Gabe and I attempt NACSW Elite

Elite was a level I thought I'd never reach.  It was also a 'first' with Gabe, something of which we've not had many ("Here I am again on a tiger skin rug," whispers a marvelous short story by John Collier in his anthology "Fancies and Goodnights," I highly recommend it!).  So I wanted to remember every bit of it.  And I needed to process it, which meant writing it down.  Nobody needs to read it!  But if I don't publish it, I won't remember it.  

Trials are typically not yet on the calendar for any organization at the time we make our summer travel plans, so being able to attend any during the six months we spend in the motorhome is very much an element of luck.  This year, we weren't near any AKC or UKC trials, but have been very lucky with NACSW.  We finished Gabe's NW3 journey in Sandy, OR, in May and then got into our first Elite trial in Reedsport, OR, on Sunday, August 17. 

Doug and Ziva traveled with us to the Sandy trial, which was about 3 hours from where we were staying in Bend.  Two-and-a-half hours is generally my limit for "getting up early to get there morning-of" but I am even more wary when the roads are unfamiliar and wind through the mountains.  The Reedsport trial was on the edge for distance but the twisty coast road that is prone to washouts or being blocked by accidents during early morning fog, so I made a motel reservation for the Saturday night before the trial in nearby Florence.  This was my first ever Elite trial, as Ziva's health fell apart before she made it out of NW3.  

I only realized during the trip that it was the first time Gabe and I have traveled solo.  For the last 18 months, he and I have been working hard on our relationship.  Don't get me wrong, we love each other, but ours is not the easy connection Gabe has with Doug.  I have Expectations and he has Needs and they are not always in sync.  We do really well and then have setbacks, like my nosedive into the sand while he lunged at horses on the beach a couple of weeks ago.  We're better than we were but not as good as we could be.  Still, for this trip, he could not have been a better-behaved dog, although I think all that self-control really took a toll on his energy. 

Location

The ELT/ELT trial weekend was to be in the Reedsport High School, which was the location of one of the early NACSW Summit trials back in 2017.  However, host Jean Richardson emailed on the Monday before the trial that the school was being given over to firefighters because it was far enough away from the Scholfield Ridge fire they were battling for them to be safe, and west of the fire so they were out of the smoke.   Richardson and co-host Kidde Christie scrambled, moving the trial to the elementary school just a few blocks away, where they already had an NW3/ELT weekend planned for the end of September.  That sounded to me like an easy-peasy fix, just swap the two locations, right?  But Jean explained that the space requirements for the levels were different; it sounds like they will actually have to use both schools for the September weekend, and so the search areas for the August trials were carefully planned with that in mind, keeping them odor-free.  Truly, nobody knows what goes into hosting a trial except the people who do it!  And, of course, it rained on the Friday before the trials, containing the fire enough that the firefighters were able to pack up and leave. 

Firefighter Camp - Reedsport High School

So this actually turned out to be one fewer "first" for us, because I had been to the Elementary school before, for an NW3 with Ziva in 2022.  It was not one of our better performances, with two "no"s, a missed hide and a time out.  I was hoping to re-write my history with the site.  

Poor Ziva has had pneumonia since we left Arizona in mid-April, and I was praying she would be stable enough for me to leave overnight.  She had x-rays the Tuesday before the trial that showed her lungs to be clear, though, so Gabe and I set out on Saturday, the 16th.   It was a bit cloudy and foggy but the Oregon coast is never anything but spectacular and Highway 101 overlooks the ocean much of the way from where Doug is camp host for August and September near Pacific City south to Florence and Reedsport.  Ziva's medications are on file at Walmart (simply because that has turned out to be the most ubiquitous pharmacy during our travels), and the nearest one is in Newport, about an hour south, so I'd called in a refill since I would be nearby for a change.  After we picked up her pills, Gabe and I visited the little Yaquina Bay lighthouse in Newport where Doug had been the interpretive host back in 2022.  The tower at the top had been taken down and shipped to Alabama for restoration, and was replaced just a couple of days before we passed through.  It's good to see the place getting some much-needed love! 

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, Newport, OR, August 16, 2025

We also stopped in Yachats at three of my favorite art galleries.  Note to self -- enter lottery!!!!  Oh, such lovely things.

Our motel in Florence was an updated vintage motor hotel, with knotty-pine paneling and very petite rooms.  The Three Sisters room had all the Mod Cons, though, including a refrigerator with freezer compartment (SO important when living out of a cooler!), hand-held shower (so European!), k-cup coffee machines in the room, and terrific wifi (Walkthroughs!)  I was really surprised not to see any obvious dog-trial vehicles at the motel -- there was plenty of grass to walk, even small cabins you could rent.  

The motel even had "Gabe TV" - a low window!

With an Elite trial on Saturday, I got to watch the walkthroughs and debrief for the same level we'd run the next day, tres fortunate.  Our walkthroughs were up quite early, by 5pm, I think?  The spaces were what I was expecting -- a large outdoor area that encompassed a little courtyard and a large covered Pavilion, the Library, Classrooms 2 & 5, and Classroom 26.  Gabe and I had a relaxing evening, enjoying a supper I had packed, and then half-listening to a Marvel movie (guilty pleasure, Doug doesn't do Marvel) while I diagrammed the search areas and sipped a glass of wine.  I talked with Doug on the phone and he said all was well, that Ziva had eaten and had her pills and gone for her walks as usual, a relief because she doesn't like to be apart from me and I was a bit worried.  There was absolutely no reason for us not to have gotten a good night's sleep, but I was excited and Gabe was a bit stressed (long car ride, novel things, all the Responsibility!), so we were up bright and early.  

