#nosework

Nosework trial weekend!

SATURDAY

Lucille got Qs in Advanced Containers, Novice Buried, and Novice Exterior, with a third place in the latter. Did you know that she can indicate by play bowing while at full speed during zoomies and still qualify? Very talented. NQ in Advanced Interior.

Kermit Qd in Advanced Buried and Exterior.

Zaku Qd in Novice Interior but it was ugly. Novice Containers were on grass and we were doomed. NQ. XD

SUNDAY

Lucille Qd and got third place in Novice Exterior, NQd in Novice Buried.

Kermit Qd in Advanced Containers and NQd in Advanced Interior.

LUCI

She is like a butterfly on a leash, running hither and thither very quickly and chaotically. My job is to take my time and don't rush just because she's rushing. Try some light leash pressure to get her to slow down a bit so she doesn't just blast over the top of the odor and miss it.

ZAKU

He's started wagging his tail when he finds the odor source. I've successfully given him good emotions about it. It's like my proudest accomplishment. XD

We experimented with sitting at the start line and letting him look around for as long as he wanted before working. He let me know he was ready by looking up at me. He was much more together during the search; much less distracted. So I'll make sure to incorporate this into our routine.

He still consistently finding and walking off odor, but we noticed that he walks a few feet, inspects the environment, and then comes back to indicate. His sire is suuuper environmental, so my trainer's theory is that he's gotta make sure all is correct in the environment before he feels ready to indicate.

KERMIT

Did a few tricks to pump him up before his runs and that seemed to help. Especially barking. I'm gonna rotate out the baby food and try something else. I think he's bored of it.

SPYRO

Three separate staging areas, with four different sign in places. None of the sheets overlapped, so you did need to visit all of them. None of the volunteers were confident on where you were supposed to sign in for which element. The buried sign in was where one (but not all) of the exterior searches were, which was across the venue from the buried area.

Having three dogs running Advanced and Novice was admittedly very tough for this poor club. Sign in was a mess.

On Saturday they pegged me as the chihuahua person and I guess concluded that was the only dog I was running that day. Volunteer called for Lucille, I wandered over with her and asked which element. Novice Interior. I said, that’s weird, she’s not signed up for that. She said you have Luci the chihuahua, it’s time for her run. I said, my other dog should be running now. She says, what other dog? Zaku.

The score sheet she was holding had my name and Zaku written on it. Not Luci’s owner’s name and Luci. I guess she… assumed?? The paperwork was wrong? And was trying to be helpful? So we got that sorted and I went to get the correct dog.

Sunday, I went to sign in. Got sent to three separate places to sign in. (One of the volunteers pointed at me and said, “You!”, it was so funny.) Thought I had everyone signed in.

Nope. Got a last call for Lucille before she was scratched due to absence. I’d already run her in one element so I was like ??? Volunteer told me I’d never checked her in. I said yeah I did, there and there and there. She apologized and said we could run her right away. So no harm no foul. Just very confusing.

Anyway, running a trial is hard. Running a trial with multiple locations, elements, and levels all going concurrently is hard. Running a trial with some schmuck who has three dogs entered in multiple elements and levels all going concurrently is fiendish.

Woohoo, nosework weekend! I just want it noted that running three dogs in two levels is a frazzling experience. XD

SATURDAY

Luci the rockstar was entered in Advanced Containers and Interior, and Novice Exterior and Buried. She got third place in both Exterior and Buried!

Kermit was entered in Advanced Exterior and Buried. He got a Q just under time in the first and NQ in the second. He wasn't feeling it today.

Zaku was entered in Novice Interior and once he was done exploring the entire area twice, he did a nice indication for a Q.

SUNDAY

Luci was in Novice Exterior and Buried again, Qd in both, and was third in Exterior! While I can't log in to MyAKC to check points right now, I believe she has finished her Novice Scentwork title!

Kermit was in Advanced Containers and Interior. He was way more into it today, Qd in both, and snagged a fourth in Interior!

Zaku was in Novice Interior again and had to take a long moment to remember to indicate, but we did it! With that, he has earned his Novice Interior title!

NW2 success!!

General report: She definitely has her braincells now. Very consistent behavior throughout the day and we're doing so good at unloading, pottying, waiting, moving, waiting, searching, pottying, loading up. Definitely understands that pattern.

No real issues going through doors and into buildings. No issues seeing other dogs. Did try to mug a volunteer for treats but like, such is life.

We were dog #3 which was fun. 4 searches before lunch, 1 after.

Vehicles: 1 hide, came in, searched, change of behavior, stared at me, alert, yes, yes, finish. Under 20 seconds lmao.

Interior 1: I called this "chair lollapalooza" because it was a classroom with all the chairs up on desks. She came in a little nervous and slinky, hard right to a laundry basket with books in it. Sniffed, stared at me, I stared back and told her to search, she confirmed it, alert, yes, yes, finish. Got a note on our score card to trust her more 🤣 Would love to do so, but today was great progress towards rebuilding that trust.

Exterior: A pathway, a wall, a compost bin, and a bunch of (WET) grass. Snuffled around, found one under a bucket (me: that's where I would put it!), alert, yes, yes, thank you, search, more snuffling, found the other, alert, yes, yes, finish!

From exterior we almost immediately went into containers which was GREAT because if I had had any downtime I would've psyched myself out. The last two trials + her ORTs + her AKC trial = soooo much false alerting on boxes specifically, and while I thought we had fixed the underlying problem, this was the first real test.

Brought her in SLOWLY (part 1 of the solution). She snuffled a box, looked back, I stared back at her, and her nose started going again. She followed her nose, went two boxes down, stared, I stared back, she STARED, alert, yes!!!! She tried again with a second random box but was even less committed, and no issues with the last two hides. On the debrief I saw the first one was kong and the second was cottage cheese. I don't think we have a distractors problem so much as she's telling me about Boxes With Things In Them. ...Which isn't a distractors problem because she doesn't CARE about the distractors, it's not like "oh there's cheese I gotta get the cheese!!!!" it's a different training problem.

Anyway we got a fault for knocking boxes around which frankly is just very funny, because she only knocks boxes on the way to the source and Hazard meanwhile will deliberately move Every Single Box. I think her box-pushing will go down as we both build trust in containers.

Also yes. 3 hides. 4 distractors. 16 boxes.

Then back out to the car for 2 hours while I THOROUGHLY psyched myself out about the last interior. K'seil said "what are you fussing about" and had a big nap instead.

Went into interior 2, a more open classroom, no problem with the doorway, noodled around, picked up odor, sourced it, stared at me, alert, yes, yes, thank you, search, more very focused searching, sourced it, alert, yes, yes, finish!!!