Leamington DTC Working Trials Champ

Many congratulations to Sharon Lord & Echo qualifying WDex and winning third place.

Leamington DTC Working Trials Champ

Many congratulations to Lyndie Lothian & Pixel on qualifying and winning the WDex Stake.

Essex 2000

Shirley and Teasel on qualifying WDex and gaining third place. Your roll continues.

East Riding Working Trials Society

Open Trial - October 2023

Shirley Simpson & Teasel winning the TD Open

South Beds WD Open - Sept 2023

Congratulations to Sharon Lord & Echo qualifying and gaining WDex

South Beds WD Open - Sept 2023

Many congratulations to Shirley Simpson & Teasel qualifying and winning the Stake and Tony Orchard & Isla qualifying and winning 3rd place.

Saxton Championship Trial - Sept 2023

Many congratulations to Andy Baker & Bryn Some Lose Some on winning the ticket, Kaye Littlehales & Ritchie on qualifying TDex, the first of many to come to Kaye. And last but not least Shirley Simson & Teasel in qualifying UDex and winning 3rd place.

Elementaries
1st - Anita Fields and Monty (Hung Viszla) 74 points
2nd - Carole Burgess and Wyspa (BC) 65 points

Levels One to Five
1st - Ann Ferens and Rosie (Working Cocker) WT Level Four 94 points
2nd - Stepi and Kaia (Rottie) UKDS Level Two 91.5 points  (decided by search square)
3rd - Hazel Burton and Tor (BC) WT Level One 91.5 points
4th - Lyndie and Pixel (BC) WT Level Five 89.5 points

also qualifying Sam and Nix (BC) WT Level Four 81 points

Thanks to another super effort by the Banbury Team we ran another very successful progress tests day and even managed to avoid the rain. The first drops arrived just as the team started to pack away the gazebo!

Huge thank you to Nicky Downes for standing in for me as Events Manager at the last minute, to give me an opportunity to work my Milo in a working tests down in Winchester, and of course the judges: Judy Meekings who had travelled all the way from Surrey to judge the Control & Agility for the Levels One to Five, Becky Price who judge the nosework for the first time and did an excellent job and Steph Gordon who judged the Elementaries which on this day was a walk in the park with only 2 entries, so she ended up organising most of the catering with her steward Sue Lawrie. Also big thank you to our other stewards: Lynn Bricknell who stewarded the C & A and Kate Wilton who put out all the search squares, not forgetting Colin Bricknell who did all the scoring again as well as writing all the certificates.

- Tony Orchard & Isla qualifying UDEx
- Shirley Simpson & Teasel qualifying CDEx
- Jenny Orchard & Twiggy, Andy Baker & Bryn, Nicky Crowther & Poppy and Steph Gordon & Kessie, all qualifying TDEx
- Sharon Lord & Echo (above) qualifying WDEx

What a fantastic result!!

UKDS Event August 2023

We had a 23 competitors taking part on another warm summer's day; 10 Novice, 5 Intermediate & 8 Advanced.

Read our full report

Shirley and Teasel are already on a roll and they have only just started their trials' career.

They are obviously heading straight for the top and after last week qualifying CDEx at Scarborough trial they have not only qualified, they also won the UD stake at SATS open trial at their very first attempt with a score of 198/200!

Many congratulations Shirley, and long may your success continue!

Carla

Ann Ferens and Rosie qualified UDEx for the first time in horrendous weather conditions!!

This qualification was long overdue and held up due to Covid, heatwaves and bad luck!!

Many congratulations Ann and well done for persevering. Your patience and hard work has paid off!! Enjoy the Champagne!!

Carla

Shirley Simpson & Teasel qualified CDex and 3rd place with 86/100 points

Our end of term, Fun & Games night in July was again great fun and all the dogs did very well despite some of their handlers who were more competitive than others!!

Big thank you to Steph and the Team: Ann, Nicky and Sheila for doing all the organising and providing the entertainment making the evening such a success. Also for giving up your time and all your efforts running all the KCGC classes throughout the year. The Club would not exist without you all!

Carla

Carol Burgess & Kyla BC, 1st intro, NQ.