We got to the school at exactly 8:15, no earlier than specified, always satisfying.  Does anyone else bother to freak out about the NACSW arrival time like I do?  The host sternly requests that you not come early, but then when you get there on the dot, the parking lot volunteers are stressed because there's nowhere left to put you because everyone else came early.  However, this day, things fell perfectly into place.  I got a front row parking spot where I could see both staging areas and (whoa) nobody parked on either side of us!  (Yes, I remembered to use deodorant -- everybody just spread out, so nice!) 

I really liked this August 12 post by Alexandra Butler of Enigma Canine and put it where I could see it throughout the day.  It helped keep perspective. 

Sally and Rhonda were my remote parking lot buddies, texting me encouragement throughout the day.  I huddled under the aluminet with my notes and goals and snoring puppy, perfectly happy.  Richardson had said that there were 10 COs present on Saturday in various roles; I knew at least four on Sunday, and from the conversation that swirled through the parking lot, many participants were judges and CNWIs, with lots of talk about the efficiency of various marketing techniques and what to do with students that simply won't take direction.  Is that just generally what Elite is like?  I'm glad my imposter syndrome didn't know that, if so.

In the run order, we were team 30 out of 30.  Well, somebody has to do it.  Richardson and Christie use a parking lot app with which I'm not familiar.  It requires internet, of course, but, right in town, that wasn't really a problem.  And it worked very nicely.  I think it's by Jen and Dave McCluskey of Red Huskies LLC in Maryland.  It really only works for NACSW as there can only be two searches going on at a time.  But it's very straightforward and is $100 a year for unlimited uses.

 The Pavilion and Library searches were first.  Pavilion started with dog 1 and Library with dog 12.  You could see on the app which dogs had completed a search and the next four dogs that were up for each.  There was only one staging chair for each search and the dog at the top of the list was in that chair.  Christie said that if they can use that app, they can usually put on a trial with only 5 or 6 volunteers, which sounds just amazing to me.  One person was able to monitor both staging chairs and update the numbers in the app and there was never any shouting for teams or searching the parking lot.  Maybe that's how Elite goes, though, since everyone knows what they are doing? 

Thus, we ran the Library first -- our first ever Elite search, squeeee!   It was 5:30 with an unknown number of hides, run on or off leash, and this is the walkthrough.  I was glad to get this search first.  I'm always more comfortable in a place with a ton of books.  Gabe loves off-leash searches.  My guess was that there would be at least 6 hides and possibly 7, and my reminders were Thresholds, Transitions, Coverage (deep into corners!), Mirrors, Close hides and Elevation.  It was a little after 11am when we ran our first search of the day.  

Here's my Meta Ray Ban glasses video of our Library Search.  Spoilers, okay, that ending is a heartbreaker and I want to kill me, too, but I was just SO happy we did as well as we did!  Wow, what a great feeling.  Good job, Skitterpants!  (This was on our scorecard from judge Julia Back:) 

The Pavilion search, next, was also 5:30, with a range of 3-6 hides (walkthrough).  I thought there would be at least 5, more if some were close together.  It was kind of a "perimeter" search, with three areas more likely to be productive -- the entry area with planter boxes and little concrete toadstool seats; the picnic table and ball cart in the back of the pavilion; and the picnic tables clustered at the bottom of the pavilion.  In the past at this site, there had been hides by tetherball or basketball hoop poles.  Ziva and I had missed a hide on a downspout.  And you can't rule out the walls for the pavilion. 

Here's my Meta Ray Ban glasses video of the Pavilion search.  I was happy but knew we could do better.  I was pretty sure we had missed at least one but I thought it was on the picnic tables.  I was smart enough to circle back to the threshold when we were in that area but didn't let Gabe lead, so I pushed him past that hide.  At the end, I had time enough to go back again... but didn't.  He was just kind of dragging.  You can really see how draining it is for him that I'm taking over... it's tough when he really would like to stand and look around for at least three minutes in a new space like that, though.  Given those challenges, I'm okay with how we did.  Finding our teamwork when he's on leash and outdoors is still very much a work in progress, though.  

As the last team for the morning, we finished shortly after noon and there was a 45-minute lunch break before the two shorter searches began.  Dog 1 started in the "Classrooms 2 & 5" search, which was on leash and was two classrooms across the hall from one another.  It was 3:50 and a known number of 4 hides (walkthrough).  Dog 12 started in the Classroom 26 search, which was 3:00, unknown number and on or off leash. (walkthrough).  

So Classroom 26 was our first search of the afternoon.  I sat in the staging chair and just relished being there -- with gorgeous weather and having this day to myself and my dog. 

So happy to be there! 

I don't know if I was Too Relaxed or what... but I forgot to start both my camera AND my stopwatch.  I was excited to let Gabe do another off-leash search.  With the 3:00 time, I expected four hides and was looking for threshold hides, transition hides, mirror hides, maybe some elevation, maybe some deep corners.  I cast Gabe into the room like he was a Frisbee and... he just bounced around.  He checked out the little red "truck," some chairs, some boxes, some wastebaskets.  But he wouldn't settle on anything.  When we got our 30 second warning, I called finish because I was pretty sure my dog was broken.  I apologized to the judge, Ramona Audette, whom I know slightly and who had greeted Gabe warmly for the Pavilion search with a friendly, "I see they saved the best for last!"  

"I'm sorry," I said.  "We had a good morning, I don't know what happened.  Maybe I've already used him up?"  

