Scent Ops Club Trial Ballyhanwood

Saturday 31st May 2025

Judge: Lesley Clements

Trial Report

The Trial took place within an upstairs room of a former family home now converted into a garage and storage area. The room contained various pieces of random furniture – sofa, chests of drawers, clothes rails, coffee table etc along with filing cabinets and a full drum kit. It had various nooks and crannies.

The hide was placed underneath the bottom of one of the clothes rails about 3 inches off the ground. It was fully accessible, however, in order to access it the dogs had to go around the sofa and into a V shaped channel.

Most dogs picked up the odour from the front of the sofa and worked around to source. A few dogs got on to the sofa, located the odour over the back of it, then jumped back off and went around. It was interesting watching the different approaches. Everyone found the hide and there was some really nice searching.

Results as follows:

1st Susan Anderson and Kuro 86

2nd Carrie Haveron and Buzz 83.5

3rd Liz Mitchell and Buddy 83

4th Jemma Elliott and Arlo 81

5th Antoinette Traynor and Tiggie 81

6th Sue Christie and Kaija

Bronze Trial

The bronze trial took place in a large metal garden shed with a roller door opening and the downstairs of the adjacent double storey garage - both of which were fairly cluttered. The weather was generally fine, with a few showers and a moderate breeze. There were 14 teams in total. One of the teams worked on Kong and all others were on Gun Oil, which helped the day move along without too much delay. We had a mixture of seasoned teams and more inexperience teams.

The first hide was in the shed, on the second shelf of a small bookshelf which was just inside the roller door opening. The majority of teams found the shed hide, and there were some marvellous indications. Many of the dogs picked up the odour as they exited the shed and there were many fantastic head knocks, allowing the dogs to work the odour to source.

A few steps away, the garage hide was placed underneath a plastic dog bed in the top right-hand corner of the garage adjacent to an internal door which leads to an upstairs room. Many of the dogs winded the odour as soon as they entered the garage, running to the area, leaving their handlers at the roller door opening. The location of the hide made the visibility tricky for the handlers, particularly as many of them stood at the door opening momentarily before perhaps they realised their dog was in odour. I think this caused confusion between dog and handler and this, along with the effect of the wind from the upstairs room and the open garage roller door, may have been the reason that a few of the dogs appeared to struggle with a sound indication. This definitely was a more challenging hide for the dogs but maybe more so for the handlers.

There were some fabulous teams – with many of the less experienced teams picking up rosettes. Lovely to see and hopefully everyone enjoyed the day and left with some genuine and positive feedback, and definitely the best dog !!

Results

Ist Antoinette Traynor and Tiggie 88

2nd Sandra Haveron and Woody 87

3rd Jemma Elliott amd Arlo 83

4th Irene Scott and Luna 82

5th Jillian Marshall and Humphrey 81

6th Amanda Lattimer and Thelma 80