Posts for Category: Trials
Monday, April 9th, 2012
Below Amy share’s her story about Dash’s ORT…
I wanted to let you know that Dash passed his ORT today. I’m so happy with how he did. I realized on the drive down to Portland that this would be his first time working in a strange location. He walked into the room and was a little uneasy at first. We took our time at the start line, probably 15 seconds or so (I counted to 10 then took a deep breath!) and he settled in, focused right in on the boxes and when I said “search” he went right to work. He went down the first row of boxes, then doubled back up the same line and stuck to one of the boxes. I called alert and he was right. He found it in 16:97 seconds. More importantly, he really knew his job and despite being in an unfamiliar area with new people and smells he focused right away and knew exactly why we were there. I’m so happy with how K9 Nose Work is helping Dash become a more settled and “comfortable in his own skin” dog 
Amy
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
The Elmira Trial was the first trial for Milo and I. I was uneasy because recently in class Milo has been less demonstrative about cueing me to odor source on all but the containers.
I had the whole drive from Longview to Eugene to ponder our issues, and my past experience. in Clackamas with my Giant Schnauzer Sunny I was cautious and did not trust her enough to call the alert without searching the entire element area. I put my plan ahead of the dog’s.
This trial location was an elementary school & my heart sank at the walk-thru. The interior hide was a nightmare! Lots of clutter and endless possibilities for hides! Milo’s typical detailed style along with being somewhat of a social gadfly would make 3 minutes go very fast! This was my last element, so I had the whole day to fret over it.
Our first element was the exterior. The area was bordered by exterior walls on 3 sides, with a sidewalk and grass as well. Windows, downspouts, drains and gravel were also present. My plan was to search the perimeter.
As Milo crossed the threshold, he wanted to visit the judge and all the people in the area. I encouraged him to got to left around the walled side of the site and Milo immediately stuck on the downspout at the base of the foundation. I called it immediately and was thrilled how he stuck to the source–not like his class work.
Without time to absorb, we were immediately whisked off to the vehicles which were at an angle to the start line in a covered parking area on asphalt. A small truck, car and van. The start line was facing the middle of the car. Milo and I went to the right and I had hoped that we could weave in and out of the vehicles unless Milo had other thoughts. He started searching the front of the first car and after he searched the license plate, went to the 2nd vehicle wheel well and stuck to the upper part of the well and I called the alert. These two searches were the best work that we have done together as a team. I was thrilled. And worried about the afternoons interior search.
The arrangement of the boxes in the container element was a straight line and then a “U” shaped on top of the straight line. Sort of like a hat. Milo and I started at the end of the line and then progressed up the “U” where Milo found the hide and indicated strongly. He was right and now I had to wait for the interior search.
I really thought about this search and decided that this would be a good candidate for a threshold hide. The cluttered was everywhere. Everything went as planned at the door as far as slowly letting him enter the room. He than trotted off to visit everyone. Fortunately, he sort of toured the room while visiting and ended up toward the front. He went to the front desk and immediately became interested in the hardware at the back of the chair. He stuck on the backrest adjustment and I called the alert. He lingered just long enough for me to feel confidently to call it and thankfully, it was correct and WE PASSED THE TRIAL. I was so relieved! My beautiful Golden Boy performed brilliantly and I was so proud of him.
At the award ceremony we found out just how well my gentle Milo had performed. Not only did he pass the trial but he had the fastest time for the vehicle search–13 seconds and the 2nd fastest time overall for the trial at 1 minute and 54 seconds. Needless to say, I was in complete shock. Milo has never been really that fast in class and is usually very slow and meticulous in his work. During the trial, you just do not have a sense of time and it never occurred to me that these times were a possibility for Milo and I.
It was a wonderful culmination to a 1 1/2 years of work with Joyce. She has been very patient with both me & my dogs. They love this game and it has been a tool for me to become closer to them and participate in something that they love to do. And Now, onto Level 2!!
Happy Sniffing,
Martha Schostal and Milo
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
This post shares two stories from students who were at the Elmira trial last week. The first is a report from one of my students who had some great hunts and shared a very astute analysis of the two afternoon elements that she missed. I’m totally impressed with her ability to recall so clearly what was happening. Many of us [for instance... ME!] struggle to remember all that went on during an element search let alone recalling the whole thing a day or so later LOL. Most identifying info has been changed although this handler did give me permission to post her report. The second report shares the wins from Pat and Winsome Will.
First up -exterior. My dog smoked this. 3rd fastest time – 26 seconds. She never even thought about peeing in the grass. Then to the vehicles. She was a bit distracted by the birds (she wanted to chase them), but quickly got into search mode. She found the tire pretty quickly that had the hide and initially alerted to the top of the tire. I hesitated and she hit on the bottom of the tire – sticking her nose in the hub-cap. Good thing I hesitated, as the hide was on the bottom not the top. The judge even said she thought I was going to call it on the top of the tire as my dog gave a pretty good alert.