"Well, Gabe," she said, with an absolutely stony face, "you and your Mom are just going to have to go back to the parking lot and think about that, right?"   And she looked like someone had died and I thought, "this is it, they are going to kick us out of Elite because we are taking up space someone else could use."   

I had this exchange with Sally: 

Well, dang.  Still, the last search was a known number -- how bad could it be?  Waiting to run, everything was being picked up and put away around us because... last dog.  Normally, having everyone waiting on me to be done with a search makes me absolutely CRAZY.  I would rather swallow my own change rather than take the time to put it back into my purse at the checkout counter -- I just hate to give people any reason to be impatient with me.  But this day, I had vowed to enjoy and remember every second.  And I did.  We savored sitting in the staging chair, having some Poodle neck massage (he loves that when we're waiting).  We rocked the walk to the start line, humming a little of his Walk On music ("One" from A Chorus Line on this occasion).  Gabe pulled me into the room to the left, and this is where I should have remembered what Aleks said, when he bee-lines there is always a reason.  He did find an inaccessible hide in the room but I kept him there far to long and then ignored what he was telling me in the doorway.  He found one in the other room, and judge Julia Back was obviously trying not to laugh/cry/choke as we eked out the third alert in the final seconds, as we had earlier failed to do under her watch in the Library.  So we knew we missed one in that room.  Could we have found it up over the door?  Maybe... but 28 other dogs missed it, also. 

Here is my Meta Ray Ban Glasses video of the first three minutes of the Classrooms 2 & 5 search. 

It was only a few minutes after we got back to the car that the Debrief Map was posted.  I knew we'd missed a hide in the Library and also in the last search, and I suspected we had in the Pavilion.  But I was absolutely STUNNED to see that Classroom 26 had been blank.  "I thought my dog was broken!" Joan Goforth said.  "But then we went to the recover box and she hit it hard and I knew she wasn't."  Well, maybe it should occur to me to use the recovery box.  MAYBE it should occur to me to trust my dog!   Seriously, though, if I didn't talk that dog into a false alert during that interminable, painful search when I was POSITIVE we were repeatedly walking past at least 3 hides... he quite possibly is the best nosework dog on the planet, or right up there in the running, anyway.  

In the end, we were 7th out of the 30, with 83.33 points that we get to keep, yay!  I had thought to myself going in that if we scored in the 70s, I'd be happy, so I was pretty delirious about this.  It's hard not to "what if" about the mistakes (so close!), but, hey, it's Elite -- hopefully, there will be a bunch more "next times!"  

We stopped in Depoe Bay on the way back and had our respective suppers but we didn't see any whales.  I took Gabe for a short constitutional and a heavily tattooed and pierced young woman appeared out of nowhere to ask if she could pet him.  "Sure!" I said, hoping it didn't occur to him to launch a nose poke at her; if he hooked a tooth on any of the piercings, it would be Very Bad.  But Gabe just leaned against her and closed his eyes.  She had a Pomsky, she said, and showed me a picture on her phone.  "But Poodles are just special, aren't they?"  And she gave me a painted rock, because "He so handsome he deserves to get presents."  And when I looked around again, she was gone.   You know, if he does have a fairy godmother, that's probably exactly what she would look like. 

Gabe deserved it, she said.

We got home a little before 7pm.  Ziva started coughing almost immediately, and, sure enough, the Vet confirmed the next morning that she had aspiration pneumonia again.  But we got antibiotics and she's already doing better.

Gabe was exhausted.  He slept for two days straight.  "You're not a kid anymore, Kiddo.  I don't think you'll ever be a kid again," rasps Elaine Stritch in 'Company.'  

And I realized as I got back into things -- meetings, the online class I'm teaching, correspondence and planning -- that Saturday and Sunday were the first days in... years, maybe? that I had gone without despair over the state of the world, without panic over Ziva's health, without angst over things I should be doing (better, faster, cheaper, with less bitching) and just... breathed and did what needed to be done next.  And THAT was incredible.   If that can happen every time?  Then I hope Elite goes on forever! 

Our thoughts on the Meta Ray Ban smart glasses for nosework

The guest co-author on this blog post is Rhonda Lockwood.  Rhonda's partner is Raven, a very accomplished German Shepherd Dog.  They split their time between South Dakota and Arizona and compete in NACSW nosework and AKC Scent Work.  Rhonda got her Meta Ray Ban smart glasses soon after I got mine and she generously agreed to provide her thoughts.  

I believe capturing video for review in both practice and competition nosework searches is one of the most important things one can do to identify team weaknesses and mistakes and thus drive improvement.   It's fun to use video to participate in online classes and exercises like the NACSW Skills Challenges, and the videos make for wonderful memories, too.  Possibly most importantly, they document progress and also let you cherish and celebrate times where things went really right.  

There are basically two types of videos possible under the rules (not all are allowed by all venues): 

1. Handler viewpoint, usually characterized as "chest" or "head" mount
2. Onlooker viewpoint, including professional videographer services, stationary tripod mount or handheld video by another person.

Both types can provide a lot of value.  Onlooker viewpoint gives a "big picture" that shows how you are moving, shifting your weight, what direction your feet, hips and shoulders are facing.  It may show what is going on around you during the search.  Personally, if professional video is available, I'm going to buy it.  And I use tripod-mount for a lot of class and other online submissions because the guidelines often specify that the video should show both handler and dog.

In handler viewpoint, it's pretty easy to tell if you weren't oriented toward your dog, or weren't looking at your dog, and just discovering that can be worth it.  Handler viewpoint video is handy for any exercise requiring a video submission when you need to move around a corner or cover a big area.  And it is so great to have for trials -- you can review it right after a run, "what happened in there?"  You don't have to find a friend who is not entered or who has already searched to video you.  And you have a record to review in the situations where there is no professional videographer. 