Shirley Simpson & Teasel, 3rd qualified CDEx.

Pat Golding & Kizzie, 3rd qualified WDEx.

We had a 23 competitors taking part on a scorcher of a day; 10 Novice, 4 Intermediate & 9 Advanced. Another 5 competitors would have been there if it hadn't been forecast to be so hot. The weather forecasters were right this time!

Read our full report

Congratulations to Sam & Nix

Tracking Level 3 part 2.

"The team performed to an excellent standard; line handling and reading of Nix was a pleasure to watch".

Midland Counties Open Trial

28th to 30th April 2023 

John Simpson & Rafa qualified TD Stake.

Kaye Littlehales & Richie also qualified TD Stake.

Samantha Watkins & Nix qualified and came 1st in the UD stake.

Herts Working Trials Club UK Dog Sport Event

Saturday 29th April

Shirley Simpson & Teasel came 1st in Novice.

Surrey DTS Championship Trial

Wednesday 19 April 2023 - Sunday 23 April 2023 

Nicky Downes and Poppy got 3rd place and qualified TDex.

Anne Thorpe's Easy Steps Dog Training UK Dog Sport Event, 22nd April 2023

Novice won by Shirley Simpson with Teasel

Intermediate won by Samantha Watkins with Nix

Advanced won by Ann Clarke with Ember

Banbury clean sweep. Many Congratulations.

Well, that is another Banbury Trial where the weather gods were kind. We had a bit of drizzle but otherwise it was dry and breezy but sadly we didn’t have the lovely sunshine of last year, although the sun did come out after nearly everyone had gone home!

The number of entries took me a bit by surprise this year – 15 in TD, 13 in WD and 10 in UD. I hope this is a sign that Working Trials is recovering. The trial ran over two days which meant a lot of work for our 3 judges.

Read our full report

A good Easter weekend at ASPADS Enfield Championship Trial.

Congratulations Andy Baker with Bryn Some Lose Some on qualifying and getting 2nd place!

Nicky Downes was pleased with Poppy and their qualification, she says "I was beginning to think I'd dreamt the first one!"

We had a super, albeit extremely cold but dry day in our field where, for the first time the UKDS teams competed against the Working Trials teams.  We divided them into 2 categories: Elementaries & Beginners and Intermediate & Advanced, with 7 dogs competing in each category and we had 4 qualifiers in each, total 8 qualifiers out of 14 participants. Great result! 

We had a super team of judges and helpers again. All the Control & Agility exercises were judged by Nicky Downes and stewarded by Steph Gordon, and the Searches were judged by Gill Cooke, aided and abetted by her steward Lynn Bricknell.  Colin Bricknell had the best job of all, doing all the scoring inside the container over a nice hot cuppa and lots of chocolates!!  Great job everybody and thank you all. 

These progress tests are designed to give our beginners a taste of competition in a friendly environment and at the same time they offer an opportunity to compete against other more experienced club members on an equal footing.  

Congratulations to all who qualified, and to those of you who did not qualify on this occasion: we hope you still enjoyed the day and came away feeling you had a valuable learning experience!! 

Last but not least big thank you to Ann Ferens for organising all the cakes and goodie bags for us and to Sue Coles for making those delicious brownies!! 

Our next Progress Test Day will be on Sunday 17th September. 

Carla 

Elementaries & Beginners: 

1st: Bev Hassan & Tilly (Crossbreed) Level One: 95½ pts
2nd: Stepanka Bradford & Kaia (Rottie) Elementary Plus: 86 pts
3rd: Sheila Smith & Forti (Beagle) Level One: 81½ pts
4th: Marie Fitzgerald & Alfie (ESS) Elementary Plus: 78½ pts 

Intermediate & Advanced: 

1st: Angela Howe & Sabre (GSD) Level Two: 96pts
2nd: Shirley Simpson & Teasel (BC) Level Two: 94pts
3rd: Kate Wilton & Finn (ESS) Level Two: 89½ pts
4th: Pat Golding & Kizzy (Kelpie) Level Five: 85pts 

Hampshire Open Trial.

