The 3 Out Of 4 Club

After yesterday's Nose Work 1 Trial in Oakville, WA, we are now solidly entrenched in the 3 out of 4 club. It's hard not to feel disappointed, but what I have to remind myself is that Pongo loved the excitement of the trial site, seeing all the other dogs, and playing the game he loves: find the odor.  He doesn't know that he didn't earn a ribbon or a title on a piece of paper.  Those are human constructs.

Pongo gets a drink of water in the truck.

 Oakville is not far from Olympia, just eleven miles off of I-5 on Highway 12.  Mapquest estimated it would take us an hour and seventeen minutes from our house.  We left at 7 am, stopped for coffee on the way, and jetted into our day long journey. Because Pongo has been slow to start in the last two trials, failing to pass the first element of the day, we pulled over at a rest stop on the way to practice.  I did two hides with him outside, practicing an exterior hide.  Pongo was understandably distracted on the first one, not sure whether he was there to pee. The second one was better, but he was still very distracted.  I hoped it was enough of a practice to help him get right into the game at the trial site.

Each trial we have been to has done things a little different.  Sometimes elements are run simultaneously, sometimes back-to-back.  There are always 40 dogs divided into two groups of 20.  Yesterday we were in Group B, Team No. 6.  I liked being at the front of our group, but the Oakville trial ran the containers and exterior elements back-to-back so that teams went directly to the exterior hide after finishing with containers. That meant that we had a long wait time before we even started, as Group A ran through two elements first.
Our number did not come up until almost 11:30 am.

Pongo rocked through containers.  Next we went out a side door of the high school to a flagged-off area that included grass and the side of the building. Pongo got to work after looking out at all the people standing around watching. I felt cautious, noting that he took interest in a couple different spots, but not wanting to make a mistake, let him keep going, then directing him back to the areas he'd shown interest before.  I called alert when he stopped again and stuck to a utility cylinder next to the wall. YES!  Relief and excitement washed over me.  We'd made it through the first half of the day!

At the truck, playing the waiting game.

We went back to the truck to wait.  Thankfully, they reversed the order in the afternoon and Group B would go first after lunch.  We purchased delicious baked potatoes from a concession stand inside the school which was being run to raise money for a senior class trip. We felt good about supporting such a small town school and were delighted to not have to leave to find something to eat.

The afternoon elements started with vehicles and then the interior search.  Pongo seemed perky and ready to go.  But when we came through the door to the vehicle search which was in a covered area open at both ends between school buildings, Pongo froze.  He looked at all the people standing in a line with timers or clipboards in their hands.  He sniffed the air.  The wind was blowing as if through a tunnel.  I took Pongo to the first vehicle and he started sniffing.  But at the end of each vehicle, he seemed to pause, distracted, and I had to turn him around and get him to go down the other side.  I started feeling nervous.  It felt as if I were in a vacuum, time getting sucked away.  I remembered the advice of the judge at our last trial. "You have to get your dog around all three vehicles."

The vehicles were parked side by side, parallel to each other with ample walking distance in between.  We ended up back at the first vehicle and Pongo showed a lot of interest at the back left wheel.  I wasn't sure if that was it, so I let him work it around to the other side.  At this point, I thought the odor was blowing under the vehicle, but Pongo was not giving me any strong signals.  We ran out of time.  The judge verified that Pongo had been in odor at the rear left wheel, but that the hide was in the hitch on the tailgate.  Pongo had walked right past it.

I buyoed my spirits as we went indoors to the interior and the last hide.  Dogs are allowed to be worked on or off leash, and Pongo has typically done well being off, so I started that way.  But as time passed, I felt he was not working the whole room and I put him back on the leash. I called alert just in the nick of time.  The entire room let out a big sigh as if they had been holding their breath.

"I'll call that 2:59." the judge said. There was nervous laughter.

"What a good boy, Po!"  We hurried out of the room and back to the truck.

