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>

UKC nosework trial, 4 New Titles

This trial was less than 1:00 drive from home at Emerald Downs. We've been there for trials twice before. Gimme already has her Superior Interior (SI) title and just needed one leg each for container, vehicle and exterior titles. If she got all three, she would also get her Superior Nosework title. So there was a possibility of 4 titles.

 

Right before our morning container search, Gimme stepped on a blackberry vine and started limping. It kind of came and went. She was fine walking up to the staging area, but the longer she was on her feet the worse it got.

Container search - 3:00 to search and 2 hides. Gimme was pretty distracted by her owie, but managed to pull it off, completing her Superior Container (SC) title. She even got second place with a time of 1:05. The first place dog found both hides in 14 seconds! I would love to see them work.

The judge asked to talk to me and I explained what happened. She let the Q stand, but said if Gimme was still limping in the afternoon she wouldn't be allowed to search in vehicles. Certainly reasonable... Another competitor gave me some arnica and I did energy work on her paw. Then we just had to wait. Fortunately by the time of her next search, her paw was mostly back to normal. I could see her gait was a little "off", but she wasn't limping.

 

Vehicle search video - 3:30 to search and 2 hides. Gimme did a nice job, finding the first hide behind the front license plate of the black vehicle (far left). From there she went here and there, but wasn't finding the second one. I realized she had gotten to the far side of the silver vehicle (far right), but hadn't searched it. You can see in the video as she goes there, I'm actually between her and the hide. I asked her to humor me and search there again. When we get in there the second time I was still between her and the hide, but she catches the drift of it and snaps back to indicate. This completed her Superior Vehicle (SV) title. She got second place with a time of 1:30.

 

We came back on Sunday afternoon for our last search.

 

Exterior search - The search area was in one of the horse barns and we had 4:30 to find 2 hides. We had a long aisle with 4 of the 5 stalls along side it (tan), the open sided attached shed (brown) and the horse washing station (grey). This seemed larger than 1500 sqft., but I could be wrong. In any case the time to search it was generous. There was a bit of fresh poop as an added attraction. 

 

Gimme was immediately drawn into the shed area, but was ready to leave it after only searching the far half of it. I asked her to check the near end and we were rewarded by finding our first hide (see red arrow). 

Gimme was not interested in the stalls, only looking at them as she went by. We went out into the washing area and she wasn't interested in any of it. I asked her to check the pipe/faucet (blue dot), which she did but was uninterested in it. We went back into the main aisle and I got her into second stall (from the start line) and only got a perfunctory sniff. I asked her to go into the third stall and she was quite interested in a large hole (nose level, large black half-circle in the diagram) in the wall, but didn't try to make anything of it. 

 

As we left the stall I was trying to take her to the fourth stall, but she became interested in the wall between the aisle and the washing area. She began with the far end, sniffing it, started to go to the far side, but quickly came back. As she got to the other half she began strong detailing and finally indicated up under the top edge for our second hide. (see red arrow in second picture)

 

Three of the four dogs to NQ indicated low on the wall, so her precision was a great boon. This completed her Superior Exterior (SE) title. She got another second place with a time of 1:56.

 

These three searches mean we have all four elements at the Superior level, so Gimme earned her Superior Nosework (SN) title. One weekend, four new titles. This brings Gimme's total title count to 70. YAY GIMME!!!!!

NW3 Trial

The site is a nice elementary school in Carson, WA. It was supposed to be a 2:30 drive, but turned into 3:00 with construction. I got a good parking spot. There was a bit of a challenge because the school was double-booked between a million soccer people and us. So flexibility was the game of the day.

Exterior - 2:30, 1-3 hides:
From the start line in the doorway, Gimme turned right to a chair in the corner. She detailed and quickly alerted. From there we checked the whole area, some things twice.  I was just sure there had to be a hide in the table and chairs.  While she was interested in different spots, she never detailed anything so I called Finish with 14 seconds to spare.

The one thing I hate about NW3 is not-knowing if you passed a search until the end of the day. Based on Gimme's behavior, I was reasonably certain we got exteriors.

Vehicles - 2:30, 1-3 hides:
This search was supposed to run right after exterior, but it had to be moved because the soccer people kept parking in the middle of the search area. Trying to keep them out would be a full time job, so they moved the vehicles into a courtyard with gates. This is basically what it looked like.