Congratulations Pat Golding with Kizzie on qualifying another WD Stake.

18th March 2023

Big thank you to Andy Baker for the Demo this morning on how to train your dog for the Search & Rescue exercise in the Expert Level of the new UKDS sport.

Instead of doing a demo with his own dog, Andy invited somebody from our group who had never trained this exercise with their dog before to do the demo and Pat Golding with her Kelpie Kizzy offered to be the guinea pigs.

It was a great demonstration in how to break down, what looks to be a complicated exercise, into very small steps, starting at the end of the exercise (bark when you find a person) to teaching it how to find that person.

You could see Kizzy getting more confident with each new step that Andy added in, and she learned to do the complete exercise in a relatively short time, looking like she had been trained to do this before today.

After that Andy showed us what to do if your dog would not work with a stranger, as was the case with Angela's GSD Sabre, who was not too keen to work with Andy, so Andy soon had Ange doing all the stages with her own dog, teaching Sabre the exercise in the first instance and then Andy showed her how to move him on to working with a stranger.

By the end of the morning all of us felt very confident about how to train this exercise, using the small steps to build up confidence in the dogs, and making it a fun exercise to teach, rather than a complicated exercise that only experts can teach.

Thoroughly enjoyable and informative session, so thank you again, Andy.  Perhaps we shall ask you to judge our first Expert Level event!!

Carla

26th February 2023
Andy Baker and Bryn Some Lose Some qualified TDEx and won 3rd place at NWWTS Championship Trial.

26th February 2023
Ann Ferens & Rosie qualified UDEx and won 1st place at BAGSD Open Trial.

Bronze Successes:
Bev Hassan & Lily
Vanessa Mills & Fennel
Andrea Harding & Lexi
with judge Jill Timms

Silver Successes:
Andrea Harding & Lexi
Leah Ainscow & Bonnie
Sue Coles & Phoebe
with judge Karen Kendall

Gold Successes:
Beth Bennett & Shadow
Leah Ainscow & Bonnie
Stepanka Bradford & Kaia
with judge Jill Timms

Preparing for the Road Walk:
Jeanette Angel & Elsie
Sue Coles & Phoebe
Andrea Harding & Lexi
Leah Ainscow & Bonnie
with judge Karen Kendall

25th February 2023

Another very nearly 100% successful day at the KC Tests and only one dog not quite ready for the Silver test, with all the other participants passing.

Well done everyone! All the hard work you have put into your training certainly paid off. 

Big thank you to our judges Jill Timms & Karen Kendall for setting nice straightforward tests, being so sympathetic and getting the best from all the dogs.

Many congratulations to you all and thank you to Ann Ferens for doing all the organising and of course Steph and the team: Nicky, Ann and Sheila for doing all the hard work getting everybody ready for the tests.

Great result and lots of happy faces making all the hard work worthwhile!

The next test day is 1st July.

Carla

Successful day for Banbury Dog Training Club at ASPADS Oxford Championship Trial on 18th and 19th February.

Many congratulations to you all! Carla

2nd place: Tricia Empson & Kiska (Bracco Italiano)

4th place: Ann Ferens & Rosie (Cocker)

1st place: Pat Golding & Kizzie (Kelpie)

2nd place: Sharon Lord & Echo (G. Retriever)

4th place: Andy Baker & Bryn Some Lose Some (BC)

Judge was Chris Trevor and Marshall Sally Rose, both of whom were very friendly and calming (it was my first CD/CDEx - so I needed it) I drew 1st to go.

We set off for the field for the search square which was only about 2 miles away. Everyone did that part before heading back to base, and after an opportunity for a lunch break - great bacon rolls from the ladies cooking at the base (slight moment of confusion when they asked if we wanted them on a teacake! - it’s a regional thing, here’s it’s a roll, bap or cob).

Control completed, thankfully all good, although Nix jumped wonky on the long jump (our nemesis) and didn’t quite make the distance, but with enough points to qualify. I scored 91 1/2 out of 100, so more than happy with that. Had some celebratory cake before driving home.

Thanks to everyone at Banbury who has helped me!