Rather than stay for the award ceremony which was still hours away, we decided to leave.  We were tired and feeling defeated.  On the way home, we stopped in Olympia to look around.  As close as it is to us, I've never spent any time exploring there.  We took a downtown exit and left the truck at Heritage Park.  Pongo and I walked in the beautiful sunshine on the edge of Capitol Lake.

Next Del and I looked for a place to eat an early dinner.  We wandered into the 5th Avenue Sandwich shop.  I loved the old jazz music and pictures on the wall. Service was reasonably quick but the sandwiches were to die for.  Made from homemade bread daily, they were just running out of bread and closed after serving us.  I had a melted four cheese sandwich with an avocado spread and spinach.  It hit the spot!  Perfect on a crisp February day.  Del ordered a club sandwich without the bacon, but the waiter brought the thick slices of bacon on the side, trying to convince Del that it would be worth eating.  My husband, being a very particular eater, especially when it comes to bacon, declined.  Instead, the bacon went in a TO GO box where Pongo, waiting dutifully in the truck, devoured it immediately without question.

A Mock Nose Work Trial

Yesterday was a beautiful day for nose work in the Pacific Northwest! It was an unseasonably warm day with a brilliant blue sky.  Pongo is getting ready for another nose work trial this Saturday.  He's hoping to earn his Nose Work 1 (NW1) Title from the National Association of Canine Scent Work (NACSW). They say the third time is a charm, right?

My friend Mary set up a mock trial at her house for us to practice.  If you've read other blogs, you'll remember that Mary and her dog Crosby are longstanding nose work friends who are part of a practice group we've established. Crosby earned his NW1 title in Sandy, Oregon in November.  See "Pongo's Second Nose Work 1 Trial" posted on November 9, 2014.  I noticed a pattern in Pongo's behavior at this trial. Pongo starts off highly distracted and seems to need more warm-up time than just the trial boxes that are set up outside in the parking lot at trials.  Both times Pongo has competed, he has failed the first element (different elements each time) and passed the final three.  There are always four elements in a NW1 Trial: boxes, interior search, exterior search and vehicle search.  Your dog must pass all four to earn a title.

Knowing Pongo's tendency to a slow start, Mary planned five blind searches for us.  Each one was timed according to NW1 element standards.  The first one was an indoor search to get him warmed up.  Pongo circled the room, and was clearly working intermittently, but gave up easily and began looking to me.  Mary gave us the 30 second warning, then Pongo found the hide just before the time ran out at three minutes.  It was hung in a bag underneath a corner table.  Pongo was showered with lots of praise and cut up pieces of chicken Dog Joy Treats made by Freshpet.  Positive reward is important in training dogs for nose work to maintain their motivation.

Interior search with distractions.

Next, we went outside for a 3-car vehicle search.  Pongo was focused and quickly found the hide.  Pongo and Crosby took turns searching.

Crosby alerts to a find hidden in the wheel.

After the vehicle hide, the boys did a box search in Mary's garage.  There were lots of distractors with filled garbage cans, a parked vehicle, and shelves of your run-of-the-mill items stored in garages.  Boxes is where Pongo typically excels.  He got his best time on this element, finishing in less than fifteen seconds.  Pongo gave me a clear alert by pawing the box with the odor.  I love it when he does this on boxes and wish he'd do it on all hides!  But Pongo's alert is different depending on the situation, putting more pressure on me to make sure I read him correctly.  This is a team sport after all! 

Next, the dogs did an interior search in the living room.  This search area was full of lots of distractors.  It had some of Crosby's toys, a dog bed, a throw blanket tossed on the couch, etc.  This one proved to be very difficult for Pongo and was the only one he didn't find.  Mary hid the odor between the cushions and Pongo walked past multiple times without showing any signs of alerting to the odor.  But this is why we practice!  

Our practice session ended with an exterior search. Pongo found the odor hidden on a metal cat statue with plenty of time to spare.  What a fun day!  Many thanks to Mary for putting together a great practice session.  I'm so grateful for good friends.

    

       Pongo alerts on a metal cat statue.

Wish us luck! 

Happy trialing, Pongo!

Stay tuned for results this weekend.

