31st December 2022

Held by Yorkshire Working Trials Society

Andy Baker and Bryn Some Lose Some pictured here with judge Chris Trevor gaining TDex

Hoopers

Heather Donnelly's Hoopers group held their first assessment in July and everybody passed.

Three of them are club members Michelle Mahoney& Myah, Stepi Bradford & Kaia and Julia Edwards & Joshua.

Well done everybody and it sounds like you might be able to enter competitions soon!!

Saturday 16th July 2022

Due to the hot weather we decided to hold the tests at Ryelands House where there was plenty of shade under the trees.

This appeared to be a good decision and we ended up with a 100% success rate in the Bronze test with 2 of those also passing their Silver Test.

Big thank you to our judges Gill Culliford and Jenny Orchard for being so encouraging and setting everybody up for success.

Also to Steph, Ann, Nicky & Sheila for all their hard work getting all the teams ready for their tests and Ann for organising the judges and catering on the day.

Great team work as always and here are the results:

SATS Champ Trial, TD Stake

Midland Counties Open Working Trial, TD Stake

Many congratulations to all our members who did well at Rita Banfather's Easter UKDS event, but especially our 3 Newbies, Angela, Kate and Sheila who are just starting out in Open Competition.

They all managed to qualify, gaining places in the process. Very proud of you all and we wish you Good Luck at our own event in May! Carla

Sharon & Echo, Open Working Trial, WD Stake, Aynho 17th April

Sharon & Echo, Open Working Trial, UD Stake, Hampshire - 26th Mar

Kennel Club Good Citizen Awards - 26th Feb 2022

CD Stake, Oxford Open Trial - 19th Feb 2022

WD stake at Avon Open Trial - 4th Feb 2022

Open Trial - October 2023

Shirley Simpson & Teasel winning the TD Open

Congratulations to Sharon Lord & Echo qualifying and gaining WDex

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

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.

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.

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 - Hazell 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.

- 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!!

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

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

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!

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.

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 

Hampshire Open Trial - 20th 25th March 2023

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

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

Many congratulations to you all! Carla

Qualifying CDex

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

4th place: Ann Ferens & Rosie (Cocker)

Qualifying UDex

1st place: Pat Golding & Kizzie (Kelpie)

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

Qualifying TDex

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!

Tracking Assessment Day 8th Dec 2024

The AGM was held at Ryelands Field on Sunday 13th October 2024. Given the very wet weather this year we were fortunate to have a dry autumn day, which commenced with six different games set up for our members to enjoy: Agility, gun dog scurry, find the toy, toy retrieves, fastest recall & recall over bales.

Everyone was able to have three attempts at each game, rosettes were awarded to Best Puppy, Best Good Citizen Dog and Best Sporting Dog in each section.

The short AGM followed with complimentary buffet lunch to finish. Many thanks to all who helped set up and take down the games, marquee & gazebos. We really couldn't do it without your help.

There are many more wonderful photos taken by our members on our Facebook page.

Herts Working Trials Club - UKDS - 8th September

Congratulations to Julie D'Rozario with Ava, winning 1st in Novice and qualifying NDEx.

BAGSD Open Trial, Ross on Wye

Sunday 28th July 2024

I would like to say a HUGE thankyou to Len Newman and Andy Baker who gave up their time to help us develop confidence in our own tracklaying skills.

The day was informative and practical and covered topics from the pre trial preparation and the importance of easily seen marker poles to the laying of tracks accurately with or without a compass and right through to finding unrecovered articles.

Andy and Len shared their knowledge and techniques and incorporated practical exercises to back up the theory.

It was a very interesting, useful and thought provoking day.

Thanks Guys.

Wessex Trial News

Pat & (Kizzie with their rosette) for qualifying 3rd place in the TD Open at Wessex. All the best in the Champs, Pat.

Teasel qualified TDex. Congratulations Shirley.

Many congratulations to Tony Orchard qualifying CDex and winning the stake with Maggie. Tony also qualified WDex and 4th place with Isla, having got TD open earlier in the week.

What a great couple of days, Tony!

Midland Counties Open - WD Stake

Surrey Open Working Trial

A cold & foggy, frosty start to the day with all participants wrapped up against the chill! We had a good number of handlers and dogs with 10 passing Bronze, 3 passes at Silver and 2 in Gold. There were mainly tears of joy and relief and for those who didn't make it today, best of luck for next time! 
Once the sun had burnt through we were able to enjoy an afternoon of warmth. Our thanks go to Jane Webb & Jenny Orchard for their fair and friendly judging and to everyone who helped with refreshments and offered words of encouragement to all taking part.

Taya & Isla

Le & Gipsy

The Kennel Club Working Trials Championships took place 16th to 18th October and members Nicky Downes with Poppy and Andy Baker with Bryn competed in the TD stake. I was lucky enough to be able to watch the tracking on Thursday. The venue was at Thoresby Park, Nottinghamshire and the weather and ground conditions were perfect for tracking and both Poppy and Bryn did beautiful tracks.  Whilst Andy & Bryn are very experienced at competing at The KCCS, winning the event last year, this year was Nicky & Poppy’s only second time competing at this level.  

Says Nicky:

“I felt daunted and wracked with nerves at the thought of competing at 2025 KCCs, even though I knew we had won a ticket and deserved to be there. However, we had a brilliant time and my nerves settled down once, we started competing.

The venue at Thoresby was incredible, the land and conditions couldn't have been better and we had amazing support and camaraderie from the other competitors and spectators.

Poppy worked her socks off and her tail didn't stop wagging, if she is happy so am I and vice versa, we are a team. I'm very, very proud that we took part and qualified, it has taken a lot of hard work and training but it's been very enjoyable.  I'd like to say a very big thank you for all the support and good wishes we have received”.

Nicky has been an inspiration to all of us for believing in Poppy and not giving up despite lots of set backs over the years and making her up into a Working Trials Champion when Poppy was already 10!! Nicky hopes to be able to continue to enjoy trialling Poppy whilst she still enjoys her tracking and is still fit.  

At the end of the weekend both teams qualified TDX which is a wonderful achievement, so many congratulations to you both.  

Carla

Judge - Anne Thorpe, Nicky Downes, Sue Garner - KC Activities Committee member

Judge - Anne Thorpe, Andy Baker, Sue Garner - KC Activities Committee member

Beginners

Novice

Congratulations Bev and Tilly
1st place in South Beds Working Trials special stake

UKDS Event - Willey

SATS Championship Trial 

ASPADS Scarborough - Championship Trial

A beautiful sunny day, members qualified at Novice: Victoria Cunnington & Sheila Smith; Intermediate: Carol McCullock & Advanced: Bev Hassan.

Well done to John Simpson, Andy Baker and Nicky Crowther on qualifying TDex at Surrey this weekend. Special congratulations to John Simpson & Rafa on achieving their first TDEX. Well deserved John.

What a great day, we had a 100% success rate! Well done to our teams that took part and a big thank you to our two judges Gill Culliford (Silver) and Sue Baker (Bronze and Gold) for setting lovely tests. Congratulations & well done to -