TRIAL 18 January 2026 Breckenhill

Bronze 1

Judge: Jillian Marshall

1st Antoinette Traynor and Gan 88

2nd Debbie Goligher and Stella 84

3rd Sandra Haveron and Woody 83

4th Susan Anderson and Kuro 82

5th Ken Hall and Sammie 73

6th Julia Patterson and Jasmine 70

The Bronze morning trial was set in a converted barn. I used the bottom section of the first room, and the opening section of the huge main room off to the left to create an L shaped search.

The starting point was marked by a large metal beam on the left side, with a table adjacent, leading to the opening into the main room. The right-hand side consisted of 4 picnic tables in a row, with a gap between them and the perimeter wall. The wall had a set of double doors and a window. The end of the room is a stone wall, with a wooden barrel and bench seating placed nearby. The main room had various outdoor picnic tables, benches, wooden ornaments, some wooden chairs, stacked/folded along the perimeter walls and a large wooden barrel.

The first hide was placed on the front seat of the first picnic table, to the right off the start line. Although this should have been a straightforward hide, a lot of teams struggled with this one. The odour was being drawn to the double doors, where some dogs caught the scent pool, and worked it back to source. Those teams that didn't get this hide was generally due to handler error, they totally missed searching this part - beginning with a perimeter search on the left, getting drawn into the main room, and then getting 'stuck' in the busier area at the bottom of the room.

The second hide was placed on the underside of a fire extinguisher that was attached to the wall, to the left, as you entered the main room. There were 2 benches in front of the fire extinguisher, leaving quite a narrow walkway for dogs to work. All the teams found this hide. Most picking it up as soon as they entered the room and working it beautifully to source. Lovely to see dogs confidently searching in tight spaces.

I really enjoyed judging this trial. It was lovely to see a lot of handlers using a mix of on line and free searching. Most also made good use of the ample space at the start for an overlap. The standard of rewarding dogs was very high - delighted to see happy dogs being 'paid' for working.

Thanks to my host Lesley, and my scribe Carrie.

Sunday 18 January 2026 – Breckenhill – Bronze (Trial 2)

Judge: Debbie Goligher

1st Margaret Thompson and Alfie 90

2nd Antoinette Traynor and Gan 89

3rd Joanne Marshall and Harry 88

4th Lesley Clements and Gavita 77

5th Carrie Haveron and Buzz 74

6th Jemma Elliott and Arlo 72

The second bronze trial of the day took place with 11 competitors searching an upstairs events space in an old stone building. The search area comprised a medium sized room which was relatively long and narrow – there were radiators and raised windows around the perimeter. The starting point was the doorway into the room. There was no heating.

The first 2/3rds of the room was fairly open with a table over one radiator at the RHS wall upon entering. There were some plastic boxes and electric fires in this area and a carpet runner down the middle of the space. The 1st scent was placed on the middle/bottom of the radiator at the RHS, under the table. Almost all dogs found this hide, with some lovely head knocks as they passed. However, some handlers found the space difficult to navigate when working their dogs on lines, which tangled the legs of the table - but sadly none elected to take their dogs off the line at this point. Most managed to get to source eventually but there were a few false alerts on the table legs.

The other 1/3rd of the space was much busier – with three rows of four chairs each side of the carpet runner. The set up of this space replicated a wedding ceremony scenario. The chairs were facing forward and there was a massive 6ft diameter ‘floral wreath’ which was supported on a granite ‘foot’ taking up the bottom left-hand corner of the room. Opposite the wreath in the right-hand corner was a table and four chairs. The second hide was placed under the granite foot supporting the wreath, between the foot and the wall which again required to dogs to enter a space the handlers could not. Quite a few dogs picked up the odour from the starting doorway, many going straight to it. Again, line handling proved problematic for some, but all dogs found this hide which provided some lovely ‘text book’ indications.

This was a relatively simple bronze test for the dogs in terms of hides but aimed to push the handler’s skills a little further. All teams worked beautifully and I hope everyone enjoyed the day and took home some learning points.

Finally thanks for Stacey Elliott Downs for scribing/helping me during the trial. Invaluable!

Sunday 18 January 2026

Silver

Judges: Lesley Clements and Janine Brownlees

1st Jilliian Marshall and Humphrey 94 points

2nd Antoinette Traynor and Tiggie 80 points

3rd Debbie Goligher and Holly 75 points

4th Carrie Haveron and Buzz 69 points

5th Joanne Holland and Seamus 63 points

6th Ronnie McAleese and Flora 62 points

The Silver search took place inside a converted stone barn. A rectangular shape, the area was dominated by a large wood burning stove in the centre of the back wall. Although this had cooled considerably, we barricaded it off with chairs as a safety precaution. To the right was a staircase with a small landing after the first few steps, an area under the stairs amd a doorway into the kitchen which was closed. To the left was a doorway into the office which was closed and a set of patio doors leading outside. There was a large trestle table and chairs in the centre of the room, various other pieces of furniture and steel support beams.

There were ten teams with some having their first go at Silver. For most it was only their second time. There was a mixture of odours - gun oil, clove and truffle oil

One of the hides was located in between a steel beam and the rough stone wall about 9 inches off the ground. Most of the teams were able to find the hide, although quite a few missed it in their first pass but caught it on the way backs with some nice head knocks.

The second hide was placed inside a compartment in an old wooden dresser. It had two little sliding doors and these were left with a tiny crack open not visible to handlers. Some of the dogs clearly got into odour but didn’t know how to work an inaccessible hide and so got very caught up on a wicker picnic hamper which was located off off to the left of the dresser. Some of the handlers also got fixated on the hamper.

The more experienced dogs were not convinced by the hamper and worked on, with their handlers giving the dogs time and thinking outside the box. This resulted in some lovely examples of teamwork.

A definite learning curve! Well done to all competitors!