A Doggie Valentine's Day

What is more fun than showing your dog how much you love him on Valentine's Day?  Pongo urged me out the door early in the morning.  We went to the "woods" near our house which consists of a few short dirt trails through a forested area on the edge of a park.  I am using this more and more as his walk on the weekends to reduce the amount of walking we do on hard cement.  Pongo loves smelling the plethora of layered odors among the ferns, soil and bark along the paths. 

We were home for only about an hour when I got ready to run some errands at the store.  Pongo followed me with his eyes, tilting his head, "Do I get to go?" How can I resist that look?  "Wanna go for a ride?" Pongo got up from the floor and headed for the door.

"You're going to make him sit in the car at Walmart?" my husband asked. 

"We'll go to the dog park first."  It's winter.  I don't have to worry about heat.  Pongo likes to run errands with me because he likes to BE with me.  He doesn't mind waiting in the car if he has already done all his business and gotten a little exercise.  Pongo used run errands with me a lot, but since I got married, I leave him home more often because I'm not leaving him alone. There's always someone else for him to hang out with.

The Bonney Lake Dog Park is not big, but what I love about it is that it has a wooded area with a few trails.  When we first moved to Bonney Lake, it didn't have a lot of dog traffic.  Pongo and I often went and there was no one there, so we stopped going - it made me feel it was a huge disappointment to him.   Bonney Lake dog people are not early birds.  On weekends, people don't show up until mid-morning at best.  Depending on the weather, it might be later.  This is so foreign to me. In Washington, DC, there were always people up early, exercising their dogs before they got on with their day.

Recently, I've noticed that on weekends, at least, the Bonney Lake Dog Park seems to be more populated.  When we arrived, there were about six to eight dogs running around, playing near the entrance.  Pongo loves getting to sniff and say hello to other dogs and the social time is important to him.  He exudes a calm contentedness after dog park time.  Pongo loves hanging out with the big dogs, but he doesn't play chase and run around with them anymore. 

After Pongo had some sniff and play time with the doggie visitors, we went for a walk through the wooded area.  It was quiet and it felt as though we were hiking somewhere by ourselves. Then we looped around and joined the other dogs again.  We stayed for about twenty-five minutes.   In the Walmart parking lot, Pongo lay down happily in the back seat and slept while I shopped.

When we got home, he found a quiet spot and resumed his nap while I began Valentine's Day preparations for my family.  I spent the afternoon baking for Pongo AND my husband and daughter.  I made Pongo's favorite peanut butter dog treats but instead of cutting them into dog bone shapes, I used a heart cookie cutter in honor of the holiday.

This is an easy recipe.  It's one of my staple dog treat recipes.  It consists of 1/2 cup peanut butter, 2 T. oil and 1 cup water mixed together in a bowl.  Then you add one cup of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of all-purpose flour, stirring in one cup at a time.  I added a mashed banana as a special treat.  If you do this, decrease the oil by 1 tablespoon.  Next you roll out the dough and use your favorite cookie cutter.  You can roll it out thin or thick, according to your desire.  The recipe says to bake them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.  I usually like a harder dog treat, so I turn them over when the timer goes off and bake them for another 20 minutes (40 altogether).  This makes them brown and crisp on both sides.

Since dogs can't have chocolate, I melted carbo chips.  I tried to decorate the hearts using a pastry bag, but it was too stiff and I couldn't get the chocolate to flow through the tip.  I gave up and spread the top of the hearts with the melted carob like frosting. But carob-decorated dog treats are messy and we typically make Pongo eat those outside.  Pongo likes to carry his precious homemade treats around the living room, parading them in front of the cats.  "Look what I have!"  The carob-decorated treats leave trails and smudges of brown on the carpet.

You can see that Pongo enjoys the privileges that come with old age. We allow him to stretch out on the couch now, something he was forbidden to do when he was younger.  But as we watch him try to get comfortable and have trouble lying down with the stiff arthritis in his hind legs, we don't mind sharing the couch with him. Pongo enjoyed Valentine's Day afternoon relaxing on the couch with Bella.

