AKC Scentwork trial - New Titles

I wasn't planning to enter any more trials this year, but this was close and I couldn't resist. I've been wanting to complete the requirements for DCA's Versatility Award and getting an Advanced level AKC nosework title would do it. So I entered.

Saturday

The site was okay, but it was unbelievably cold. They said they were going to go by run order, but it didn't last. Since AKC allows volunteers to run dogs, they have priority, which throws everything off. They also have 5 wait stations, which means the dogs are kept waiting a long time. The good thing is they've set it up so you run two elements back-to-back.

I saw a gap for the interior/exterior line and got in it. Three others had the same plan, but I got there first. Since it was so cold, I made Gimme wear her sweater while we waited. She doesn't like it; says it makes her look like a bag lady. I say nothing could ever diminish her natural style and beauty. I also took thick pad I'd made from a folded blanket for her to sit/stand/lay on.

Advanced Interior 1 - the first hide, right from the start, was on the interior part of the table leg structure. then she was distracted and wanted to go back to the car. I encouraged her and got her around the area and she found the second hide on the side of the little grandstand. She did this in 0:54.15 and would have gotten 5th place. She needs one more leg to title.

Advanced Exterior 1 - Gimme immediately went to the fuzzy blue toy. I encouraged her to search and she moved away briefly before going back to the toy. I moved her farther away and she found her first hide on the parking divider. Then back to the toy. I asked her to search more and took her toward the other end of the search area and she found the second hide on the sandwich sign. As part of her reward I let her check out the toy again as I gathered up our stuff. This Q finished her Scent Work Exterior Advanced (SEA) title. Even with all the time she wasted checking out the toy, our time was 1:13.78, with 2:00 allowed.

I checked on the line for buried and containers many times and finally went to the car for awhile. A bit later when I checked on the line, it was gone! So I ran to get Gimme, quickly did warm-up boxes and we were able to get a single pee on a strip of grass.

Novice Buried 1 - Gimme kind of dithered around, saying "nothing to smell here." So after two trips around the 6 containers, I started directing her "check it" to each one. When we got to the third one, she really became interested in it. I could have called it then, but I waited for her to make a decision and indicate. She was right and finished her Scent Work Buried Novice (SBN) title. Her time was 0:54.13 with 2:00 allowed. This was also the fourth novice element, so it finished her Scent Work Novice (SWN) title too.

Advanced Container 1 - We were not successful in containers. Gimme went around briefly, then false alerted on a container. I failed to work our system, and called "alert", so we NQd. It wasn't even a container with a distraction in it. The distraction was another toy on the floor. It wasn't her kind of toy, so Gimme ignored it until after I took her to a recovery container. My bad for not working our system.

Check-in for the afternoon trial was supposed to be at 11:30. An hour later and they still hadn't run all the dogs from the morning trials. I was glad I only had one class in the afternoon, so we'd get home at a decent hour.

Advanced Interior 2 - Gimme was hardly able to search. I could smell odor 15' from the startline and the nearest hide was 10' in the area, so they did something wrong preparing the odor. "Odor bombs" make it very difficult for dogs to find source because the area is too saturated, so there's no subtlety to investigate. Gimme went to the toy a couple of times and it wasn't even her kind of toy. Gimme showed a lot of interest in a spot on the railing (orange arrow) right at the edge of the ring. After several trips around she again showed prolonged interest in the railing, right behind the refrigerator, so I called alert and was wrong. Actually the hide was about 4' away on the railing - obviously it was channeling. When I knew where it was I showed it to her; it was so strong she wouldn't put her nose up to it. The other hide was on the base of the wheelbarrow and she sort of sniffed toward it from 18" away. You gotta figure it was awfully strong for her to be repelled by it.

Finishing novice buried means she has all the novice element titles, so she also earned her Scent Work Novice title (SWN). Three titles in one day - yeah Gimme.

Sunday

Same cold and chaos. I only ran one set of searches back-to-back. Our other three classes were split in too many class levels, so it just didn't work out.

Advanced Interior 1 - Despite a half hour wait in line, Gimme did this beautifully finding both hides quickly and indicating cleanly. The first hide was on the base of the table holder at the wheel. The other hide was under a bunch of framed pictures in a grey plastic tub. Gimme practically stood on her head to get her nose to source. She didn't pay any attention to the toy distraction until we were leaving. She was sure she should get to take any toy present when she completes a title. Gimme had a nice time of 0:43.21 for Third Place (2:30 max allowed time) and a new title - Scent Work Interior Advanced (SIA).

We got into buried and container searches after another half hour in line.

