Pongo's First Nose Work 1 Trial

Our day started by getting up at 3 am.  I was mostly packed, but there were still things to do and we had to pack the truck. I had lots of different bags with treats (chopped turkey meatballs) and equipment for Pongo, not to mention all the stuff my husband and I would need for an overnight trip.  Del and I wanted to get on the road at 5:30, but we didn't actually leave until twenty minutes later.  I began to worry about time.  The Whatcom County trial was being held in Deming, WA which was twenty minutes past Bellingham.  Being Labor Day Weekend, I wasn't sure how bad traffic would be.  There were more cars on the road than I expected heading toward Seattle, but it began to thin out and we actually made good time.  Check-in was between 8:30 and 9:00. 

We arrived in Deming, a small pastoral town in the shadow of Mt. Baker, at 8:45.  The trial was held at the Junior High School, a large spread-out set of buildings with outdoor walkways. At check-in, we were given a goody bag with treats for both dog and humans! This was an unexpected bonus that made me smile. I spied a square silver and blue wrapper and the York Peppermint Pattie logo at the bottom of the bag.  Score!

At 9 am, the trial organizer gave a short opening speech.  She explained that in the morning we would first conduct a container and then a vehicle search.  After a lunch break, we would conduct an exterior search and then an interior one.   The participants were broken into two groups of twenty dog-handler pairs. Group A would go first, then there would be a short break and Group B would run. I was anxious to see the line up. My heart sank immediately when I saw that we were B-1. That meant we would have to wait for a long time, then be first in the second group. I didn't ever like to be first in anything.

We broke into our A and B groups for a walk-through.  We learned where we would be called to wait and then progress through a couple more waiting points before we would begin our search.  Search boundaries were pointed out and we were able to ask questions.  I felt well-prepared from what I had learned from our classes at Paws-abilities.

Now came the long wait.  Del and I set up camp chairs in the parking lot near the truck.  Rules required dogs to be inside vehicles "resting" except when they were being pottied, using the practice boxes, or queuing up for their search.  I had brought reading materials, a crossword book, playing cards and an ipod to occupy the hours of wait-time. Thankfully, it was a cool day (in the 60s) but not rainy.  I had initially worried about heat, as we have had an uncharacteristically hot summer in the Pacific Northwest this year.  Pongo was laying on a cooling pet pad that I purchased online from the Green Pet Shop, and I had two O2 battery-powered fans perched on the backseat of the truck cab.

Judging started at 10:15.  Then it was another hour before our turn came.  When I took Pongo to go through the practice boxes, he walked right past them without alerting on any of them. There were lots of distractions and he was not even sniffing. I turned him around and we went back over them.  This time, he pawed multiple boxes without clearly identifying the correct one.  Oh dear, I thought.  We had boxes down!  But lately he had started to exhibit this behavior at times.  We hadn't practiced boxes for a long time until a couple weeks before the trial.  Then I figured we better refocus on boxes to be sure we touched on everything in practice before the trial. Now I had Del move the box with the odor and Pongo correctly alerted on it.  His inconsistency worried me. But I shrugged it off, reminding myself the wise words of my friend, Mary, that today was just about "playing the game." It didn't matter if Pongo titled or not, it was about working together and having fun.  But of course I really wanted him too!

When it was finally our turn and we stood in the container search area, we got off to a bad start.  I didn't realize it, but Pongo's nose crossed the start line and the stopwatches were officially running.  The official by the start was waving us on but I didn't realize what she meant until she said: "his nose already crossed the start line you have to go."  So without following our rituals and routine, without even telling him to "search," I started walking forward.  Pongo didn't seem to sniff the first few boxes.  Then he seemed to be working.  He sniffed down to the end of the line of boxes, the turned down the second line.  A few boxes in, he pawed a box and I called, "Alert!"

"Oh, no!" said the judge. "It's the next one." 

So Pongo had been "in odor" but I had called what is referred to as a "fringe" alert.  My heart sank.  We had worked so hard and now it didn't matter how he did the rest of the day, he was not going to title.  I rewarded Pongo on the next box and we left the area for the next search.  I didn't have much time to think, but I tried not to feel bad, focusing instead on Pongo who was as happy as could be. 