In the afternoon though, things didn’t go as well. In the container search my dog stopped on a box, pushed it with her nose, put her paw on it and looked at me. Sounds like an alert right? I called it but we were off by one box – she fringed on that, so no title for us. I was pretty bummed but tried to look upon the interior element as a good training opportunity. It was in a classroom and she pretty quickly figured out which side of the room the hide was on. She narrowed it down to a desk. She alerted on the corner of the desk and again I hesitated. She then tried to stick her head further under the desk and couldn’t figure out how to get under the desk further so pulled her head back out, hit the corner with her nose again and looked at me. I called it – another miss. The hide was under the desk chair that was under the desk. I guess the scent pooled up from the chair and collected under the desk. Since she had given me two solid looks and an attempt to crawl under the desk more, I was sure she had nailed it. The judge said she would have believed those alerts as well and was pretty sure that my dog thought she had found the source as well.
So what started out so well (both exterior and vehicle were 20 something second finds) ended with 2 false alerts on container and interior. I would have guessed those to have been our strongest elements……..
Report from Pat & Will…
My biggest concern for the trial elements was the exterior since this is where we have had trouble in the past so when we did the walk through I was glad to see that the exterior search area was very much like the exterior of a building where we have been practicing.
Our first element was the exterior: There was a covered walkway leading to the exterior search area with the start line at the end of the walkway. The area perimeter encompassed a wall to the right then a turn along that wall to an outside corner and another wall. There was also concrete, dirt and grass in the area. Will walked to the right along the wall and checked out a pipe, made a turn to the left and checked out a grassy clump, made another turn to the right and walked directly to the corner of the two walls and alerted…YEA
Second was the container search in the gym. I was hoping Will was not going to start playing with the boxes like he did on Wednesday practice, ask Cindy:o). Anyway the set up was a big oval/circular pattern and two rows of boxes in the middle. Will chose to go right so I kept him on my left as he sniffed his way to the top of the oval/circle and stopped to put his paw on a box, I thought, oh, now here we go, he’s going to play, but he corrected himself and turned to the box next to him and alerted…Whew..
During the lunch break we went down the road to a big closed campground where he stretched out, pottied and found many sticks.
The interior search was first in the afternoon with the class room door being the start line. The room was packed with “stuff”. Will went to his right and checked out a couple of chairs at the computer desks but quickly moved on as he got on the odor, he checked a couple of bookcases then went to some wall cubbies, started to turn away then quickly stuck his head in a cubbie and looked at me..Alert..YEA
On to the vehicles, a pick-up backed up to a trailer and a van pulled up to the trailer on the other end. He skirted the end of the van and went to the trailer tire and worked his way back of the trailer, placed his nose on the chain and worked his way along to the bottom of the hitch..Alert..
What a guy…First in exterior, First in interior and First Place overall with a combined time
of 1.22.59 !!.
Happy and Tired…Pat & WinSome Will
Sunday, March 11th, 2012
Martha and Milo were overall 2nd at the trial in Elma today. And also 2nd in the Vehicle search.
Milo is a great demonstration of the fact that the dog that doesn’t swirl the odor all over the place can be fast, even when they are moving not so fast!
What a great team, I’m very thrilled for them.
I haven’t heard from others yet, but I know that everyone put there best paw and foot forward to have a successful day whether or not they found the odor in time. Some days you’re on, and some days you’re off, and that’s true of the dogs too.
I personally have ‘missed’ in 4 out of 7 trials with my dogs in NW 1 and NW 2 and I can tell you from personal experience, that I learned way more when we missed than when we found the odor.
It’s worth the increased wrinkles I’m getting in my face from prolonged smiling as I watch your dogs hunt for odor in classes.
I love this sport! Joyce
Monday, February 27th, 2012
Lola sent the following report on her experience running Zita in her first NW1 trial. The Nose Work 1 trial was on Sunday Feb 26th in Enumclaw WA.
Zita and I were both shaking yesterday both from nerves and the cold but what a fun day it turned out to be.
We started with the exterior hide and then moved directly to the interior hide. The exterior was in a cubby area on the side of the middle school. The hide was in a pen on the cement against a wall. Zita had sniffed around there once but I was not sure where the hide was so we walked around one other area but she went back to that wall and gave me her stare one more time. I asked here to find it and she nosed the pen. I called alert and the judge asked me where and I said “in the pen”. total time 0:43:23
The interior was inside a classroom, off leash if you wanted so I did. Zita again sniffed in a bucket but left, went around a few more desks but came back and gave me that stare. The judge asked were and I said “the bucket”, she almost didn’t accept that but the other judge said I was correct and then I said on the handle. So, they said “yes”. total time 0:43:29
After the morning I was feeling pretty good…. I was more worried about the vehicle then the containers. I was concerned about Zita not putting her nose right on the hide.
