Ramblings of different sniff sports

We started with AKC Scentwork when Finwë was about 8 months old. It was something low-impact to keep a giant breed puppy busy, working, and out of trouble. He seemed to enjoy it, and I was fascinated by how the dogs worked their noses. I loved watching each dog have their own style. Since he appeared to have a good nose himself, I thought he might also do well with tracking. During last year’s tracking class, our Scentwork training went on hold. We had signed up for a trial in January, and by then Finwë only needed one qualifying leg in containers to earn his overall Advanced Scentwork title. He had been a solid Scentwork dog, rarely giving false alerts, so I figured it would be an easy Q and bam, title earned. Things didn’t go as planned. Both trials, he entered the search areas and tried to pick up or nose-bonk every container and alert on almost every single one. I left the trial humbled, with two NQs, wondering what on earth had happened to my dog. On the drive home, I couldn’t help but wonder if all the tracking drills, where I encouraged him to pick up articles had bled into Scentwork. Maybe he thought that’s exactly what I was asking for. Since we were in peak tracking training, it made sense that he might not be able to separate the two sports. So, I decided to give it a break. We’d focus on tracking, and Scentwork could wait until spring and summer. (It’s a nice indoor sport when it’s hot out anyway!) We signed up for a May trial, hoping to snag that last Q. AGAIN… no luck. He went around the search area trying to grab every container and “alerting” on each one. I left feeling deflated. Still, I wasn’t ready to quit. If he hadn’t been so close to his title, I might have, but I felt like it was still within reach. I signed up for one last trial in September, before tracking season picked up again. We didn’t practice much until the week of the trial. That week, we ran two rounds every night. Sometimes he nailed it, and sometimes he just did whatever he wanted. Going into the trial, I didn’t have much faith, but since trial fees aren’t cheap, I showed up anyway. 

As we walked up to the first search, I noticed most of the containers were tubs and boxes. That felt promising. Smaller random containers had been way too tempting for him to grab in the past. He entered the search goofy as ever, bouncing around, trying to pick up containers, and looking at me for a reward. I didn’t call anything. I just let the clock run and waited for him to settle. Finally, he honed in on the corner of a large tub with real purpose, alerted, and I called it. “YES!” first one down. Finding the second hide was much of the same. However, he gave a more convincing alert on a box for the second hide. “YES!” We got the last Q he needed for his title. Phew. Since I had signed up for both searches, I figured we might as well run the second one, even though we had already finished the title. This time the containers were random objects. He knocked several over and looked at me like, “Well? Alert?” But I waited until I was sure he wasn’t just goofing. Looking back I am not really sure how I knew the difference. But we were able to earn a second Q that day.

And with that, we’re done with Scentwork. Our focus now is on chasing that TD title. I don’t know if we’ll ever get there, but we’re going to give it our best shot. All this to say, I think I gave him a little too much credit for compartmentalizing. Just because he can tell the difference between not chasing the cat inside but chasing the lure outside doesn’t mean he can apply that logic to every sport. That’s why I wanted to share this: training is humbling, funny, frustrating, and surprising all at once. Sometimes the dog teaches you way more than the sport itself.

                                                              Over Advanced Title Earned 

I was wearing my meta glasses for these searches. It was interesting being able to look back at them.