Friday, September 13, 2013 - what an inauspicious date, but that was the date we were registered for Pongo's Odor Recognition Test (The ORT). Oh, come on!, you say - surely you're not superstitious! Well, no, of course not, but it's hard not to have that in the back of your head swimming around. Maybe that accounted for the butterflies in my stomach. Or maybe it was my innate shyness or the anxiety that I have lived with for so many years that still rears up. Or that we had been preparing for this all summer and the long-awaited day was finally here.
I had tried to follow our nose work instructor's advice as closely as possible. Although we didn't practice every day, we practiced several times a week. We concentrated very heavily on working with boxes set up like they would be at the ORT - two rows of six. And I took him to many different locations to get him used to distractions and having to work in an unfamiliar place. We practiced at the park, a nearby elementary school, in the Target parking lot, and at a friend's house. Our instructor also suggested that the day of the ORT, I take boxes with me and stop along the way somewhere to practice, then make sure we ran through the practice boxes set up at the ORT.
It was being held at Paws-Abilities Dog Training Center in Fife. I had scheduled to take the afternoon off from work, as we were supposed to arrive at 3:30 for a briefing and the testing would start at 4:00 pm. I left school at about 11:45 and got home shortly before 12:30. I have never been to Paws-Abilities and so I looked it up on mapquest and settled on a route. Driving to an unfamiliar place always makes me nervous, but reading through the directions, I thought I generally new where it was located.
Next, I took Pongo for a 45 minute walk to get out some of his energy and make sure he peed and pooped. This is a ritual of ours whenever we have to go somewhere where he will have to ride in the car a long time, has to go to the vet, or he has class. Having a walk that gives ample time for elimination is calming for dogs. A dog that has to poop or pee is a distracted one that won't settle down or focus on the task you are asking of them.
At home, I started packing a bag. I cut up hot dogs to reward him with, put them on a tray and baked them in the oven at 250 for eight minutes. This helps to dry them out a bit so they are not so slimy. I made two ziploc bags of them, then filled a water bottle. I brought Pongo's yellow blanket for him to lay down on, his harness, poop bags, a bottle of birch-scented Q-tips, commercial dog treats, and a peanut butter sandwich for myself.
"I feel like I'm packing a diaper bag," I said to my husband.
"You are," he replied, "but for a dog."
"For my dog-baby," I laughed.
At 2:30, Pongo and I got in the car and set out. That allowed us 30 minutes of travel time and 30 minutes to stop somewhere along the way and practice. As I drove, I looked at Pongo in the rear-view mirror. He sat happily on the backseat looking out the window. I breathed deeply, suddenly relaxing. He looked so calm and at peace that I couldn't help but feel the same. It didn't matter what happened at the ORT. It would be fun. And that was the point. Pongo and Eva time.
I stopped in Edgewood at a city trailhead that had a parking lot, sidewalk and restroom. I couldn't have asked for better weather. It had cooled off to the 70s and was overcast. I put out six boxes along the paved trail, one of which had birch. Pongo immediately went to work. He alerted flawlessly to the first three hides. Then he began to show interest in his surroundings and began to get distracted. I gave him a break to pee, and then gave him a few more practice hides. We didn't practice anise. I didn't want to overwork him.
Back in the car, I followed the directions, but couldn't find 26th Street East. To my surprise, it was farther away than I expected and we had dipped down from the plateau down into the valley not far from Puyallup. I didn't see a sign for 26th and the numbers were getting higher. At 3:25, I was at 38th Street and starting to feel panicky. I turned around and started driving back the way I had come. Then, seeing 24th Street, I pulled over again. I tried to call the ORT organizer's cell phone, but she didn't answer. I turned around again and pulled over at the next building where I saw someone in a car and asked for directions. Thankfully, the man knew where Paws-Abilities was. He told me that 26th was a new road - the one without a street sign!
Pongo and I pulled into the parking lot five minutes late. I parked and got out to go sign in. To my relief, people were milling around, but the briefing had not started yet. I wrote my name down, signed a video-release form, and gave the woman at the desk my National Association of Canine Scent Work (NACSW) booklet. It had Pongo's picture in it, my contact information, and his NACSW K9 number. The briefing didn't actually start until about ten minutes later. They walked us through the building where the boxes were set up and told us what to expect. Then we were lead back out to the parking lot and minutes later they started the ORT.