I love you sweet boy!  Happy Valentine's Day Po!

Superbowl Sunday Vehicle Search

Recently, Pongo and I went to visit my parents in Pullman for a long weekend.  My job has been busy working twelve hour days or more, writing evaluations and IEPs. Sadly, Pongo's nose work training has suffered.  He has been grateful to get in one nose work session a week lately, and sometimes we just don't get around to it.  But with our next nose work trial coming up near the end of February, I was determined to fit in some nose work while we were out of town.

Pongo sporting Seahawks colors.

On Sunday before we got ready to settle down and watch the Superbowl, my niece and my brother helped me park three family cars up at the picnic shelter at Kruegel Park. Just two blocks from my parents' house, Kruegel Park was my childhood playground.  I grew up playing on the equipment, jumping on the merry-go-round and spinning until I was sick, learning to build a fire in the picnic shelter with the Girl Scouts, then later shooting baskets and playing tennis on the fenced-in courts, and watching cute boys play baseball on the diamond.

I chose the park for our vehicle search because I thought it would be a good place to practice with distractions.  During the search, Calder barked excitedly nearby.  If you are new to the blog, Calder is Pongo's BFF and belongs to my sister.  He was waiting for Pongo to finish so they could have playtime in the snow.  Also during the search, another dog who was in the park off-leash came running over to say hello.  To my surprise, Pongo (my social butterfly) didn't even pause and continued with his search, ignoring the other dog.  Way to work through distractions, Po!


Pongo worked the vehicle search with enthusiasm. He detailed each car. I had tried to set the search up to be as close to a real trial as possible. There was only one hide with birch.  I used cooked chicken chunks both for pairing and for rewards.

We did three different hides in this session.  Each time, I placed the hide in a different location or on a different car.  Each time, Pongo found it without any cues.  There was a license plate hide, a wheel-well hide and a door handle hide.

It was exciting to see Pongo so focused when we hadn't been practicing regularly.  It reaffirms for me how much he loves this sport and how important it is for me to make the time to work with him.  Pongo is happy when he's using his nose.

When we were finished, I let him off leash and he ran around in the snow with Calder.  Pongo was in his element.  He is a cold weather dog and loves the snow.  He and I have both missed it this winter in the Seattle area. Playing with his best friend, Pongo is young again.  He finds the energy to chase a stick.

We are counting down the days now to the next nose work trial.  While I hope Pongo will be able to focus on all four searches this time and come away with a title, it's all about Pongo and I being a team and having fun.

Pongo and Eva 

Communicating With Your Old Dog

As Pongo’s 14^th birthday approaches, I am struck by the changes in our daily life - how my commitment to giving him what he needs to be healthy and happy has changed.  We no longer go for a daily walk.  Pongo’s arthritis has progressed to the point that he doesn’t always want to go for one.  Occasionally when I put on his leash, he’ll walk to the end of the driveway and then stop.  He pulls back on the leash and refuses to move forward.  Paying attention to his attempts to communicate new ideas is important to me so that I can try to meet his needs. When he pulls back, I listen.  We don’t have to go for a walk, Popo. 

Other days, he wants to go.  He still shows the excitement of his youth, but he fatigues easily.  Our walks are much shorter these days - sometimes only a few blocks. But he shows signs of boredom being in the house all day.  His mind still longs to run, though his body cannot follow.  Even though his arthritis makes activity difficult, he needs to have the opportunity to be outside and smell the world.  Experiencing odor through sniffing is the essence of dogness.  In the past few years, we stopped going to the Bonney Lake dog park, as we spent more time going hiking on the weekends.  Now I find we are beginning to go back where Pongo can just be a dog. He no longer gets the other dogs running in a game of chase, sprinting at full speed.  But he trots after the younger dogs, wags his tail hello, and sniffs a little butt when they stop long enough for him to position himself at their rear.  He tires quickly but the joy is evident in his eyes.

