Third NW3 Trial

We were so lucky to get in this trial, which was supposed to be in Chehalis (30 minute drive), but was moved to a church in Tumwater, just 12 minutes from my driveway. We got to the trial site early, so we went over to Home Depot for a long potty walk. It was a beautifully cool breezy day, with the occasional light drizzle.

Remember, at this level we don't find out how many hides there are in each search area until the end of the day. In exterior, container and vehicles there can be 1 to 3 hides. In interior, there are multiple rooms, each can have 0 to 3 hides, and each room is an independent search, where you call "finish" for each. It's nerve-wracking to wait all day to know how you did.  The only time you know how you did is if you call a false alert and the judge says "no".

I took several pictures of each search area during the walk through and have edited them together to give you an idea of what the searches looked like.  Some are better than others.


Exterior search - 2:30 allowed. It was a medium size area including a small paved courtyard, a grass stretch and areas with beauty bark/rock. Gimme moved up the right side and across the end, then turned left cutting off the far grassy area to sniff a utility cover in the middle. She then went directly to the wall and quickly worked the edge of the building and alerted. I caught her look before the paw, called "alert" and was right. I walked her around the edge twice more, being sure to catch the far grassy area. I also took Gimme up the middle twice, to catch the deep center crack and a drain. She was happy to sniff everything again and even stopped in a couple of places, but never detailed. So, with great trepidation I called "finish" and left.

Her time was 2:11.85 and Pronounced. The judge's comments were:

"Very nice, thorough search - Great energy and alert from dog. Well done!"

In his debrief he commented about handlers not searching the middle of the

search area, even though there was a deep crack and small drain in which

a hide could be placed. He said only 3 teams searched this area, so I'm
sure our search of the middle is why we got Pronounced.

Interior search - 2:30 allowed for each room.

Room 1 - She found 1 hide at the base of the music stand, then false alerted on a cabinet ("x" at the end of the room). It looked like an indication to me, but she may have smelled something interesting and just looked at me to see what I thought. That's what I don't like about "the look" as an indication; sometimes a look is just a look. I need to get serious about training the sustained-nose-touch as an indication, since it can't look like something else. I forgot to say "finish", which would be more points off, but it's a moot point since a false alert in any search means we can't title.

Her time was 49.9 seconds, 2 faults.

 

Room 2 - She found 2 hides in the second room.  The first hide was in the stack of chairs by the door on the far wall and the other was in the wheel of the AV cabinet, a threshold hide inside the door (and just outside the view of this photo montage).  We scanned some more and I sent her to some nooks and such. She dutifully checked and then gave me the "stupid ideas" look, so I called "finish".

Her time was 2:14.38, 1 fault. Score sheet was changed 
 from 0 fault to 1 fault. Hmmmm.

Room 3 - She found 3 hides in the third room, fairly quickly, I called "finish" and we were done there.  The hides were on the fan on the far wall, in the handle of a blue tote under the table to the left and on the edge of a small trash can just out of sight on the right side of the picture.

Her time was 1:48.51, 1 fault. 
Total interior time 6:32.89.

During the debrief, this judge said, "if you waited for your dog's paw to come off the ground before calling alert, then you got a fault." Basically she is admitting she faulted any paw lift, which is not in accordance with NACSW rules. So it's probably a good thing Gimme and I had a false alert or I would have raised a stink, asking to have the videos reviewed. I volunteered on Friday and since my migraine got better, I even stayed through awards. I noticed she did not make the same comment during the debrief Friday; I assume the certifying official talked to her. I doubt I will enter under this judge again, probably a moot point since it's so hard to get into NW3 trials.

Vehicle search - 2:30 allowed. Gimme raced down the right side (as we faced them), stopped at the back wheel of the first vehicle (truck) and indicated. She ignored the second vehicle and went to the license plate on the third vehicle (van) and alerted there. We came up the other side, went around the second vehicle once, then I had her humor me to check the near side of the truck. I called "finish" and we were outta there.

Her time was 1:07.56 and Pronounced. The judge's comments were:

"Excellent overall search, alerts, teamwork! Well done!" 

After a break for lunch we did the Container search - 2:30 allowed. (the blue bar in the foreground is the startline)  They were all plastic containers. Gimme found one hide and with a deft bap of her paw exploded the box, breaking the lid in pieces! She was pretty impressed with herself. Cheap damn box.

Her time was 1:01.03. The judge's comments were: 
"Rambunctious to say the least - got the hide tho. Good job!"

This was our third attempt at NW3. For the two prior attempts we only got 1 search correct. This time we got 3 out of 4 and two of them Pronounced. Clearly solid improvement.  I'm liking it.

On Friday I was there to volunteer and during lunch I got to sit with the judge who liked Gimme so much. He remembered her and remembered details about her searches. I asked him about his background with detection dogs and got to learn a lot from his experiences. He had great answers to my many questions; I could have listened to him for the rest of the day. When it was time to get back to volunteering I had to shovel down my lunch... I guess I forgot to eat while he was talking. I don't recall ever forgetting to eat, eh...