The vehicle search consisted of three vehicles parked in a line next to the curb with a couple feet between them.  Pongo immediately went past the first car and turned into the space between its bumper and the second car.  I thought he alerted right away but having called my alert too soon in the container search, I decided to wait and be sure.  Pongo detailed the front from left to right, sniffing up on the grill then came back to the license plate and pawed at the air.  "Alert!" 

"Yes!" the judge confirmed.   I rewarded Pongo from my treat bag and we returned to the parking lot elated. He had finished in 45 seconds!  I was so proud of him! 

The organizer found us then and explained that if we were going to go to lunch, we should go right away.  After a thirty-minute lunch break, we were scheduled to run first in the afternoon, as they switched the A-B order to B-A.  Del and I drove into town and purchased sandwiches from Subway, then brought them back and ate them in the parking lot.  We didn't want to risk being late. 

The next search was the exterior search.  It was outside on a walkway with a short border of grass.  Shortly after crossing the threshhold, Pongo stopped to sniff at a pole. It occurred to me it could be a thresshold hide, but then he paid so much attention to it, I began worrying that he would pee on it (an immediate disqualification). I didn't think they would put a threshhold hide in a pole. I pulled him off of it and we went all the way down the walkway to the search border and turned around.  He worked his way back down the sidewalk and went back to the pole.  He went from one side of it to the other.  It had to be a threshhold hide, I realized.

"Alert!"

"Yes!"

The final search was an interior search inside of a classroom. I was worried most about this one.  On the walk-through, I saw that it was full of lines of desks and chairs.  Interior searches have always been hardest for Pongo, and we have probably practiced the least on them too.  The room was so full, I worried about having enough time for him to locate the odor in the 3 minutes we were allowed.  In class, Pongo had practiced interior searches both on and off leash, and I didn't feel like he was clearly better at one than the other.  I developed a strategy.  I decided to keep Pongo on-leash and have him search the perimeter of the room, then take him off-leash for the rest of it.  Pongo was so excited that he moved at a fast pace and I almost had to run a couple times to keep up with him.  It felt like we'd used a lot of time and I wasn't clearly seeing a change in sniffing behavior, so I took his leash off.  I could see all the timers looking at their stopwatches, and it gave me a little start.  We must be running out of time!  Pongo ran up and down a couple of the rows of desks then turned back and went to a chair at the front of the room.  His sniffing increased and he detailed the entire seat from one side to the next and then under it. 

"Alert!"  I called.

"Yes!"  This time, I felt a wave of relief.  Pongo had done it!  We did it!

Instead of leaving right after we were done, we hung around the rest of the afternoon for the ribbon ceremony and the judge's feedback. It was well worth it.  On the way out somewhere around 5:30, I picked up Pongo's scorebook and the judges' written comments.  As Del drove away, I read through them.

The Judges' Comments:
Container Search: "Oh poopie (sad face)  Keep having fun!"  Hide Found: No.  Time: 41.38 seconds. Time Limit 2 minutes 30 seconds

Vehicle Search: "Low Key Dog.  Good patience at source as Pongo did not pinpoint quickly (but he did not give up)."  Hide Found: Yes.  Time: 45.02 seconds. Time Limit: 3 minutes 

Exterior Search: "Slow & methodical. Handler was patient.  Showed initial interest in source then returned to finish." Hide Found: Yes.  Time: 1 minute 43.69 seconds.  Time Limit: 3 minutes

Interior Search: "Good job!  Happy Dog (smiley face)"  Hide Found: Yes.  2 minutes 25.64 seconds. Time limit: 3 minutes

I enjoyed reading the comments but laughed at what the judge had written on the vehicle search.  Pongo had never been called a "low key dog" in his life!  Ha ha ha. I remember the shelter staff who told me "No one's interested in Crazy Pongo. He has too much energy!"  He has kept me running ever since. 

In retrospect, I think failing the first search helped relax my nerves and took away the pressure of the subsequent ones.  Who knows if Pongo would have titled if we had gotten a good start on the container search?  Maybe I would have rushed the other searches.  But the important thing was Pongo and I had fun together.  It was an exciting day and a tremendous experience.  I finally felt that we were truly a team.  It was a great feeling.

We played the game and we had fun!