UKC trial - New Title

Saturday

Master PreTrial - Gimme did not pass this. She alerted on a box four boxes past the odor box, despite going back and forth and checking them all thoroughly. I think she may have been smelling lingering odor from one of the three prior PTs - which are much more familiar scents. J'Anna says Myrrh is much harder than the other odors.  She thinks it's heavy, while I'm betting it's less volatile. Gimme has only been exposed to Myrrh twice and did very well, but there were no lingering odor distractions. I guess I'll actually have to train it, eh.  [especially now that we move up to Masters in the interior element]

Superior Containers - Gimme Q'd for fourth place in 38.07 seconds. I thought sure she would have faulted, but she didn't. There is supposed to be a distraction, but she gave no sign she noticed it.  J'Anna's dog false alerted on the first box off the startline, so it was likely there. The first place dog was 11 seconds faster than we were. We had 3 minutes for this search.

　


　









Superior Vehicles - There were 5 vehicles, one of which was a red self-propelled cart. Gimme went off the start line angling right to two vehicles. She didn't' act interested, and then pulled me to the cart and indicated off the back of it. From there I had her finish searching the first two cars then we went to the other two. Gimme showed interest between them on the white vehicle, then pulled me around the front to the other side, where she went back and forth briefly before indicating on the back wheel. Gimme got 3rd place with this Q in 2:15.07. It didn't seem like it took that long - we had 4 minutes to search. The first place dog was a full minute faster.

Sunday

Superior Interiors - Gimme Q'd for second place and a new title. She finished this search in 1:15.06 and we got favorable comments all day - there were a lot of people watching. The first place dog beat us with just 9 seconds. There were two search areas, with two hides and one distraction. Gimme paid no attention to the distraction, a Triscuit cracker at the leading edge of the first table in the first search area. I learned we could leave one area and go to the other whenever, provided we first did the search areas in order and starting between the cones. The first area was a 64' long line of tables next to the wall and about 8' wide.


Then perpendicular to the far end was a slightly rectangular area with some benches and a stack of trashcans.



We started in the first area, walking the length of the table and Gimme never brought her nose up off the floor. We walked back down the line and she did the same thing, so we went on to the second area. I really shouldn't have bothered with the second walk down the line, since I knew I could go back to the first area if we didn't find two hides in the second area. If I hadn't wasted the time on a second walk, we likely would have gotten first place, since there was less than 9 seconds separating us.

In the second area, Gimme passed through the area to the back side, then up between those tables against the wall to the end of the last bench, where she alerted under the end/edge of the seat. From there we checked the other two benches, then went to check out the other bench and trashcans. Gimme alerted at the bottom of the trash can (the hide was in an indentation on the bottom, a grip for fingers when dumping the trash). This was a second place Q and finished Gimme's Superior Interior (SI) title.




start line 2 large cones at right

Superior Exterior -


red arrow to hide on bench pile

The judge put the hides exactly where I thought they'd be. During the walk-through I noticed a pile of 3 fist-sized rocks at the base of a tree, clean and looking like they hadn't been there long. And then next to the wall in the corner was a large pile of benches and tables, an obvious place for a hide. When we started the search, Gimme got quickly around the trees to an orange cone and the judge said it marked a spot where a dog had peed. I told Gimme "don't even think about it". She gave me an annoyed look for interrupting her in the process of reading pee-mail, but she did leave it.

red arrows show hides
yellow arrow points to pee cone behind rock



The judge said the benches and between them
and the wall, but not including the wall, was all in play.
Clearly only the smallest dogs could get in there,
so I was sure there wouldn't be a hide there.

As we went around the trees again I saw her look at the rock pile and then obviously veer away from them. As we moved a little further, she made a sudden bee-line to the bench/table pile and alerted within 2 seconds. I was still pretty certain there was a hide under the rock pile, which was just 2 feet from the pee cone. So I took her around and had her check all four utility covers in the ground, then around a big rock and back to the trees, presenting the rock pile again. Gimme indicated, but I wasn't fast enough calling it to suit her, so she swiped the rocks away, exposing the q-tips. She looked at me, looked at the hide and then rolled her eyes and I managed to get "alert" out before she had to be even more obvious. Poor Gimme. It's a good thing she loves me or she might have traded me in long ago...

Even with my doltery, Gimme finished this search in 1:52.08 for third place, we were allotted 5 minutes. When I was checking times, one of the Division A people was bragging about how all the Division A qualifiers had faster times than the fastest Division B qualifier. I just had to point out that all the Division B dogs had to deal with the pee in the search area, left by one of the A dogs. It takes a lot of time to maneuver around a search area, get your dog to all the hides and not present the pee contamination over and over again.

It was a really nice weekend. And Gimme gave me a very nice Mother's Day present.