For handler viewpoint, the vast majority of people are using Go-Pro type cameras, often the same ones the professional videographers are using, with a chest mount, a headband mount, or clipped onto a headband or at the waist.  I originally wrote that I thought Go-Pro was the "gold standard" for handler-viewpoint video.  Not everyone agreed, and Rhonda put together this terrific analysis: 

Further, Rhonda has recorded three different searches using all three methods at once, in order to compare and contrast.  Each video shows the search from the perspective of the cell phone and tripod, then the Go Pro chest mount, then the Meta Ray Ban glasses:

Interior Search #1

Interior Search #2

Containers 

People often ask what they look like, what styles are available, how much do they cost, etc.  The best resources for that are the Meta Store, The Ray Ban Store, Reddit groups or Facebook Groups (lots of selfies on that last, not my favorite resource).  A couple of important things: 

• There are presently 3 frame styles.  Try to find frames at a sticks and bricks retailer to try on, but be aware sales associates are often not familiar with the options and one can usually find the broadest range of options online through Meta or Ray Ban
• Wayfarer   (comes in two sizes and the large is REALLY large)
• Headliner  (comes in two nosebridge heights)  
• Skyler 

• Frame colors vary.  Some are translucent.  There are limited frame color / lens combinations, i.e. you can only get the red lenses in the blue frames.  They occasionally offer limited edition colors for substantial markup.  

• Standard lens options are
• Clear 
• Blue-violet light screening (computer use)
• Transition
• Do not darken behind U/V protection glass like a windshield
• Do not get REALLY dark 
• Be aware some of the "clear" Transitions are subtly tinted 
• No "factory" Transition lenses are polarized
• These take about 30 seconds to fully darken or lighten 
• Sunnies
• Lens colors vary
• Only some are polarized
• Prescription lenses are available through Meta and they say they will take FSA and HSA.
• Other lens colors -- sunglasses, transitions, tints, polarization, and prescription are also available from other vendors.  Many users "pop these in" themselves.  

• If you have access to an educator or student email, look for discounts available to you  
• Lots of "influencers" got free glasses, sometimes several pairs, and those are often available 'new in box' on Ebay
• Meta has just announced a collab with Oakley, for "performance" smart glasses, "coming soon."  UPDATE: Info shows they have additional storage and polarized lenses but no mention of longer video capability

Here's the Meta article on what the smart glasses can do and how they work.  

• An app is required, so you need either an Android or ios Phone or Tablet.  There is no way to connect the glasses to a laptop or desktop computer.
• Both Rhonda (ios) and I (Android) found the app to be very user-friendly and intuitive.  
• The app is how you change settings, like the default length of a video.  Choices are 30 seconds, 1 minute or 3 minutes.  
• I also turn on "auto import" so if the glasses are in range of the phone, videos and pictures will automatically get sucked onto the phone's memory and deleted from the glasses.
• Not much works at the same time as video is recording!  You can set timers, play music, ask "what am I looking at?" or "what time is it" or lots of other "automated assistant" things but pretty much nothing works at the same time as video recording.  
• So you could use these to time your search and to play music during your search but if you turn on video, both those things stop.
• They do seem to understand all my spoken commands quite well with the exception of playing music.  They do that through the apps on my phone so maybe it's just my apps but if I say, for example, "play the soundtrack from Dear Evan Hansen" I'm more likely to get "Here are Country favorites by Jennifer Hanson on Sirius XM" or (heaven help me) "Here's mmmBop from Hanson on Amazon Music." 

I haven't played around with all the AI things the glasses can do, which seems ridiculous given the expense, but I'm like, "no, these are my NOSEWORK glasses, I just do NOSEWORK with them."

• Many of the AI features only work in the US, which is unfortunate if you really wanted to use the real-time translation feature to enter an SDDA trial in Quebec and don't speak French, for example.
•  The "what am I looking at?" feature has hugely variable results, but, often, it provides a very broad description:

The glasses say this is "A bush, or maybe some flowers"
(which was funny because, moments before, it identified sagebrush and gave the Latin name, too!) 

Other than nosework, however, my main enjoyment with them has been the ability to take pictures and video, especially while walking the dogs... Now, there are lots of times when I say "gosh, I wish I had the camera glasses on right now!"  They are a bit heavier than my "usual" (drug store Foster Grant) sunglasses and not quite as comfortable, but definitely not such an irritation that I think about them during a search.  In fact, one problem has been forgetting which sunglasses I have on and going to a search with the wrong ones!  Rhonda says "I love it for dog walking, taking pictures and videos and I also love it for talking on the phone. It’s as clear for the people on the other end as my AirPods!!"

Initially, friends were taken aback by the glasses, saying, nervously, "we'll have to watch what we say around Kristi now, with the spy glasses!"  There is an externally-visible LED that comes on when you are recording, though, and Meta has made it pretty darned impossible to cover that up.  But with the 3 minute limit and the very visible/audible on/off mechanisms, it's kind of hard to get much covert action out of them (which is great, imo).  

There is a 'status" light on the inside of the right temple.  It turns on when recording video but I find it impossible to see in any kind of light at all.  This photo was taken in the dark.  

LED glows when recording - but it is hard to see in sunlight
There are cameras on both sides, but the LED is only on the right side.

