Scent Ops Bronze Trial 10/06/23
1st Jane Potter with Candy 97pts
2nd Sam Draper with Blu 90pts
3rd Annette Harper with Ava 86pts
4th Amanda Jones with Molly 73pts
5th Shirley Buchanan with May 72pts
6th Wendy Foskett with Freya 66pts
Saturday the 10th of June was the first Train and Trial Day held jointly by Wendy Keefer from Hey Dog Training and Jo Brook from Positively Canine. It was also the first time we have used the fabulous venue of York Community Stadium.
The venue provided us with a variety of areas to choose from, seating, concourses, toilet blocks, storage areas and others. It was building up to a hot day so we trained in a concourse first (to avoid the sprinklers!) and then moved onto shaded seating. By the afternoon, temperatures were rising so we chose a partially enclosed concourse with plenty of shading and air movement to hold the Bronze Trial. The area consisted of a wide concrete corridor with slatted shutters down the outside wall and several roller doors down part of the other wall as well as openings to toilet areas. The middle part of the search area widened out to allow for lift doors and openings to the stands. There were a few obstacles to search, some portable fencing and two podium-style tables which several dogs were distracted by, presumably because Jo and I leaned on them to write our notes. This interest by the dogs was a challenge for a few handlers to move on from.
The first hide was in a small tin held by a magnet to the frame of a gate just before the concourse widened. It was about .5m from the floor and most dogs found it with relative ease. The second hide was stuck to the underside of a large display case on the wall in a corner near the end of the search area. Again, a relatively easy find if the dog went into the corner.
We had eight keen handlers and dogs, including 2 newbies and all did well. It was notable that the best performances came from the pairings with a systematic searching style. Although the appearance of the search area seemed simple, it was big and open, and areas could be easily missed without a plan. Very well done to everyone!
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