I have started a new routine of jogging at a nearby school track on Sundays.  I take Pongo with me but let him off leash so he can go at his own pace.  Surprisingly, he still tries to run with me, sticking to the track a few hundred yards behind.  The second time we went, I put him in a down-stay in the grass by the soccer goal after he had an opportunity to sniff around and do his business.  He watched me as I made a lap around the track, then got up to meet me as I came around on the other side.  Repeated attempts at down- stays brought the same result.  He always got up, sometimes within minutes, sometimes when I rounded the track.  But each time he’d fall in line behind me, plodding along.  I am breaking all the rules of dog obedience, but then that's not what it's about anymore. I’ve come to accept that eleven years of running together are imprinted on his brain.  Like a professional athlete, it is not easily left behind. 

I am even more attentive to his barks and whines.  As parents do with infants, I try to interpret his cries.  “Do you need to go potty?” I ask.  Or, “Do you want to eat?” His YES is usually evident by excitement in his eyes and movement to a standing position then toward the door or the kitchen.  Sometimes his YES is an emphatic sneeze with a giant head nod.  But Del and I have noticed a new need.  A need for comfort.  He is visibly in pain sometimes and wants to cuddle or be massaged.  Del and I take turns lying on the floor with him rubbing his ears, neck and belly.  I cherish this cuddle time together.

               He seems more sensitive to sound these days, barking at every knock or bump.  When there is a lot of activity in the house (i.e. lots of noise), we have found that Pongo prefers to be in our bedroom with the lights off and a radio going.  I hung a blackout curtain on the window and this space is now calming to him.  It is huge that he will lie down quietly and accept being separated from the rest of the family, and especially Mommy.

                Another recent change is Pongo can no longer make it through the night without going outside to potty.  One day, we found dog pee in the garage near the cat litter boxes and then it was no longer a singular event.  As his ability to hold his urine began to decline, we began to buy puppy training pads and placed them adjacent to the three cat boxes.  Often now when Pongo makes eye contact with us and whines, he is telling us he needs to go outside.  In December we added a doggie door to the garage so he can go outside anytime he needs to whether we are at home or not. 

  

              Meeting Pongo’s needs today are more challenging than when he first came to me from the Washington Animal Rescue League thirteen years ago. But being sensitive to his changing communication continues to strengthen our bond.  I thank God every day for this sweet devoted boy who has given me so much. 

Pongo's Second Nose Work 1 Trial

Pongo's second NACSW nose work trial was November 2nd in Sandy, Oregon located 25 miles from Portland. Friend Mary Ellrodt and her dog, Crosby, were also entered in the Sandy, Oregon trial. If you have read my other blogs, Mary and I sometimes get our dogs together for nosework practice on the weekends.  Mary picked me up on Saturday afternoon and we loaded Pongo in the back of her SUV next to Crosby.  We headed for I-5 South as our adventure began.

We arrived in Sandy around 5:30 and promptly checked into the local Best Western.  We had a room on the first floor, halfway down the hall.  I was starving and eager to go find dinner.  We decided on Thai food, one of my favorite cuisines.  Since my husband doesn't like Thai food, I take every opportunity I can to eat it when out with friends.  Mary found the address of a couple Thai restaurants on her phone and we headed out the door.  The amazing thing about the competition dog world, regardless of the sport, is that you begin to recognize people.  Many of the nose work competitors were staying at the Best Western and had been given rooms on the first floor. We saw many people going in and out with their dogs.   I recognized a few people from the Bellingham trial, from an ORT I volunteered for in Fife in September, and a trial I volunteered for at Emerald Downs in October. 

 

When we got to Thai Home on Pionner Boulevard it was full.  I recognized a woman we had just seen at the hotel and who had been at both the Bellingham and Emerald Downs trials. There was a twenty minute wait, so we decided to walk to the nearby Amarin Thai on Proctor.  After a quiet dinner of pad thai, vegetable rolls and a green curry eggplant dish, we returned to the hotel satiated and ready to settle down for the night.  I was excited about the next day, but thankfully was not as anxious as I had been for our first nose work trial.  I was tired from a long, busy work week and the fluffy hotel bed lulled me quickly into sleep.