Outside, they had a list of the order of participants (about 25), their dogs and their breeds, on a piece of paper taped to the wall. We were seventh on the list for birch. I went to the car and let him out to walk him around and let him sniff and pee. They had four or five practice boxes off to one side near the sign-in desk. A few owners were on-line waiting to practice and we joined them. Pongo was so happy to see all the people and dogs that his tail wagged gently the whole time we were there! When it was our turn, he alerted immediately on the correct box and I treated him.
When it was finally our turn, we followed a volunteer into the building and waited outside the door to the testing room. He went in to announce us and then opened the door and let us in. There were about five or six people in the room. The judge, the videographer, the organizer, and several volunteers. Surprisingly, my nervousness had left me. I walked Pongo to the orange cones that marked the starting place.
"Pongo, you ready to work?" I said to him. He nodded his head and sneezed. This mannerism of his has always tickled me. Pongo is the only dog I've known that uses sneezes to communicate when he is excited. He always does it in response to a question I'm asking. It's as if he's saying "yes."
I let out slack on his leash, "Pongo, search!" He shot forward and immediately got to work, following the line of boxes. He didn't care about anyone or anything else in the room! He quickly settled in on a box, sniffing loudly, and pawed it. I looked up at the judge on the sideline, "Alert!" I said.
"Yes," she confirmed. It had taken Pongo 26 seconds! The time limit is three minutes. I gave him several pieces of hot dogs and we exited the building. I was beaming. How amazing! We had been working for the last four months for this. He had passed! I could relax. I didn't care what happened the rest of the evening! We only needed to pass birch to be able to move on to NW1 trials, as anise isn't used until the second level.
I took Pongo back to the car and gave him some water. It was a long wait before it would be our turn again. I took Pongo for a walk around the industrial park where Paws-Abilities was housed, then put him back in the car and went to explore the Paws-Abilities store on the other side of the building. I spent some time talking to other owners, and said hello to some very friendly, sweet dogs. Many of the people there seemed to be experienced in the dog competition circuit. Many of them drove SUVs and housed their dogs in crates. They opened the side and back doors to circulate air and draped their vehicles in reflective blankets to reflect the sun. One woman pulled out a grooming table and gave her dog a haircut in the parking lot. Most of the dogs were purebred and Pongo was one of the only mixed-breed dogs.
Around 5:30, they briefed us about anise. They had moved the boxes over so that they were not in the same floor area. Pongo and I were farther down on the anise list, so I took him for another walk to get him out of the car. When we came back, there were only two others left in front of us. I quickly took him to the practice area, and to my dismay, he didn't alert on any of the boxes. I turned him around and tried again. He sniffed heavily on the box next to the one with anise in it (which might have meant the odor was blowing and pooling on that box) but moved on and did not alert on the marked one. I took him to it and rewarded him there to remind him that was the scent we were going for.
I thought, "oh well, we didn't practice anise as much as we practiced birch. If he doesn't get it that's okay."
Inside, I gave him the "search" command and again, he got right to work! It's almost as if he knew what he was there to do and that it was important. He didn't care about anything else in the room. Again, he alerted quickly on a box, but I wasn't sure. He moved on and so did I. I turned him around and made him go over the boxes in the second row again, then a third time. This time, he alerted on the same box he had before, but really stuck it. "Alert," I said. The whole room erupted with chatter. "Yes," the judge confirmed. One minute and four seconds.
"I'm sorry, I didn't believe him!" I remarked, bending over to give Pongo pieces of hot dog. Everyone was talking and laughing. I went to the judge's table to retrieve my NACSW book.
As I exited with the volunteer escort, he said, "we were all holding our breath!"
Pongo knew exactly what he was doing and I doubted him! But he had done his job and passed both birch and anise! I beamed with pride. Amazing. Simply amazing.
"We did it!" I pumped my fist in the air in the parking lot and trotted Pongo to the car.
On the way home, we stopped in Sumner at Mud Bay, a pet supply specialty shop. Pongo loves to go through the store and sniff all the wonderful smells. We like to go to the bins where there are baked treats, various kinds of rawhide, bones, and dried animal parts that are heaven to a dog. I wanted to buy Pongo a big pig's ear - one of his favorite treats. But they had only a few left and those were small and funny-shaped. Pongo deserved something big for his stellar performance. I saw a container of cow tracheas which I had never noticed before. "Dogs love them," the salesperson told me.
"Pongo, what do you think?" I said, holding it out in front of his nose. "Do you want to get this one?" Though it was wrapped in plastic, he sniffed loudly along its length. A resounding "yes!"
Here Pongo settles in to enjoy his reward - a dried cow trachea.
What a good boy!
It's a new beginning for us - nose work trials here we come!
