Saturday Level 1 Containers trial
Gimme did an awesome job on Saturday, getting her L1C with a full titling round (means the “leg” from her last trial wasn’t needed). She was focused and determined, doing a great job. Her overall time was 59.93 seconds for 15th place overall (she’d have been 8th place based on time alone, i.e. without the fault).
Our first search was 6 boxes on the benches in a boy’s locker room. She was briefly distracted by heading toward the toilet stalls. I called her back and she walked down the benches, indicating the fifth box. Even with the sniff toward the toilets she finished in 8.34 seconds for 7th place.
The second search was 8 boxes in a bunkhouse… with not much floor space. Gimme sniffed one of the bunk beds then got right down to indicating the box. She pawed it lightly, but it was such a flimsy box it crushed. She didn’t get a fault. This search was 24.26 seconds and 12th place.
Her third search was 9 triangle shaped shipping tubes along a sidewalk in a tiny courtyard. She walked right up the left side, briefly crossed to the right side and then went straight to hit on the end box. Gimme finished this search in 5.57 seconds for 2nd place. First place was just ½ second faster!
The fourth search was our most challenging search. It was a large open area with just 20 boxes set in a random pattern. Gimme doesn't get excited about boxes mixed in with other stuff, but show her a field of just boxes and she goes into full demolition mode. In this case stepping on most boxes, crushing five with a full throttle pounce and demolishing the odor box. She earned a fault here. Even with her style points, she finished the search in 21.76 seconds for 25th place. Not counting the fault, she was actually the 14th fastest.
Sunday Level 2 Interiors trial
This was another great bunch of searching for Gimme. She was focused and determined as always. There were three searches with a total of 7 hides. You have to get 75% of the hides to get a qualifying leg, which in this case means 6 out of 7. This we did. Twelve dogs titled, exactly half of the entries and 8 more got a leg toward a title.
Our first search was a small cabin with just two rooms, bunk/living area and dressing area, with one hide. Gimme found it quickly in the leg of a bunk, but I didn’t call “finish” until prompted by the judge. Our time shows up at 52.34. (Gimme was a LOT faster than our time would indicate)
The second search was an identical cabin with two hides. This time I did remember to say the “f-word”. There was a hide under the edge of a bunk and the other was in the baseboard next to a closed door (in the dressing room). He assessed our time as 1:14.59 for 19th place and gave us a fault (Gimme was a LOT faster than our time would indicate). Our time here shows as 1:14.59.
I don’t know why, but the second search shows a fault and the first one didn’t. I’m sure the fault should have been with the first search where the judge prompted me to say the f-word. So either the score room erred and entered the data wrong or the judge wrote it in later and put it on the wrong score sheet.
Our third search was a tough one, a four room cabin with 4 hides. We entered through the kitchen and I held up in the doorway hoping Gimme would come back to the threshold, which she did briefly, but didn’t commit to anything. From there she got her first hide under the edge of the couch, second hide on the leg of the bed in one bedroom and the third hide under the edge of the bed in the other bedroom. She tried going back to the hide in the living room, but I only thanked her and reminded her to find me another.
Then she went back to the kitchen and spent a lot of time detailing there. She sniffed around the refrigerator (light blue) and stove (black) and between the stove and trash can (green oval), but didn’t indicate. Then she spent a LOT of time at the doors under the sink. They had no handles, but instead had slots cut in the doors and she sniffed those a lot. Being a Level 2 trial, there was the possibility of an inaccessible hide, but she never really committed to this. I didn’t want to block her ability to leave the kitchen if she wanted and ended up standing where you see the “X”. I tried to move a bit in the small space (indicated by the purple arced line). When they called the "30 second" warning, I counted to ten and then called "alert", hoping she was close enough, not. Odor was actually between the trash can and the stove, so I was effectively standing between her and odor. In hindsight I should have edged over to stand next to the entry door.
Another point – I thought we could only get one fault per search and no more than two faults overall to qualify for a leg in an element trial. Gimme got two faults on her last search and three total and yet it shows under her stats page as a qualifying leg. So I must be mistaken. I'll ask Dorothy in class tonight. She's working on becoming a certifying official, so I'm sure she'll know.
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