Short Dogs & AKC Scent Work

 A couple of weeks ago, someone in the Texas Scent Work group (it's a great group, Caroline Oldham moderates, if she let me in, I bet she'll let you in if you ask nicely 😀) with a question.  The poster noticed that there were very few small dogs among the Detective titleholders, and wondered whether it is true that small dogs don't succeed as much in the upper levels of AKC Scent Work, and why that might be.  While it's easy to jump to the idea that upper levels include higher hides and short dogs are at a disadvantage for those, a lot of people made a lot of very sensible additional and alternative observations, including some I'd certainly never considered before.  It was a great discussion! 

But then it occurred to me -- if we look more closely at the data, does it actually support this hypothesis about short dogs?   I started by looking at our Detective report from Demo Dog Database (DDD), the project in which my husband and I scrape data from the AKC's publicly published results for Scent Work trials and make them available to handlers as a companion to the AKC's Titles and Points Progression report.  Any DDD data I reference in this blog post uses the AKC Scent Work results through June 22, 2024.

Sorting the Detective titleholders by breed, I got this: 

First observation: there seem to be a few over-achievers!  Labs, GSDs, Goldens, Border Collies and the All American dogs account for 40% of the 323 Detective titles earned as of June 22.  For the sake of this particular question, I disregarded the Detective "multiples" we calculate at DDD -- each dog of a breed only counts as "one" no matter how many more than 10 Detective Qs they have. 

Now, some of the All American dogs could very well be small.  But it kind of seems like everybody that isn't a Lab, GSD, Golden, Border Collie or All American Dog has the same disadvantage -- they aren't one of those 'breeds' - so I took them out of the mix.  

I rather arbitrarily assigned an asterisk to dogs that I thought might be considered not necessarily small, but short in stature, with a breed standard of height at the withers of less than 15".  Some of the dogs searching could well be oversize, who knows?  And Eskies were on the bubble and I didn't include them as short.  But, looking at that, 25% of the "non-overachiever" breeds that earned Detective titles were short dogs.  That didn't seem too shabby.  

However, Miniature American Shepherds, Shelties and Corgis were right up there in numbers, all Herding dogs.  And we know what powerhouses Beagle noses are for the Hound Group.  The "many dogs with Detective titles" breeds might have more in common with their Group brethren than with other short dogs.  So let's look at numbers based on AKC Group.  

While Detective is definitely the Ultimate achievement (for now), using the Detective numbers also limits the data quite a bit.  And, really, the question was "is it true that small dogs don't succeed as much in the upper levels," with Detective being the easiest to quantify at a glance.  So I pulled data for a table by AKC Group that shows persistence from "every dog that got at least one qualifying score" to how many earned each level title, and then included Detective.  The percentages shown for each level are out of the number of dogs that earned at least one qualifying score.  While it would be very interesting to know the number of dogs that attempted at least one search, qualifying or not, that information isn't available by group or breed.  

This held a number of surprises.  For starters, I'd just assumed that the list would start with All American dogs.  Look at you, Herding and Sporting!  Over twice as many Herding dogs earned at least one Q compared to All American... and I have to believe there is pretty extensive correlation there between "dogs that have ever competed" and "dogs that got at least one Q in Novice," don't you?  I'm not sure why I thought most entrants would be All-American, and I would have thought there would have been more Sporting dogs than Herding.  

The second interesting thing was the general consistency in the persistence percentages.  One unknown here is time -- have only about 50% of the dogs that earned a Q gotten an overall Novice title simply because they are new to the sport and started more recently?  Or is there actual attrition, discontinuation of the sport? 

The third interesting thing was that a noticeably smaller percent of All American dogs that got a Q have (so far) gone on to earn their SWN.  But the persistence across the board for SWA are quite similar.  

At SWE, however, the Toy Group begins to lag, and by SWM, there *is* a visible difference.  Now, we know that most of the Groups also include lots of short dogs.  So we can't really deduce anything about short dogs from this, necessarily.  We can, however, say that dogs in the Toy group that start in Scent Work do not seem to complete Excellent or Master titles at the same rate as the dogs from the other Groups, which does speak to the original question posed.  

It seemed like the next thing to look at might be the persistence across levels of individual breeds.  I'll post that information once I have it pulled together.  

The Question of a Championship title for AKC Scent Work

**Edited to include fact check corrections from members of the "Friends of AKC Scent Work" Facebook group.  Thank you!!!

A lot of Scent Work competitors have opined that Scent Work dogs should have the opportunity to earn a Championship.  I agree, but before I could form any kind of idea how I thought such a thing might work, I wanted to better understand how the existing championships work -- what has the AKC implemented in the past, and what is good and, well, not so good about those systems? This post is mostly an attempt at organizing what I learned, in case that is helpful to you, as well.

What is a Championship? 

If you're involved with dogs registered with the AKC -- the American Kennel Club -- for any length of time, sooner or later, someone will tell you about a "well-rounded dog," one that has "titles on both the front and the back."  What they mean is that Agnes' adorably, scruffy little dog that you know as "Tuffy" has a much more impressive "official" name, something like "Hezawonder Tuffy McSquiggles at Aglandia."   But when the name is listed in official documentation, it also includes any titles the dog has earned.  Some of those can be for "stuff the dog has done" like accomplishments in Agility or Obedience.  These are characterized as "postfix" titles because they are listed after the name, so when Tuffy and Agnes earn a CD (Companion Dog title), he becomes Hezawonder Tuffy McSquiggles at Aglandia CD.   

In the AKC, titles that go in front of the name -- prefix titles -- are Championships.  Mostly, we think of the Champion titles as coming from Conformation competition, where dogs are gaited and posed in front of a judge.  The judge compares each dog to the published standard for that breed, and then decides which dog most closely matches the mental picture described by the standard.  After winning that comparison competition under a specific set of parameters, a dog like Tuffy becomes a conformation Champion, and is then known as CH Hezawonder Tuffy McSquiggles CD -- now a well-rounded dog with titles "at both ends."  

