SILVER TRIAL ANTRIM TUES 12 MAY 2026

Judges: Lesley Clements and Jillian Marshall

Results

1st Sandra Haveron and Woody 87

2nd Esther Thorpe and Max 81

3rd Lorraine Brownlie and Jules 80

4th Ken Hall and Sammie 79

5th Julia Patterson and Jasmine

6th Debbie Goligher and Stella

The venue was a coffee shop which closed at 5pm allowing us to use the exterior courtyard for a evening trial. We had 10 competitors, some of which were new to Silver.

The search area was to the rear of the coffee shop accessed from outside. It comprised a courtyard type area bordered on one side by a shipping container, the other side a gabion wall and at the back by another shipping container turned into offices (these were closed). The fourth side was open access to a covered area with bistro type seating (this was not included in the search as the area was deemed large and complex enough as it stood.).

Contained within the search area were several bistro type tables and chairs, two trestle type picnic style tables, several wooden barrels, a swingball game (complete with tennis ball) and a giant tetris game. The edges were paved with a large central area of gravel. To one side along the side of the shipping container was a fairly large folded down gazebo. The rear offices had a series of doors and windows along the rear edge of the search area

The weather was unseasonably cold for May with strong gusty winds and occasional showers. Although the judges were able to stand under the covered area, not all the competitors stayed dry!

We placed a threshold hide just under the edge of the shipping container and pushed the gazebo up tight to the side so that the hide was inaccessible. The other hide was also placed low at the base of one of the legs of the furthest trestle table. This hide was accessible. We thought that this would be the easier hide especially after running a white dog, but as it turned out it was the other way round, This may have been due either to the effects of the weather or handlers search planning/ time management or both..

Most dogs picked up the threshold odour quite quickly either from one end of the gazebo or the other and displayed a nice selection of changes of behaviour. The more experienced handlers were able to call it. A few handlers who were tackling a Silver trial for the first time

had trouble reading their dogs on an inaccessible hide and moved them on. However, most returned to the area of interest at some stage and were able to call it.

The other hide proved quite tricky for a number of teams and we had the case of the ‘invisible table’. Quite a lot of handlers seemed to almost ignore that trestle although they had over-searched the other one. It seemed that it was only those who a) thought to search the trestle, b) thought to search all of it, c) tasked low as well as high and d) read their dogs well were the ones who successfully found it. In the end it was 50/50.

It was lovely to watch all the teams working and especially those who were experiencing Silver for the first time. Well done everyone!