Gimme went up the left (outside the blue car) in her usual dash. She went around the back of the red car then turned at the back bumper and went up to alert on the front license plate. From there we went around the blue car on the outside, crossed over between them to go around the gray car. When we got back to the middle she showed a bit of interest in the pink-dotted area of the blue car. She didn't settle down on anything and was really willing to move on. We went around it a couple of times and she was giving me "hopeful alerts". Those are the ones where she is hoping to con me out of a cookie even though there's nothing there. I didn't want to talk her into an alert where there wasn't anything, so I called "finish" on a wing and a prayer, hoping I was right. We ended with 11 seconds to spare and the judge gave us "pronounced". In hindsight, there was obviously scent from the hide on the front bumper of teh red car drifting onto the front of the blue car.

At almost 3p.m., we still hadn't done interiors or containers. We were about 25 minutes out from interiors (it'd been running 8 minutes per dog since 10a.m.) and they'd just started containers.  They got a late start waiting for competitors to get through construction.  I got a lot of practice on patience. Fortunately Gimme and I like our own company...

These were really busy search areas, so all you get for a picture is a long panoramic strip of combined stills.  I took them in a counter-clockwise sweep, which starts at the right end of the strip.  You'll have to use your imagination.  It was challenging with all the chairs upended on the tables, it would be soooo easy to hit one and send a bunch crashing to the floor.

Interior 1 - 2:30, 0-3 hides:

Gimme dashed around the room and quickly found a hide under the edge of a chair. I belabored far too long and called "finish" just as the timer called "time", exactly 0.42 over time. Gimme did a great job. It is really hard for me to call finish, especially when there is only one hide - if you note my times in all our 1 hide searches, I wait right up to the end, but did better with 2 hide searches.

Interior 2 - 2:30, 0-3 hides:

There were two hides. The first was in a red clothes hamper at the right end of the room; Gimme got to it quickly. Then she searched around and found an inaccessible hide inside the white cabinet at the far end of the room. I even managed to call "alert" before she pawed the door. She did a little more searching and then went to the door, so I called "finish". We had 24 seconds to spare. See what I mean about doing better with a two hide search?

Interior 3 - 2:30, 0-3 hides:

I decided if she'd found a hide and wasn't actively detailing when I got the "30 seconds" warning - then I would call finish. Gimme found the only hide really quickly, on the wheel of a rolling podium. Then we scanned the room. When the timer called the warning, I called "finish" with 28 seconds to spare. Yay for me. It's always "Yay" for Gimme.

Containers - 2:30, 1-3 hides:
Gimme got to the start line easily, looked out at the search area and froze. She saw all the reflections and didn't know what to do. We had one other time when she was concerned about a gym floor and the reflection, but then she was able to search. This time she couldn't get past it. The lights were verrrrry bright and the floor was the shiniest I've ever seen. Plus the floor was a rather dark wood, which would tend to recede visually. I think she just couldn't tell where the floor was. This picture doesn't do justice to the visual impact, but if you look you can see how the reflections seem to float above the wood.

I encouraged her to walk with me and she did, but was slow and uncertain. I pointed at boxes, saying "check it" and she would lower her nose to them, but I never heard her breathe in. She wasn't searching. I called "finish" (with 1 second to spare) when it became apparent she couldn't work in this environment. I didn't even notice whether the timer gave a 30 second warning. The judge gave me a nice comment for how I worked with Gimme.

Some people think it's the slick floor (as did the judge), but I know better. When we had the experience before, they routed people through the gym to save time going from vehicles to exterior. The lights were off and all we had to see by was the light from both open doors. Gimme went through the area with no issue, so clearly she wasn't bothered by slickness. Yet later, when it was set up for the container search and all the lights were on, she froze. It wasn't as shiny/reflective as it was at Carson, so she was able to work through it.

I asked the certifying official if we could go into the gym for some training after the trial was done and she said we could. The lights are motion-sensor activated, so when we first went in the room only 2 lights came on and Gimme was fine. As we moved around, more and more lights came on and she got more and more concerned. So I'm certain I'm right in my assessment - it's a visual issue. I tend to think it's related to brain changes from her seizures, but maybe not. I gave her treats for moving around, but she only loosened up and moved naturally when I gave her all my treats, rapid fire, so we were able to end on a good note.

Overall I thought it was a good trial. This is the first time we've gotten through a trial with no faults. I learned a lot, but I'd still rather be dumber and more successful...

Nosework Trials - day 1 & 2

We had 2 days of AKC trialing and at the last minute got into the NACSW element trial on the third day.