National Championships

Actually -- and something many people don't realize -- there are several other avenues through which a dog can be declared a Champion.  Like the postfix titles, these prefix titles are based on demonstrated behavior, as opposed to the physical appearance and movement upon which the conformation championship is awarded. There are two types of championships that come from things other than conformation -- National Champions and Champions.  National Championship titles are awarded to dogs that "win" at specific competitions.  For example, the National Obedience Champion (NOC) prefix title is awarded to the dog that wins the National Obedience Invitational, which is held annually.  A National Champion title has been defined for AKC Scent Work: SWNC, Scent Work National Champion of [year].   This title is to be awarded following a national competition organized by the AKC's Scent Work division. None has yet been held, so no dog holds that title yet.  We'll come back to the whole idea of the Scent Work National Champion later on.  

"Earned over time" Championships

The other type of Championship title is earned over time as the dog is repeatedly judged to meet specific criteria.   Tuffy's conformation championship described previously is one example, and there are actually five additional tiers of award that dogs can achieve in conformation.   Then there are at least twenty-four other types of "earned over time" championships, all based on demonstrated behavior and skills.  

Many of these are restricted by breed: Field Championships (FC) are only awarded to dogs eligible to compete in Beagle, Basset, Dachshund, Spaniel, Pointing Breed, or Retriever Field Trials, or to the hound breeds eligible to participate in lure coursing events. Herding Championships (HC) can only be earned by dogs from breeds on the approved list for herding trials.  And, honestly, I don't know what to tell you about Coonhounds... they are a world unto themselves, with nine different prefix champion titles all their own.   Somebody should totally write an article or book about whatever happened in 2004 to bring all that about.  But I digress.

For Agility, Obedience, Rally Obedience and Tracking, however, any AKC-registered dog is eligible to work toward earning a championship.  Mixed-breed dogs (and those from breeds which the AKC does not recognize) have been able to be registered with the AKC since 2011 as "All American dogs," and are thus able to participate in AKC events like these.  

Many have suggested that such an earned championship in Scent Work should be awarded when "all" the existing titles have been achieved.  And there is actually precedent for this.   

Tracking - an "earn all the titles" Championship

Scent Work is, arguably, a closer cousin to Tracking than to any of the other sports.  Tracking has been around much longer, initially having been a part of the Utility Dog title, but becoming a separate discipline in the 1940s.  Tracking is classified by the AKC as a "Companion Dog" sport, along with Agility, Obedience and Rally, while Scent Work is a "Performance event,"  something that most of us find inexplicable, but if that matters, only the AKC knows why.  Tracking events are "Tests" rather than "Trials" -- they are non-competitive and pass/fail in nature.  In fact, Tracking (along with Rally Obedience and Agility) offers an earned championship that doesn't *require* competition, doesn't require the "defeat" of a certain number of dogs. 

In Tracking, the Champion Tracker title is earned based on an aggregation of the Tracking Dog or Tracking Dog Urban titles, and the Tracking Dog Excellent title and the Variable Surface Tracking Dog title.  In each case, the successful track must only be demonstrated once, although there is "certification" required, essentially testimony by an expert that a dog is sufficiently skills to warrant eligibility for a titling test, not dissimilar to the Odor Recognition Test employed by other nosework organizations.   There are also "numeric" title options, for example "TD2" or "VST3" indicating that the dog has met the titling requirements, i.e. passed the test, more than once.  

The biggest difference between Tracking and Scent Work, however, is in the availability of resources for training and trialing and the resulting participation numbers for each sport.  Suitable space in which to lay tracks can be very difficult to find, even for the Urban and Variable Surface types.  But possibly even harder in today's world is setting aside the time to train: tracks must be 'aged,' often for hours as the challenges increase.  This also means that tracking tests are extremely limited in numbers of participants.  In 2022, in Tracking, there were 1372 entrants in 359 tracking tests, and 495 titles awarded; 38 were Championships.   By contrast, that same year, there were 191,104 entrants in 1,514 Scent Work trials and 31,213 titles awarded.   So, while the two types of event have a great deal in common in terms of the behavior being demonstrated, the day-to-day environment in which the two sports live is extremely different. 

Points-based Championships 

With the exception of Tracking's "earn all the titles to become a Champion Tracker" policy, the rest of the "earned over time" championships all rely on some sort of points systems.  In many cases -- Conformation, Field Trials, Lure Coursing and Herding -- the points awarded are based on placement in competition in which a minimum number of dogs participated, often with a points schedule that increases the points awarded as the number of dogs defeated increases.  These sports are all restricted by breed in some fashion with Conformation being the most liberal, only excluding the All-American (mixed breed) Dogs.  These systems usually require 15 points for a championship award.  It should be noted that each may have other specialized requirements, as well.  Spaniels must pass a water test; Bassets, Dachshunds and the herding dogs must place first a certain number of times; and there are often required "major" wins that come into play, an assurance that, at least some of the time, the dog was competing successfully within a large group, fishing in a "bigger" pond.

There are, then, only three sports besides Tracking that are not breed restricted in participation and that have paths to "earned over time" championship:  Obedience, Rally Obedience and Agility.   They all use point schedules -- with additional requirements -- as well. 

