Nosework photos

I finally bought some photos from Nikon’s nosework trial back in June. The photographer did the exterior and box searches. Pardon my sullen look, I was nervous and very sick (shingles). Nikon passed the exterior, interior, and boxes all with ample time, clear indications, and I think no faults. He did not pass vehicles, but I was given some great tips from the judge on how to tailor his training in that area if we chose to continue. Honestly I was happy he got 3 of 4 considering he had only started in the sport about 6 months earlier. Also the conditions for the vehicle search were really difficult (it was very hot and very windy, many dogs struggled) and I think only a handful of people of 40ish entries that day passed 4 of 4. I was the most proud of his interior search. The trial was at a school and the interior consisted of a large classroom. The classroom was FULL of stuff, just like a normal room and I internally panicked when I saw how much space and STUFF we had to clear in under 2 minutes. You have 2 minutes for the dog to indicate or you fail. The entrance to the classroom was in a corner and the hide was in the far opposite corner on a chair leg. Luckily Nikon’s search style worked to our advantage, he tends to make large sweeps and then sort of spiral in toward the scent (often pausing on it but passing) until he’s sure he has pin-pointed the source, so he caught the scent has he made his initial sweep around the classroom and then checked that corner up, down, left, right until he was sure of the source. My instructor’s Beagle got the blue ribbon for the same interior, meaning he was the fastest dog to indicate correctly. After the trial we took a break from nosework because I was so busy, recovering from the illness, and also focusing on preparing for flyball nationals in August. Now that our agility equipment is packed away and we don’t have a flyball tournament until January we will pickup nosework again as a winter indoor activity.

Walking to our first search, the exterior (I think my training friend told me to lighten up)

“Alert!” The odor was on one of the bench posts (Nikon will platz if the odor is on or near the ground)

Boxes….they used the max number allowed in trial and made a big “M” shape. Nikon trotted past the first few clumps of boxes, must’ve already been onto the odor towards the back of the room.

Now he’s checking. I think the box to his right (obscured by his head) is the one he indicated (correctly). I was hoping we’d get a ribbon for his boxes but alas, a few of the other dogs were even faster! The ribbons are awarded for speed/time which is kind of silly since it’s pass/fail as long as you are under time and fast is not always accurate, but as a fellow competitor it’s still fun to see how amazingly fast some of the dogs are since we cannot watch each other perform or talk about it.