 

The next morning, we walked the dogs before loading them in the car.  We ate breakfast at the hotel's breakfast bar and chatted with other nose work competitors that were there.  After checking out, we drove the short distance to the trial site.  It was located at the Oral Hull School for the Blind on the outskirts of town.  Surrounded by pastures, it was a picturesque site where the sound of cows and other rural animals (whose vocalizations were not so identifiable to a city girl) floated in the air.

 

We parked the car and went to register in time for the 8:45 check-in. It was a typical Pacific Northwest morning - drizzling and in the 50s. There were two groups of twenty competitors each.  We learned that Mary and Crosby were in Group A, while Pongo and I were in Group B.  That meant that we were not scheduled close together and in the morning's trials were competing in a different element order. During our 9 am walk-through, we learned that the vehicle and interior searches were scheduled for the morning.  The exterior and container searches were scheduled for the afternoon after a short lunch break.

Pongo checks out all the activity at the trial.

 

The trial started early right after the walk-through at 9:35.  Both groups ran simultaneously.  Group A started on the interior search and Group B started on the vehicle search and then would swap.   We watched the colored flip charts to indicate by number who was next. Pongo and I were number 14.  When we finally arrived for our turn at the vehicle search, I walked him to the starting line.  There were three vehicles parked in a cement lot with a vast green field to the right.  I gave Pongo his command to search and he started off toward the closest vehicle.  He began to work, sniffing at the fender then going to the right back wheel well.  But then he looked off into the field and kept walking.  I directed him back to the vehicle, continuing the search, but Pongo was distracted, looking around, his interest on the field.  NACSW rules alot three minutes for the vehicle search.  Pongo showed interest in the first vehicle, but didn't alert.  I actually thought the odor might be on that vehicle and took him around it more than once.  Time ticked away and I began to feel nervous.  He wasn't finding it!  This wasn't like Pongo, as he usually did so well with vehicle searches! I knew we had to search the other two vehicles.  I took him to the second vehicle, but had to keep giving Pongo hand cues to inspect it.  He wasn't interested and kept looking around. One of the timers called 30 seconds to indicate we were almost out of time.  I took him to the third vehicle, but did not circle the entire vehicle before taking Pongo back to the first one.  Before I knew it, we had run out of time!  My heart sank.  It didn't matter how Pongo did on the rest of his searches, he would not title today. 

The judge showed me where the odor was and I rewarded Pongo with treats next to it.  The judge pointed out that we had not made it all the way around the vehicle.  I should have known better!  I chastised myself.  You have to make sure you direct your dog around all of the vehicles -- that's your responsibility as the handler.  He told me it wasn't on the first vehicle and I didn't believe him because he was so distracted.  I had violated the nose work mantra: trust your dog! 

"We timed out," I told Mary when we got back to the car.  I tried not to sink into my disappointment.  Mary and Crosby had passed their interior search.  "Remind me later to tell you the funny thing that happened," she replied.  It was hard not to talk about the details of the search, but we weren't allowed to until it was over.  I lamented over the fact that now a pattern had emerged for us on trial day. Pongo failed the first element search both times.  It seemed I would need do something differently to help him understand that it was a nose work competition before going into the first element.  But just using the practice boxes at the trial site was not enough. 

As Group A and B swapped element order, Crosby went to do the vehicle search and Pongo went to do the interior search, which was located in the kitchen of an outlying office building.  We were alotted three minutes and were allowed to search on or off leash.  I took Pongo to the startline, gave him his search word and let him off leash.  There was a judge and a timer in the kitchen with us, but back-up timers and other volunteers were in the adjacent office watching.  The kitchen was full of stuff - boxes on the floor, an open garbage can, a large old-fashioned scale, among other things.  Pongo showed interest in the scale but then went to the garbage can.  After a prolonged sniff there, he circled to the left side of the kitchen where there were boxes of stryofoam cups.  Then, all of a sudden, he jetted out of the search area into the office.  He ignored my calls, and I had to retrieve him by the collar from where he was sniffing around an old fireplace. I took him back to the search area and gave him his command again.  Almost immediately, he went back to the scale and stayed with it. "Alert," I called.  "Yes," the judge confirmed.  Pongo's search time was one minute, twelve seconds. Not bad, I thought for leaving the search area!  Later, Mary told me that Crosby had also left the search area.  He ran into a dark closet and when she tried to retrieve him by the collar, she tripped over a fan.  Crosby has progressively lost his hearing in the past couple of years due to old age (Crosby is 12) and so she can no longer recall him by voice.  One can only love him for the comedy he brings to nose work!