Obedience

The Obedience Trial Championship (OTCH) is awarded upon the earning of 100 points and the completion of a few other requirements.  Dogs are eligible to begin to accumulate championship points once they earn the Utility Dog title and earning the Companion Dog and Companion Dog Excellent titles are a required precursor to attempting the Utility Dog title.  Points are earned by placing in the Open B (with a minimum entry of 6) and and Utility (minimum entry of 3) classes.  Placing first in Open B earns between 2 and 34 points depending on how many dogs were defeated (5 to 49+) and placing first in Utility earns between 2 and 40 points depending on the number of dogs defeated (2 to 40+).  There is a separate points schedule for events held in Alaska and Hawaii.  Dogs must also have earned a first place in Open B, a first place in Utility and one more blue ribbon from either class, all under different judges and only one of those can be earned at a Specialty (breed-restricted) show; the rest must all be from all-breed events.  It is possible to earn "numeric" OTCH titles with repeated achievement, and I *think* that OTCH61 may be the highest numeric awarded thus far.  There were 242 OTCH (or numerics) awarded in 2022.

Rally Obedience

The Rally Obedience Championship (RACH) is awarded upon the earning of 300 points and the completion of one additional (big!) requirement.  Dogs can begin to accumulate championship points after they earn the Rally Excellent title, which has Rally Novice and Rally Advanced as precursor requirements.   Points are awarded based on the score given in the Advanced B, Excellent B and Master classes, with a score of 91 earning 4 points and a perfect score of 100 earning 10 points.  In addition, the dog earn 20 "triple Qs," receiving qualifying scores in Advanced B, Excellent B and Master on the same day in the same trial. The AKC introduced a Virtual Rally Obedience titling program during the pandemic in 2020, and has since made this a permanent option.  Virtual titles are identical to those earned in face-to-face events and championship points can be accumulated through Virtual scores but there is no option to satisfy the "triple Qs" requirement through the Virtual Rally Obedience program, so a RACH cannot be earned entirely online.  "Numeric" titles are possible with additional points here, also.  356 RACH titles (or numerics) were awarded in 2022.  RACH10 may be the highest numeric.

Agility

The Agility Championship comes in two flavors, the Master Agility Champion (MACH) and Preferred Agility Champion (PACH).  In Agility, dogs are measured at the withers (spot where spine meets neck) and that height is used to determine how high the jumps will be on their course.  There are five options -- 8", 12", 16", 20" and 24" -- and judges keep the size of the dog in mind when they "wheel" the course they have created, measuring the total distance the dog is likely to travel and using that measurement to calculate a "Course time" that is different for each height division.  The Preferred Agility classes were introduced in 2002 and allow dogs to jump 4" less than would be required by their height, and also giving them 5 extra seconds of course time.  For the championship, dogs must earn 750 points out of regular classes for the MACH or out of Preferred classes for the PACH.  A point is earned for each full second the dog's qualifying time is under the official Course Time for the Excellent B Standard and Excellent B Jumpers with Weaves classes.   At one time, first place dogs doubled their points and second place dogs earn 1.5 times their points (with all fractions being rounded away), but that policy went away.     Dogs must also have 20 "double Qs," in which they have qualified in both the Excellent B Standard and Jumpers with Weaves classes on the same day at the same trial.  Dogs can earn both the MACH and PACH and numeric titles are possible with both.  Interestingly, the PACH title is the only championship that was "retroactive" -- if dogs had completed the requirements for the PACH before that title was introduced in 2011, they were awarded the title at that time.   In 2022, 1943 MACHs (or numerics) were awarded, with the highest being MACH47.  For the PACH, 719 were awarded, with the highest being PACH18.

Agility also has a Grand Championship, which is achieved through 100 qualifying scores from the Master Standard class, 100 Qs from the Master Jumpers with Weaves, 75 Qs from Master Fast, 75 Qs from Time 2 Beat, 50 Qs from Premier Standard and 50 Qs from Premier Jumpers with Weaves.  This title was created in July of 2016 and Qs earned before that were 'grandfathered in.'   Two dogs had achieved the AGCH title as of the end of 2022. 

Dual and Triple Championships

Dogs that earn both a Herding Championship or Field Championship and a Conformation championship are "Dual Champions."  Any Dual Champion that earns an Obedience Trial Championship, a Tracking Championship or an Agility Championship (regular or preferred) becomes a Triple Champion.  

So What? 

Why would anyone bother to write this many words with the intent that someone read them?  Well, I, for one, believe that Scent Work should have an "earned over time" pathway to AKC Championship, and I know that many others share this view.  It seems that none of us really know how to best approach the AKC to try to effect change (something else we should talk about), but I've always been taught that if you're going to lobby someone for something, you should present them with not just a problem but with your proposed solution.  It may not be what you get in the end, but it's a starting point for negotiation.  More importantly, it hopefully prevents the issue of getting what you've asked for only to realize it wasn't really what you wanted at all.  

The Scent Work community needs to develop consensus on what we want the AKC to do.  As observed previously, people have talked about a Scent Work Championship (we can call it SWC, keeping in mind that it is presently not an AKC-recognized title!) coming from the accumulation of all levels of Elite titles, or all levels of Elite titles and Detective.  Of course, one could add Handler Discrimination requirements into that mix.  As noted, there is a precedent for achieving Championship this way in Tracking.  Before requesting this method, however, I'd encourage a couple of considerations.  The first is retroactivity.  It would seem only reasonable since all these titles have been in existence for quite some time that such an award be retroactive, but the AKC does like to create championships as "add ons" once the sport has been in place for a while, offering an additional achievement for which to strive. Retroactivity might be a big ask.  Without it, or even with it, with numerics, do you really want everybody going back through all the levels to earn the Qs for numerics when we've already got trial entry bottlenecks and waitlists?  If so, we probably need to request "B" classes for all the levels, not just Novice.  

