26/02/2024
I"m not really good at social media stuff...but here's a bit of a report of the SSANZ Novice trial I organised in Ngatea last month..
A big thank you to all those who supported this trial, I hope even if you didn’t qualify that you enjoyed the day and hopefully got to check out what Ngatea can offer.
Given that it was a single novice it was relatively straightforward to organise, and Ngatea Rugby and Sports Club had again allowed me the use of the clubrooms.
I had again awesome sponsorship from Superior Pet Food . They have supported my fundraising for Dementia Waikato every time I have asked, and all teams went away with some of their products. Sarah from Canine NZ kindly donated scent kits for judges choices and Adele Williams turned up on the day with Zeal Pet Milk for all the teams.
The day was very hot and humid and even with running the exterior first by the end of the day the teams were tired. I don’t think I will plan on running trials again in January unless I can find a venue that has plenty of shade!
Sam Murdie and I shared the judging, and we ran it two searches at a time, then a lunch break before running the last two searches.
The interior search was interesting to watch as the environmental conditions showed how quickly odour can move as seen by where the dogs were first encountering odour and how they worked through it to find the higher concentration.
As it was just the single novice, we started a bit later in the morning then I normally do, so that those that travelled didn’t have such an early start to get there.
I was fortunate enough to have a number of people offer to help, a couple of new handlers, Bernie and Trish whom had been coming to my classes who wanted to see what a trial actually involved, some experienced handlers, Adele and Christine, that are also SSANZ trainee judges keen to do some stewarding , a trainee judge Kimberlea who was doing some probationary judging, and Evelyn and Sarah videoed the searches. And as always some of the handlers pitched in to help with marshalling.
Sue Andreson with Tango took out Best Overall, Container and Interior, Linda Loughin with Finn took out Runner up and Exterior, and Jamie Savage and Jed took out the Vehicle. These were done on points and time.
Our judges’ choices were Tony Barrett with Tess for Vehicle, Supreet Chadha with Browse for Container, Sue Gillion with Paint for Interior and Jamie Savage with Jed for Exterior.
We had 12 teams qualify, Clare with Ella, Jamie with Jed, Joanna with Nyx, Laura with Clover (possibly the youngest dog to qualify?) Linda with Finn, Matilda with Chino, Shona with Loki, Sue with Tango, Sue with Paint, Supreet with Browse, Susie with Evie, and Tony with Tess.
Was lovely to see so many new teams doing and I look forward to seeing you all again at my next trial.