We decided not to leave for lunch because of the short time constraints and snacked on cheese and fruit that we had brought in a cooler.  Organizers decided to run Group A through the exterior and container searches back-to-back and then run Group B, rather than running the two groups on opposite elements at the same time and switch.  Pongo and I waited in the car while Crosby searched. The second half of the trial was going fast.  Mary came back ecstatic that Crosby had passed all four elements, giving him his Nose Work 1 Title.  Yea for Crosby!  I had felt all along that they would pass in Sandy, as they have worked consistently week after week in nose work classes at Paw-abilities. 

 

Finally, it was Pongo's turn again.  Mary used my camera to take videos before we went into the search area. Now I focused on having fun with Pongo.  I wanted positivity to run down the leash so that he would enjoy himself.  After all, it WAS all about him.  The reason we started doing nose work in the first place was to keep his mind engaged now that he could no longer go jogging due to his arthritis.   The exterior search was held in an outdoor area of the school that had benches arranged in a circle around a large fire pit.  The fire pit was full of ash as if it had been frequently used.  Pongo spent a long time sniffing around the pit, but then made his way to a bench on the far side where he correctly alerted.  His time was one minute seven seconds.  Next we went to the container search, which was done on white boxes that were thankfully indoors this time.  He found the odor in 17 seconds.  

 

When the trial was over, we stayed for the ribbon ceremony and to hear the judges' feedback.   

Mary Accepts Trial Ribbon

Although it was a long day, it was worth staying to hear the judges' feedback.  Both trial judges that day were police officers (one retired and one active) who had years of experience with search dogs. They emphasized checking wind conditions when performing exterior searches and that you work into the wind.  Look at the trees or the flags that mark the search area to tell which direction the wind is blowing.  They suggested checking the wind at the level of the dog's nose. The judges also commented that if you let your dog start in a random search pattern but are not successful, then you should lead him into a pattern.  In addition, they noted that in practicing vehicle searches, you should use different vehicles, not just your own, and that it is helpful sometimes to use more than 3.  Mary and I both asked questions about our particular trial difficulties that day.  The judge told Mary that when working off leash on an interior search that it was okay to ask the judge for a volunteer to block the door since Crosby was deaf and did not have voice recall.  The judge told me that dogs are still dogs and that they will be tempted by specific breed distractors, i.e. an open field, birds, squirrels.  The key, he said, was to train amply in those situations so that your dog would learn to stay focused on the search.

 

After the ceremony, we retrieved our NACSW Trial Score Books and read through the judges' comments on the score sheets.

 

 The Judges' Comments for Pongo and Eva:

Vehicle Search: "Timed Out. Make sure to get your dog around all the vehicles." Hide Found: No. Time: Timed Out. Time Limit: 3 minutes

Interior Search: "Nice work by handler to keep dog focused and hunting.  Good alert on hide - nice job!" Hide Found: Yes.  1 minute 12 seconds. Time limit: 3 minutes.

Exterior Search: "Good search pattern and direction by handler. Nice alert on hide.  Nice work!" Hide Found: Yes. Time: 1 minute 7 seconds. Time Limit: 3 minutes.

Container Search: "Good job." Hide Found: Yes. Time: 17.66 seconds. Time Limit 2 minutes 30 seconds.

 

The day ended with two happy canines dozing and two happy humans beaming on the drive home.  I felt exhilarated, adrenaline running through me even though the day was over.  It had been a wonderful weekend.  Although Pongo had not earned his title, he had improved his search times dramatically, and I had learned a lot to help us in our training.  But above all else, we had fun! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!