GDCSA Scent Work Trial

The Gundog Club ran its first Scent Work trial on the 27th of April which had a “Retrieving” theme. It was a huge success with 35 entries. Thanks must go to the hard work of Carmel Nottle organising judges and all the administration for the trial. The club can’t thank her enough.

Thank you to our judges Jo Bates and Narelle Medlicott and a massive thank you to our volunteer stewards. Richard, Patrick, Kym, Jan, Dorothy, Kim, Rebecca, Jessie, Bron, Lynne, Nicole, Julianne, and Gaynor. Sorry if I missed anyone. Thank you also to our sponsor Laucke Mills.

Jo Bates from Victoria judged Novice, Advanced and Excellent Interior. Narelle Medlicott from SA judged Novice, Advanced and Excellent Vehicle.

Thank you to the South Australian Scent Community for a great time in your state having the opportunity to set some challenges and games for everyone and share a few special occasions doing workshops and learning together. I had an awesome time!

We finished the trip (scent work wise) with the restricted to Group 3 scent work trial run by the Gundog Club of SA. It was a lovely evening, and I was in charge of interior elements for Novice, Advanced and Excellent levels.

The novice dogs had to locate the hide on the pocket in the cover of the water bottle, and many of them pulled into it on entry to the room and most worked back to locate it. It was great to see so many new teams having a go and with time I am sure they will build confidence with their dogs to achieve great success. So lovely to encourage them at this stage. Advanced Interiors we had a hide under the table and the scent was carrying along the metal struts that supported the tabletop. The second hide was placed under the bench just to the side of the threshold/doorway.

The marked experience of this level of teams was great to see and they worked hard to cover the space and locate the hides successfully. The distractor duck was just a bit too much for a few.

Our three Excellent level teams that took part had to locate the inaccessible (behind a shower door) in room 1 and then call finish. It was a complicated location and sadly the teams timed out in this first space. Once the dogs had the chance to explore the shower area more thoroughly they succeeded.

I did allow them to continue to the second room for experience of an Interior level search and they certainly enjoyed working the convergence problem set up under the sink and bench in that room.

Good luck to all the teams at the next trial!

Jo Bates