NW2 Pictures – At Long Last!

Hey, everyone!  Hope you all had safe and wonderful Thanksgiving holidays.  You might remember – Pieka and I successfully completed our NW2 trial all the way back in July.  I promised to put up working pictures once I had them.

The photographer JUST finished them and I got my order in the mail.   Seriously, it’s been MONTHS.  So, I know it’s been a long time but I thought you might enjoy them.  I will try to post them in some semblance of an order with narration so you know what’s happening.  I don’t think the photos are great (certainly not as lovely as her NW1 photos, which were taken by the same photographer) but I do like that I have photos from three elements – vehicle, exterior, and containers.  The only one missing is interiors and there was no room for a photographer.

We completed the interior element first.  It was two rooms, with three total hides.  Then we went back to our car for about 2 hours.  Our next elements were vehicles, immediately followed by exteriors.   By the time it was our turn, it was well into the 90’s with blistering sun.

So, we started the vehicle search.  There were three cars,  in a weird zigzag pattern that made it hard to find a “flowing” search pattern.   Two hides.  Here, you can see Pieka rounding the first vehicle, but she’s not in odor.

She found the first hide on the hitch of the second vehicle, but the photographer did not get a good shot of her search or indication.  We came off the second car and went onto the third.  You can see the visible increase of interest – she’s in odor:

We worked our way around the car to find the hide:

The next two photos aren’t great shots of Pieka working – but they show how HOT she is.  Despite the miserable conditions, she worked like a champ.  I bought copies of these photos to remind myself how hard Pieka tries, even when it’s difficult.  I will never forget what an effort she gave me at this trial.

After we finished vehicles, I paused to give her a quick drink and spritz her face with water.  Then, we walked around the corner to our exterior search.  Only one hide here.  These photos don’t show the scope of the search – but it was a big area with lots of “things” where a hide could be.  Pieka seemed to be in odor at the start line, but lost it.   So, we worked the perimeter, just like we practiced.  You can see she’s focused and really trying:

We worked our way back around.  The hide was up in the drainage pipe you see – Pieka indicated from above.  It was an awkward angle for her, but she worked it out!

After that, we went back to the car for a break.  I soaked her Swamp Cooler in cool water and put the fans on her to help cool her off.  About an hour later, it was time for containers.  I was so nervous – containers can be HARD at the NW2 level.  I knew we only needed this element to finish our title (on our very first try).  I turned on my car and air conditioner for awhile to get both of us cooled down.   Right before the search, another little drink and spritz of water.  Fortunately, it was indoors, so we were out of the blistering sun.

She seemed to have good energy going into the search.  Good, purposeful searching and she was easy to direct:

“Hello, photographer lady!  Why, yes, I AM gorgeous.  Thank you for noticing.”

The trial officials were super tricky.  They put the hide in a regular old box!  Not one of the fancy containers.   She started to indicate.  This is her “Mom, I am pretty sure I found it” face.

Followed by the “Yep.  I am sure.” face.  You can see the confident, happy expression in her eyes.   I KNEW she had it.

And that completed our title.  🙂    Hope you enjoyed!   We will be trying for the NW3 title, hopefully in 2014.  I want to work on competition obedience for awhile first, but I really love NoseWork and want to keep doing it!