The Dog Nose Trial 17th April

Judges report by Kirsty Grant

Club The Club search area was indoors in The Dog Nose which is filled with a collection of things designed to interest dogs senses. The hide was on the side of a metal trunk pushed under a desk. The room is cool with no direct air flow meaning the odour didn’t drift easily out from the hide location so dogs had to investigate fully into the corner in order to pick it up. This favoured methodical dogs and those handlers who kept track of the area coverage and used their time well to ensure detailed searching into areas that the dogs would otherwise skip over. The environment is distracting but all the dogs searched very well and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Bronze The Bronze search was outdoors in a wedge shaped space used as an outdoor bootcamp (thanks to Battleground Fitness for generously sharing their space) This is made up by the side of a whitewashed building and several doors on one side and a short rough brick wall topped with a high wire fence on the other. These taper down to 2 gates, one solid and the other, a wrought iron at their narrow end. Scattered around are beer barrels, giant tires, a scaling wall, and a few pieces of outdoor furniture. The first few competitors ran the area in part shade but the sun moved over and the whole area was then in full sun, and boy was it warm! A deceptively large space it favoured those dogs and handlers who worked in a consistent manner to clear the space. A medium breeze was blowing towards the narrow end of the wedge and many teams worked down the building side first finding the hide below the hinge on one of the large doors before clearing the end and working back up the brick wall side. Several of the dogs picked up odour around the furthest picnic table and over the brick wall, working it back around and up to one of the large tires. Some really nice problem solving and good reading by handlers.