Advanced Buried 1 - Apparently I have the old rules and the new rules took affect 10/1. So our first try at advanced buried was under water. Fortunately Dorothy set up a couple of water hides for us last summer, so I believed Gimme could do it. She found the first hide pretty quickly (third one on the right). Then we went around a couple of times. She showed more interest in one container, but never indicated. The third time was a charm, she indicated and was right. Nice first leg with a time of 1:17.03 out of max time of 3:00.

Advanced Container 1 - Gimme was pretty fast in containers. We had a brief moment checking out the toy, but it wasn't a type she liked and she left it easily (she would play with it if there was nothing better). She found the container at the far end first. Then on our second trip around she found the other hide (front right). This finishes our Scent Work Container Advanced (SCA) title. She did this in 37 seconds, with 2 minutes allowed.

Excellent Exterior 1 - One of the club's workers came through and said the search was set and ready to go, no waiting. So I raced to get Gimme and got over there first in line. After we waited 20 minutes for the search to start, the judge decided to eat lunch and walk her dog, so we went back to the car. Later after the class started there were only 3 in line, so I raced to get Gimme again. By the time I got there, we were 8th in line. I timed it and it was averaging over 5 minutes per dog, so we returned to the car again. Later we got in line again and were next to the last for the search. We waited half an hour and were next in line to search, when a judge showed up to run her dog and we were bumped. It was again almost time for us to run when a club worker showed up to run and we were bumped again! Overall we waited 45 minutes and Gimme was clearly frustrated, so I did not expect her to do well. However, in hindsight, she had a LOT of time and opportunity to pee while we waited, so she probably couldn't have squeezed out another drop in the lush grass of our search area.

The search area was a large section of the area behind the grandstands with 2 large strips of grass, a sidewalk between them, the grandstands and two staircases on our right and a fence on our left. Gimme dragged me to the far end of the search area and quickly indicated on the base of the far staircase. On our way back she moved to the other side of the sidewalk and found a hide in the hinge of the gate. Then as we worked our way around again, she found the third hide under the edge of broken concrete. Despite the frustration of our very long wait, Gimme was all business and did a great job on her first excellent exterior leg in 2:02.90 (4:00 max time), for Third Place.

Excellent Interior 2 - In the afternoon we got our first stab at this. There are two search areas, with a total of 3 hides. Neither area can be blank, so you know you have either 1 or 2 hides in each. In this case we had 3:00 per search area.

          In area 1, Gimme swept out to the right and quickly got to the back wall and then followed it left to where it ended behind the table. There were chairs and totes there, blocking access to a little room. Gimme quickly indicated at the edge of a tote. Then we moved around the table and continued down the wall. She wanted to go between the table and the wall, but I couldn't follow her, so we moved back and around the table. I thought we'd go to the garage door, but Gimme turned aside to the two chairs and indicated the one close to the startline. In 1:04.02 she found both hides. This told me there could only be one hide in the second area.

          In area 2, Gimme again swept right,  curved left to the back wall and then followed it to the table. She indicated on the second table, finishing this search in 28.34 seconds. Gimme's combined search time was 1:32.36 and earned her a nice First Place! The second place dog was 13 seconds behind us. It was a lovely way to end the trial.

It was a great weekend. We Q'd in 8 out of 10 runs. Gimme brought home 5 new titles (total title count is now 75), with 3 placements and legs toward three higher level titles.
Way to go Gimme!

In addition, Gimme's indications were clear, with no excessive pawing. Perhaps being a new mother brings out the gentler side of her. For the most part she handled the waiting well. I think having the pad for her to sit/lay on helps. It gives her an anchor and I rewarded her a lot for "chillaxin" on her pad. Given her condition, I was pleased she was able to deal with the frustration of waiting as well as she did.

As a personal brag, I remembered to say "finished" all 10 times I needed to.

And possibly more astonishing, I restrained the urge to deliver a well-deserved tongue lashing to the careless woman with her ill-mannered dog who rudely informed me "You know, AKC doesn't welcome reactive dogs." This was her response when I asked her to not come any closer with her dog. I reminded her AKC's policy was to put the responsibility on the owner of the reactive dog to avoid an incident, but it does not limit their right to tell an inconsiderate dog owner to keep their rude dog at a reasonable distance. I do have to admit I smugly enjoyed knowing she had to watch Gimme lay politely on her pad while she and her ill-behaved dog waited in line behind us for the next 25 minutes. Perhaps my smugness wasn't my finest moment, but all-in-all, those who know me, know I did well in the face of needless provocation. <eg>