Page 17 - 2018 WT Almanac

tween two poles. More heelwork followed ing Winston. Once Winston was detained
around the jumps to the sendaway point. that was the end of the exercise. Quarter
This was 85 yards to a boundary and 170 was next, around a tree to a caravan where
yards along the boundary to the corner of Nidge was located. The door and the win-
the field. Jumps were then undertaken - dows were open; the dog was to enter and
clear, long and scale. bark. The dog was called out and then
Nidge appeared, wearing just a dressing
gown and waving his loofah around – ooo
err missus! He was an irate but innocent
member of the camping community!
The quarter continued around the field. We
had placed a pile of wood in the centre of
the field, but about 50 yards away from it
we had placed Lee in a sniper suit lying
on the ground next to a tree stump. The
quarter ended at a pile of straw where Paul
M was located. He was sitting in a chair,
reading a paper and gave the dog absolute-
ly nothing. Hidden in the rear of the straw
For the patrol round I briefed the teams in was Charlie with a large knife (plastic for
front of the crowd, as I have done before; safety!) and also one hidden in the straw.
this meant that the crowd was involved Recall was next and was exactly the same
from the off. I had given each of the teams set up as the chase.
the sequence of exercises the day before The last exercise was TOC; the handler
so there was no ambiguity about what was stood thirty paces away from a horse box
expected. which had the ramp down. Charlie stood
The patrol started with three crims running on the top of the ramp and aggressively,
from the field where the handler was, into but fairly quietly, threatened the team. Af-
the next field, through a large gateway. ter a challenge the dog was sent, and at this
Their trajectory meant that they were now point Charlie moved into the back of the
out of sight of the dog and handler. Win- box. As the dog came up the ramp Char-
ston stood still as the dog was sent, Charlie lie, Malc and Paul (the latter two had been
went into the back of a pile of hay bales concealed at the rear of the box) moved
and hid, whilst Paul B carried on as the aggressively towards the dog. I asked for
chase crim. The dog was sent and chased them to move noisily at the dog and drive it
and detained Paul. The handler took con- out, but once it had engaged on the sleeve
trol of Winston and joined Paul and the that was the end of the test and they should
dog. A cursory search was followed by slip the sleeve.
the escort, which was a left turn and then That concluded the test. As with all my
a route of a large circle. I was looking for tests, I look for a high degree of control,
the handlers to maintain an appropriate dis- but also a driven enthusiastic dog, and
tance from the two felons and not to try and these teams had it all in abundance.
hang back. Paul silently attacked and at the After each handler completed each section
same time Winston ran. The dog was to I gave the crowd a critique on my marking
be called off Paul and sent onto the flee- and how I had assessed the teams.
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