Anyway, we breezed through the containers. She alerted me earlier but I walked around that box and asked again and she nosed it one more time and gave me her look. total time 0:12:03. The judge told me we might have been the fastest team of the day if I had called it the first time. Oh well….. I just wanted to pass!
On the vehicle, same thing…. Zita alerted me but I walked her around one more time and then she really stuck her nose into the wheel rim so I called it. The judge said he knew that the dog knew where the hide was, he was waiting to see if I knew where it was! total time 0:56:15
Overall time was 02:34:70
I was so worried about getting it wrong I wasn’t worried about fast times, at least not this first trial. I guess I need to take their advice and “trust my dog”. Zita did so good yesterday, I am very proud of her. She did not appear to be scared and we were bouncing around and looking pretty happy after the lunch break, while waiting to go inside for the container search.
I enjoyed listening to the judges at the ceremony and one of the co-founders of K9 Scent work was there from California. I cannot remember her name (blonde hair) [Amy Herot]. The judges yesterday gave a short speech including their backgrounds and experience working with dogs. All I have to say is WOW!
Zita is sleeping in the chair right now. I think she is exhausted. She deserves the rest!!! Looking forward to NW2 now.
Thanks for all of your great coaching!!
Lola and Zita
A comment from your coach:
I just love that you could keep working Zita after she indicated the hide and that she had the confidence to go back to source and tell you “Mom, this is it, really it is”. That’s an important part of the training as I see it, helping to develop the dogs confidence so you can be more confident that she is telling you the truth the first time. I’m so proud of you two.
Joyce
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
Sunday was the ORT [Odor Recognition Test] event that has been in the works here at Joyce's Dogs LLC for the last few months. Passing the test is required in order to be able to enter a trial.This test requires the dog to find the one box out of 12 that has the scent of Birch, Anise or Clove in it. The test requires the handler to determine that the dog has found the correct box and communicate this to the Judge by saying "ALERT".
Most of the teams testing today passed. A few did not. I'm sure that all of the teams are able to ID the correct box in practice. However there are many things that make it more difficult in the test. The most obvious factors to me are the nerves of the handlers and the level of environmental sensitivity that some dogs struggle with.
I've long believed that a huge factor in the success or failure of teams in most competitive dog sports is the nerves of the handler. It's a tough one to train for.
Since I've been involved with K9 Nose Work I've developed a huge appreciation for all that a dog's nose can tell them. It really is difficult to fully imagine. I'm certain that our dogs smell our nervousness. I'm convinced we can't fake it for training purposes. This smell of nervousness put off by the handler changes the contextual picture to the dog. And we all know that dogs are context specific. Besides changing the context in general, the handler is not so available to the dog because of the handlers anxiety. For dogs that are highly sensitive to the handlers emotional state, it can spell difficulty with a capitol D.
In this sport I think the best thing to do is to get in lots of practices in lots of different environments including some trial like situations. To that end I'll be putting on another practice of some sort in the next couple of months. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Dec 10th, 2011 Joyce Reports from Livermore, CA
Itʼs trial day for us folks going for our NW2 tittle! Iʼm in Livermore CA and seeing folks I met last May is part of the fun of going to K9 Nose Work Trials.
It was an easy drive down with blue skies the whole way. Picked up Pritamo at the airport and went to see some of the NW3 trial. The first half was at a winery. The vehicle search was apparently near a heap of brush and lumber that houses wild bunnies. I didnʼt see the vehicle searches, but apparently a lot of dogs were distracted by that pile and had a tough time sticking with the cars. Something to put on the training list for advanced students.
The exterior area was fenced so I got to see one dog work off leash. Only two even tried it. The one I saw did excellent. I think she won the element 1st place. Dogs love to work off leash. But there are many reasons for many dogs not to do it – critter lovers, urine markers, etc.
Pritamo is the first in her group C and I am the last in my group D so we canʼt talk to each other ALL DAY! about the searches. That will take some discipline and thought not to make any mistakes. P. & Nick aced her first 5 hides in Exterior and Interior. She is very happy with how he worked. Iʼm hoping he has had a little conversation with Mick about where the hides are LOL. The first dog ran about 10am.
Itʼs now noon as I write and there are still about 8 dogs ahead of Mick and I. The A-B group is about done. One hide each in containers and vehicles. The sun is out and Iʼm no longer wishing Iʼd brought long-johns. Itʼs beautiful. Light breeze which Iʼm glad to have. I believe that wind and wet are your friends in Nose Work. Not a ton of one, and none of the other here right now. Oh Well. Mick is restless. Mr. sound sleeper at home is wanting to work. No surprise there. Phew! 5 hides in the first two elements and Mick is on! Worked very well on all three hunts, and I must say, I was patient, waited, moved, and made sure he was sure before I called it. Three thirtyish and finally we get escorted to the container and the Vehicle. I am nervous. I let him work on his own in the container drill, but also track where he has been and where he hasnʼt. He goes to the tall suitcase on a far edge, or is it one container in, I donʼt remember. He is sniffing pretty strongly, pushing on it, looking pretty adamant. I call it and we get a positive response from the judge.
