# Working Trials



## Jenny Olley

Working Trials is a kennel club licenced sport which is open to all breeds and cross breeds, they need to be KC registered but that can be on the activity or breed register.

The exercises
Nosework - Tracking, the dog has to follow where a person has walked between half an hour and 3 hours previously (depending on the stake), finding articles left by the tracklayer. The dog will be marked on how accurately they track. Tracks are approx half a mile long and have corners and angles, not just a straight line. Tracking surface can be grass, wheat, rape, plough or any other crop.
Search - Small articles, are placed in an square area, 15yds X 15yds or 25yds X 25yds (depending on the stake), the dog then has to locate them and retrieve them back to the handler who must work the dog from out side the square.

Agitlity
3 foot clear jump, 9 foot long jump and six foot scale, (height reductions up toUDex for small dogs) all jumps must be done under control, the dog must go over the scale wait in a position you have previously nominated (sit Down or stand), then return over the scale when commanded.

Control

On lead heelwork at 3 paces, slow, normal and fast, through left, right about turns and halts, without speaking to the dog, except to command when setting off from a halt (CD Only)
Off lead heelwork, as above but in all stakes
Sit Stay 2 minutes handler out of sight (CD only)
Down Stay 10 minutes handler out of sight (all stakes)
Retrieve a dumbell(except PD & TD Stakes)
SpeakPD & TD Stakes only
Formal recall (CD Only)
Steadiness to gun all stakes except CD
Sendaway To send the dog out to a point nominated by the judge, which may or may not have a marker ie a cone or pole, in TD & PD there will also be redirections, sending the dog left, right and back.

Then of course the is the PD stake which has loads of other exersises in the bitework/manwork.

You have to gain a qualifying mark in each section, and overall to move on to the next stake.


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## katiefranke

Thanks, thats great!! So for me with maggie, a 13 month old border collie, steadiness to gun is the one i would be most worried about not being able to do! she is actually pretty good with noises as i am conscious that BCs can be quite sound sensitive, so i have always made sure she is ok around all sorts of noises, but not had much opportunity for guns!

we do have an army shooting not too far away from us and every weekend they are practicing you can hear the gunfire carried on the wind - it is not really that loud but carries and echos, so i guess that would be a start!

I know she cant compete until a bit older, but am guessing we can start all the training whenever we want - we just have to be careful with the jumps for a bit?

I remember hearing they were bringing in an Introductory Stake or something this year to be a lower grade to encourage new people to the sport too...

So what are all the different stakes and titles then? How do they progress?


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## Jenny Olley

Yes you can start training whenever you are ready, but she will need to be 18 months on the closing date to enter a competition.

steadiness to gunshot is only a starter pistol, most judges use the short shots, occasionally they use longer ones which are louder.

Yes the introductory stake started this year, the jumps are lower, the stays shorter, and you can speak to the dog during heelwork etc also you don't need to get all the articles from the search square.

Stakes
You move up the stakes by gaining a qualifying mark which is a minimum of 70% in each section and 80% overall, the sections are split into nosework, agility and control.

introductory -new one started this year, a few of the trials are running them

CD (companion dog) open. this is a non-qualifying stake, so therefore not compulsory.
CDex this has a search square but no tracking, when you qualify you can use the letters CDex after your dogs KC name.
UD (utility dog) open, the qualifying stake to allow you to enter UDex, this is the first tracking stake, all the stakes after this have tracking.
UDex, qualification gives the UDex after KC name.
WD (working dog) open, qualification allows entry into WDex
WDex, qualification gives the WDex after KC name.
PD (patrol dog) open and TD (tracking dog) open I have put these together as people often get mixed up and think one is higher than the other, when infact they are both the same level and gaining 2 qualifications in each plus 2 WDex's allows you to enter the ticket stakes. Some people compete at both.
TDex & PDex qualification gives the dog the letters after their name, winning qualifies you to go to the KC championships, which are held one a year.
So the little working sheepdog above is Newborough snowdrop CDex, UDex, WDex, TDex.


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## katiefranke

Thanks so much for all the info! :thumbup:

wow, snowdrop's titles are pretty impressive for such a cute pooch!  I have seen her piccie in your icon for quite some time and always think she is a very good-looking dog - really nice coat and markings on her 

so where would I find local training? I did try and google it but found it hard to find anywhere? and then there was a site that said in surrey there was surrey dog training society holding some trials, but then i googled them and couldnt find any info!


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## Jenny Olley

Thank you for the compliments about Dolly.

Working trials training, often harder to find than hens teeth, we train loads of new people for working trials, but as we are in Yorkshire thats not a lot of good to you.
My husbands been down a couple of times to compete at surrey, but it is a long way.
I'm on a working trials email group, so I have just sent a message asking for anyone training in surrey, I'll le tyou know if anyone gets back with any ideas.