Day 1 - AKC @ Argus Their trial management was different than anything I'd seen before, kinda first-come-first-serve, so it seemed chaotic. If Gimme Q'd in Novice buried both days, she'd get the novice buried title and the novice level scentwork title.

Advanced Containers - We had 2 hides and 2:00 to find them (on leash). Gimme did a great job she was fast and sure. A little bit heavy with the paws, but she didn't get a fault for it. She had a time of 24.25 seconds and got 1st place.

Advanced Interior - Here too we had 2 hides and 2:00 to find them (on leash). Gimme was really interested in leaving the search area to go down a narrow hallway (where the blue arrow points). It took her a little bit to find a hide under the footrest. Then she kept going around scanning, tried to go down the hallway twice more until we ran out of time. The judge showed me the other hide at the edge of the fireplace screen closest to the hallway (hidden behind people legs in the picture).

The door was open at the end of the hallway, so I think the airflow was pulling odor down the hallway. The door we came in was open between searches (allowing this air movement) and then closed during each search. Gimme wanted to follow the scent plume down the hallway and then she likely would have followed it to the hide, but I didn't support her (inhibited by the narrow hallway?). Bad me...

Novice Buried - This was novice, so only 1 hide and a generous 2:00 to find them (on leash). Gimme ran to the end of the search area and peed. The last wait station before the search was on gravel and the wait there was 5 minutes. Gimme tends to need a stress pee after any significant waiting (especially at a trial) and the search area was her first opportunity to get on grass after the wait on gravel. This ended any change of getting the novice buried and novice scentwork titles this weekend. We needed 2 buried Q's and only had the two tries. <pout>

Advanced Exterior - Again, 2 hides and 2:00 (on leash). At first Gimme wouldn't leave heel position to search, since I reflexively spoke sharply to her when she peed. I encouraged her to search and after a bit she did.  It may also be because I'd walked her right into the scent plume of the first hide and perhaps her odor obedience overcame her concern about my sharp words.  She was a little distracted by a toy, but left it quickly. She found the first hide under the edge of some trim on the building and then found another under a flower container. She finished the search in 1:29.47, earning 2nd place.

Day 2 - AKC @ Argus Since I was used to the first-come-first-serve it wasn't as challenging. Plus I told them I could volunteer after we searched, so we were bumped to the front of the line. All the volunteers were bumped to the beginning, but I think Sue put me first because she knew with my experience she could send me anywhere.

Advanced Containers - There were 2 hides and we were allowed 2:00 (on leash). Gimme did a great job she was fast and sure. Again a bit heavy with the paws, but no fault assessed. She had a time of 30.35 seconds and got 2nd place. The first place dog was exactly 10 seconds faster.

Advanced Interior - We had 2 hides and 3:00 (on or off leash). This was the only search of the weekend where she could be off-leash, so I let her go for it. She ran around a lot, scanning everything and not really settling anywhere. Then she went back to places she'd been and alerted first one, then two. The first hide was on a little shelf in the kitchenette and the other was under a cart edge under a table-desk in the main room (behind people legs). The judge asked me if she always went around to find each hide before telling me where they were. I told her it'd been an issue all along and we've worked on it with some progress, but not resolved. Her time was 1:39.87, she was 6th in the running. Sorry this picture is probably hard to decipher.

Novice Buried - 2 hides, 2:00 and on leash. Gimme was really fast, running around to check the six containers and then went back to the one she liked and indicated by turning it over. I thought the rolled bits of black plastic fencing on the top would discourage pawing and they did, but hitting it hard enough from the side to turn it over was not an improvement. Since we got a fault we were at the end of the running. Without the fault her FAST 9.44 seconds would have been 2nd place.

I was suspicious of the judge's largess giving us only a regular fault, since I'd just read the rules the night before, so I checked them. We shouldn't have gotten a Q for this, since it was a "significant disruption" of the search area and should have been an non-qualifying-fault. But the judge's decision stands, it's a gift and I'll take it. There is a saying: "The judge giveth and the judge taketh away."  There have been calls I thought were unfair, so this gift makes up for it a little bit.

Advanced Exterior - We had 2 hides and 3:00 (on leash). Gimme wasted a lot of time playing with a toy in the search area and I encouraged her repeatedly to leave it. She found the first hide under an upturned bucket - then went back to the toy. I got her to leave it again and she then went to find the hide under the chair, then immediately back to the toy once she got her treats. She's pretty certain if a toy is available she should get to have it for finding hides. Her time was 56.07 seconds, she was 6th in the running; she probably would have gotten 3rd or 4th place if they didn't count the time playing with the toy. This is why I encourage Dorothy to leave the toys on the floor during class - Gimme needs to learn to work through it and she is much better than she was, but we have a way's to go.