Yippee, one hide to go. Out to the vehicles. There are three and they are configured like a pinwheel, front bumpers forming a small triangle space. Mick sniffs down one side of the closest car, and starts on the BMW front end. Goes to the far [right] front corner. Intensity increases, sniffing all over that corner. Telling me. I finally call it and Ron says yes. I feed him on the lower part of the bumper behind the light. Iʼm grateful I wasnʼt asked where because Iʼm not sure I would have called it right. I realize as I am typing this that I had no thoughts of how the wind was blowing when I was doing the vehicle. Gota work on that!
Mick has his NW2 tittle. Not bad for a dog that is closer to 15 than 14 years of age. Iʼm thrilled and proud of Mick and of my handling. I canʼt wait for NW3 trialing. Long live Mick, I so want him to keep having fun at this. The only sadness is that my plan was to start to focus on Rider getting ready for his NW2 trials. Who would have guessed that Mick had more time than Rider. And Rider really brought me to this sport, something he could do without having to worry about other dogs. Nose Work 3 really separates the ʻmen from the boysʼ so to speak. A room without odor needs to be identified, and the handler doesnʼt know the number of hides. 1-3 per element. Call finish when you think your dog has them all. This is a huge jump from knowing the number of the hides. I hope Mick stays strong enough to at least have the fun of trying a few times.
K9 Nose Work, truly the most fun a dog can have!
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
I'm back from my trip to CA for a K9 Nose Work trial. It was great. I started writing this blog post while sitting under a tree on a beautiful sunny day. Mick was in the NW2 [level two of three] trial and did me proud. He nailed the vehicle (one hide) and the exterior ( two hides) in very respectable time. In fact, he got a ribbon for the fastest time for the exterior hide and was third fastest for the vehicle.
Mick got one of the three interior hides and just seemed clueless as to where the other two hides were. I false called one of the interior hides and he timed out on the other one. I think he got stuck in drifted odor from the first find or perhaps there was food in one of the lockers where he was hanging out. Mick did a stellar Job of ignoring what looked to be crunched up corn chips on the floor, and I was very happy with that.
The container drill was spooky. Theme of the day seemed to be 'threshold hides' and it was the first box about 6 ft from the start line. Hard to trust your dog on that one but I did and we got that hide. Then he just turned sort of wishy-washy and I ended up calling it on a not very clear indication. Wrong. I should of waited. We had plenty of time. "Oh well" and we were done.
Next search immediately following the Container element was the vehicle. Hi nailed it in very good time. Very confident.
Last element of the morning was the exterior with two hides. Lots of dogs false alerted on a door stop that was about a foot or so from the hide. Silver, just like an odor box. Not Mick. He went straight to the hide. Then he trotted along the wall and took a left into the gate of a dry garden area. There were a couple of sticks of wood on the ground under a tree and he indicated. I called it and low and behold I heard the judges 'yes'. That was our last element of the trial. We happily ran back towards the parking lot and when we hit the grass, he squatted and pooped!. {I know, too much information, but since he managed to scarf down 3/4 of a loaf of Dave's Bread on Thursday evening, and 'seedy' bread at that, well, you know what the outcome of that could have been!}
As I type this I had to get up and get his nose out of a bag of clothes that happened to contain a pair of pants with a cookie in the pocket. He shows no since of what is his and what isn't anymore if food is involved. It's his as far as he is concerned. No matter how many pockets he has to rip through to get it. Getting old is wonderful, [for the dog end of the leash] I guess.
Anyway, after the folks in the score room finished up with the numbers stuff they announced the element and overall placements. And darned if my 14 year old boy didn't have the third fastest time in the vehicle hide, and the fastest time on the exterior! Yea Mick. Not bad for an old guy.
It was a great day for playing my dog's favorite game with him, and appreciating what a great dog he has been. Just so happens that I had the chair he won for an obedience High in Trial in 2001 with me cause it's little and fit in the car with all the other stuff we drove down with. So here we are, 11 years later and still having a great time together.
OK, enough rambling. The last thing I have to say though, is that Rider is mingling freely with Anne's dog, Crackers. She puts him in his place well, and it's so nice to see Rider want to play with her, and just hanging out comfortably with another dog.
It's tough having a reactive and aggressive dog. But it's been worth it. As I tell many people, Rider has taught me more about dog training than I ever thought I needed to know. What a great teacher!