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## katiefranke

Jenny Olley said:


> Thank you for the compliments about Dolly.
> 
> ...I have just sent a message asking for anyone training in surrey, I'll le tyou know if anyone gets back with any ideas.


awww, Dolly is a cute name - we almost called maggie dolly 

oh thanks so much, thats great! look forward to hearing if they come back with something :thumbup:


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## Jenny Olley

Sorry no response yet, it is a bit of a sleepy email list, there is a trial in surrey in July, I can give you the base venue and dates if you are interested in popping down to have a look, you could even make some contacts there regards training.


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## katiefranke

Jenny Olley said:


> Sorry no response yet, it is a bit of a sleepy email list, there is a trial in surrey in July, I can give you the base venue and dates if you are interested in popping down to have a look, you could even make some contacts there regards training.


Yeah thats a good idea, thank you!


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## Jenny Olley

Details are as follows:
Surrey Dog Training Society Championship Working Trial

Date 8th to 10th July, 2010

Base Venue; Village Hall, Felday Glade, Holmbury St. Mary, Surrey, RH5 6PG.
this is where everyone reports, then they will be told where they need to be to do their work, tracking, control and agility etc. If you go in and say you are interested in working trials and could you watch some, they will direct you to where you need to be or get someone to take you.
there will be no problems watching the control & agility and the PD patrol work on ticket day, however sometimes they don't like you watching the tracking.

The stakes running at this trial are 

Introductory & CD on 9th & 10th

WD & PD - WD competitors will do all there work in one day, PD competitors will do their track on one day and the patrol round on the last day of the trial, the control round could be on either their tracking or patrol day.
Just realised better ask my husband if he wants to enter PD.


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## katiefranke

thats great! thanks for all your help


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## Jenny Olley

Just had some info through that ranmore DTC are running an introduction to working trials weekend 28th & 29th august, there is no info on who to ring but I have Pm'd you the phone no & email address of the trials manager from Surrey hopefully she will point you in the right direction.


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## Sheila in SA

Hi I live in South Africa and enter my dog into IWT. From reading below it seems our rules are slightly different from yours. CD (companion Dog) doesn't include any tracking at all. It is the basic heelwork. Retrieve a dumbell, Sendaway and a recall as well as the three jumps (A frame, Long and clear) there is then a handler-scented article in the area search square. No sit stay but there is a 10 minute out-of-sight down stay.

TDI includes a track with a strangers article at the end, it is 1 hr old with at least three angles in it - the rest of the work is pretty well the same as CD but with raised jumps and 4 judge-scented articles in the area search square. The Sendaway is longer

TDII increases the age of the track and the length of the track (I think it is 800 metres) , has two articles on it and has 5 turns, one of which can be more or less than 90o the sendawy is longer still

TDIII is a 3 hr track with at least 9 turns and cross tracks. There is no indication pole at the start, there is just an area pointed out to the handler. No jumps at all in TD III. The dog also had to do a quartering search for a "criminal" and indicate to the handler where he is hiding. The dog must cover the whole area (50 metres either side as the handler advances). The area search, stay and heelwork and retrieve is the same as the other stakes, but there is also redirection from the sendaway.

All stakes are "steady to gunshot". Unfortunately we do not get much in the way of easy tracking grounds so we track in all sorts of conditions with mole holes, snakes (in summer) and occasionaly dead animals on track, lots of brush and often deep holes so you have to watch where you are going as well as your dog LOL


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## Jenny Olley

We don't have any tracking in CD either, just a search square with 3 articles that the dogs look for off lead.

Tracking is great though isn't it, what sort of dog do you have ?


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## Sheila in SA

Hi Jenny,

I have German Shepherds and one little terrier cross (she doesn't work at all). One of my dogs in an Obedience Champion and we are entering two TDII stakes in July plus an ITT 3.

My young boy is a year old and hasn't entered anything as yet - he is pretty wild being a really High Drive dog so I am trying to teach him self control at the moment, but his heelwork and recall are doing really great.


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## Jenny Olley

It all sounds very interesting Sheila, its good to hear about the different variations in trials in different countries.

Are German Shepherds the most popular dogs to compete with in SA, border collie or WSD are the most popular in britain, but there are stiil quite a lot of Shepherds and Labradors.


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## Jenny Olley

Whats an ITT3 please


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## Sheila in SA

Hi Jenny, there seem to be all breeds competing, Australian Cattle dogs, Australian Shepherds, Border Collies, Goldens, Rotties.... we have one woman who has qualified her Papillon in TD III, ITT is International Tracking Trials. It is a stake where the whole test is just a track. Obviously the higher you go the longer the track and the longer it ages. It goes up to ITT 8.

Regards Sheila


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## Jenny Olley

That sounds good, good luck, my next trial is in about 3 weeks. in the uk smaller dogs can only work up to UDex, because after that all jumps are full sized.


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