It wasn't our best weekend, but coming away with 6 qualifying runs (out of 8) isn't anything to sneeze at either. There will be lots of title possibilities at our next AKC trial (we need one Q each for novice buried, advanced containers and advanced exteriors to get 4 titles).

Pictures

Clearly I'm behind again.

This picture is Gimme's haul from the UKC nosework trial of two weeks ago.  She came away with 4 qualifying runs, two fourth placements, one third placement, one second place and a new title.  Gimme doesn't care about ribbons.  She cares about her new toy, Terry the Pterodactyl.  She played with Terry a bit at first, but has since gone back to the Lenny the Leopard.  Lenny is her baby for the current false pregnancy.  At least they both have spots, eh. 

=====<<--->>=====

On Sunday I got this distant picture
of Yelling bird on the wire across the street.

Since then I've been taking pictures of my bird squatters.  I've talked to my friend Carol and we've confirmed it is a California Scrub Jay.  I first noticed it because it kept yelling at me every time I came or went through the door to my house.  It is supposed to be a song bird, but there is nothing melodious about it's yelling.

On the second day of the feeding strategy
Yelling bird is coming within 10 feet
of me for peanuts.


Carol suggested I feed it, so it would know I was a safe person.  She kindly gave me a bag of unsalted peanuts in the shell.  Before I could try the peanut strategy, it became quiet and I thought it had moved on.  Then Monday it reappeared and resumed yelling at me.  On Tuesday I laid out 6 peanuts to see what would happen.  When I came home they were gone.  So, I laid out 6 more and later they were gone.  When Gimme and I went to nosework class I left 4 peanuts, which were gone when we got back.

Yelling-bird is renamed Crazy-bird for
planting a peanut hedge.


This morning while I was getting ready to go, I saw Yelling-bird sitting on a wire across the street for a long time, then it was gone.  Later it was back.  So when I left for my appointment I put out a large handful of peanuts and when I turned to lock up the back door, I looked over and saw it on the gate and then on the ground, just 10 feet away.  Apparently I am officially safe.


Cleverly named Dark-bird

I watched it for a bit, to see if it would take the peanuts to the nest.  Not!  Instead it takes them up the line of my fence and buries them in the grass outside the yard.  I hope it doesn't plan to grow too many peanut trees.  <g>  After watching this several times I had to leave, but not before renaming it Crazy-bird.  Seriously, I assume it is hiding the peanuts from others who might be inclined to steal its newfound largess.

When I got home from work today, Crazy-bird immediately showed up to see if I was inclined to lay out another smorgasbord.  I was.  I wanted to get these pictures.

Dark-bird is handsome, but shy.

While I was sitting there I noticed another Scrub Jay on the telephone wire going from my house to the pole across the street.  It is much darker than Crazy-bird and far more timid.  It a fit of cleverness, I named it Dark-bird.  It wouldn't get close enough to get peanuts while I was standing there, so I went inside and watched through the window.

In no time I saw yet another show up.  This bird is smaller and even more timid.  Showing even more naming cleverness, this one has been named Third-bird.

Third-bird.  Picture taken through
a dirty window.

It's been fun playing with the birdies.  If I had the time to devote to such things, I might be tempted to see how bold Crazy-bird will become.  On the other hand, I do think wild-things are best left wild, for their own safety.





It do see a fairly strong political statement shaping up here. 

"If you hand out free goodies, they will come."

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.

Oakville NW3 Pictures



Kristy Strunk took pictures of the container, vehicle and exterior searches and made them available for free.  I selected these pictures to commemorate Gimme's two new titles NW3-V and NW3-E.

 

Vehicle search

 

Here's Gimme blasting off the start line.  She has always leaped into searches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She loves to go fast, which is why she overruns hides (and corners in tracking).

 

Here she's dutifully checking the front bumper of the big truck, even though there's nothing there.

 

Exterior search

This is right at the beginning of her search and she's on the walkway just past the pipe and the end of the railing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here she is at the end of the walkway on the little pad.  I didn't even notice the bleachers until I saw them in the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She did a lovely job finding the hide on the table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She checked out the trash can, but was a good girl and didn't try to fake me out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The piece of wood was a bit suspicious sitting out in the middle of the grass, so we checked it out just before calling "finish".