area in the early stages of their search plan. This search plan led this team quite quickly to the second hide. Two teams did find difficulty getting to source with this particular hide. Some teams didn’t get as far as this bench within the given time frame.

The second hide was on the far wall and also low to the ground. In the left corner a wooden barrel sat out from the wall and on the other side of the hide was a large wreath on a stand. All dogs searched this wall from left to right with most dogs passing by the hide initially, some dogs picked up on the odour after they had passed and worked it back into source and the remainder dogs showed to listen really well when tasked back.

All the teams showed a great synergy and was lovely see how happy all the dogs were during each search. Special thank you to Amanda for timing all the teams.