Scent Work Mock Trial

The club ran its first Scent Work Mock Trial on the 2nd of February 2023. It was very windy however trials are rarely held in perfect weather conditions so with a realistic trial experience we ordered the less than perfect weather specially for the night.

Huge thank you to our trainee judges Carmel Nottle and Helen Davis and our stewards Richard, Graeme, Kim, and Michelle. Also Karen, Kathy, Gaynor, and Julie, who doubled as stewards and video-people. All our club instructors who stewarded had never been to or seen a scent work trial before and they did an amazing job.

The experience was invaluable as the club will be holding a Scent Work Trial Restricted to Gundogs on the 27th of April 2023 so this was like a trial run.

A few of the photos below from the interior search show a green arrow in two of them. This shows the location of the single hide. Orange cones are the start line with total area 10.5m2 which is just over the minimum for Novice interior. Teams had an off-lead option which a couple of handlers did take.

15/26 teams called it correctly with a majority of those being under 1 minute. The fastest time was 8.09 seconds.

A lot of dogs came off the start line and went straight to the stapler but didn't always get the message of their find clearly back to their handler. Those that didn't indicate correctly were fairly even split between timing out and false alerts. Most dogs picked up the odour along the ground around the stapler. Some odour was collecting on the black tub, but most dogs worked out quickly there wasn't anything there.

The exterior search proved more challenging especially with the wild and windy weather; 9 teams out of 27 would have qualified had it been a proper trial. The environment proved very distracting with many dogs focussing on what was going on around them and the general sights, sounds and smells in the environment. There were nearly as many ‘peers’ as ‘passers’. The search area was about 26m2 and five of the teams found the hide in under 35 seconds, the fastest team in 13.91 seconds.

The trial ran smoothly considering it was the first time we had been involved with a scent trial. Participants learnt a lot especially as we gave the option for them to have the search video on their phone. Hopefully this will help them identify areas that they can work on and/or do differently.

We are all looking forward to our April trial. The schedule is in this issue of the Newsbeat and entries are via K9 Entries https://www.k9entries.com/

Julie Wallis, Carmel Nottle & Helen Davis