The other consideration is the Scent Work National Champion is defined in the rules.  The SWNC is to be crowned through a National Invitational of some kind.  There are supposed to be Regional competitions in which one could qualify for this Invitational, but the full set of Regionals haven't been successfully held thus far, let alone the National.  We need to talk about "fixing" the Regional format -- it just doesn't work as presently envisioned -- and, as a result, as things stand, we're not ever going to have a National.  In the sports that use points accumulation toward championship, points are often a qualifier for the National Invitational.  Obedience has Regional qualifying competitions, along with inviting dogs with the highest number of championship points per breed, but Rally and Agility just use points to determine eligibility.  If Scent Work had a points accumulation system, you could have a National -- and a list of qualifiers to invite to it -- within a year, sooner if the points were retroactive in some way.  By contrast, in Tracking, where the cap for the National Invitational is 12 dogs, a random draw is used to determine who gets to compete.  

With Scent Work, though, how would one implement points?  We have no score, like Rally Obedience and Obedience do.  We don't have a course time, exactly, although we do have a time limit and times that could be considered in terms of ratios to the limit, or ratios to the fastest time for the class.  The problem with using time in Scent Work, however, is that, while it is a timed sport and speed matters, there is a huge element of luck that just isn't there for the other sports.  In Scent Work, a breeze kicking up or dying down, a door opening or closing, a random start toward the left rather than the right can make all the difference -- all things that are just not under anyone's control.  Those things are also more or less true of pass/fail Tracking, but your route in Agility and Rally is prescribed and kept as standard as possible.  In Obedience, they try so hard to keep things the same for each competitor that Judges have been known to scold if Stewards don't fold their arms the same way every time they are in the ring.  Will we end up concurring that luck (probably) breaks differently for everybody all the time and use qualifying times in some way, anyway?  If we use qualifying times, do the max times handed down by the AKC for some classes still make sense or do they all need to be Demo Dog-assisted, like those for Interiors and Exteriors?  

We do have the opportunity (entry limits allowing!) to demonstrate consistent ability across multiple elements and/or multiple levels.  However, the entry systems for Rally, Obedience and Agility provide the ability to register for multiple classes at once for those who are chasing double or triple Qs -- and if someone who "needs" two or three classes in the same trial is not able to get into them, their entry rules say the rest of the classes must be closed even to "single" entrants at that point.  Can you imagine adding that kind of calculus to the already mind-bending environment of managing Scent Work Trial judging time?  The head explodes!  And, of course, those other systems also emphasize Qs from the advanced levels, the ones that, in Scent Work, already take the most time.  Where I trial most frequently in Arizona, we often already have 20-30 entrants in every Master element, and are beginning to see Premiums that limit not just Detective entries but also Master Interior entries -- transitioning between those three rooms is such a time suck.  If we end up with some kind of emphasis on the higher-level classes, is it worth having an in-depth chat about the pros and cons of not having a 30 second warning in Master, in the hopes that competitors not having to dink around with stopwatches would help things run more efficiently?  Should there be a "one big space" option instead of the three rooms? 

How should (or shouldn't) Virtual Scent Work fit into the picture? 

We do have placements; they could be used as a multiplier.  Are there other data that we don't presently capture that perhaps would be meaningful to use in calculating points?  How about the "all the elements at a single level" High in Trial concept that the AKC doesn't record? 

Maybe Detective should be a championship?  Or maybe there could be a  Detective "time under max time" conversion to points to go toward a championship? 

I definitely don't know the answers.  I just want to be sure that we've thought through the pros and cons of anything we propose... and it feels like we, as a community, are moving toward proposing something...? 

** Originally published on March 31.  Edited with corrections on April 1:  Variable Surface Tracking rather than Versatile Surface Tracking (thanks, F.E. Burks), Points multipliers no longer exist in Agility (thanks, B. Jeleski), and Field Championship (FC) titles for the hunting dogs rather than FTC (thanks, M. Gover, D. Gehring)

AKC Scent Work Numeric Elite Title Computation (Argh!)

A Scent Work results data collection project (Demo Dog Database) has recently caused many of us to look much more closely at how AKC Scent Work title acquisition works with regard to the "Numeric Elite" titles.  Spoilers: it wasn't the way a lot of us thought they worked.  This post is an effort to explain the situation once, so we can link to it from social media when somebody says "What do you mean by "Excluded"?

Background:  AKC Scent Work debuted in September of 2017.  The titles identified at that time remain the only ones in the rulebook, in Chapter 10, beginning on page 62 of the .pdf     They included the level element titles (ex. Scent Work Buried Excellent or SBE), overall level titles (ex. Scent Work Novice or SWN) , level element Elite titles (ex. Scent Work Buried Excellent Elite or SBEE) and overall level Elite titles (ex. Scent Work Novice Elite or SWNE) along with titles for Detective and a Handler Discrimination level (ex. Scent Work Handler Discrimination Excellent or SHDE) and Elite (ex. Scent Work handler Discrimination Novice Elite or SHDNE) progression.  

Digression:  One "interesting" thing competitors have discovered is that, even though higher level Elite titles are not dependent on earning lower level Elite titles first, the higher level titles currently supersede the lower level titles on the AKC display of the dog's registered name.   So although a team may have earned all four level Elite titles (SWNE, SWNA, SWEE and SWME), the title display will show only SWME -- the same as for a team that has earned the SWME title but not the other three.  The rulebook does not say anything about this.  It really seems like only "dependent" titles should replace those that had to be earned previously; you can't earn an SWN without an SCN, so replacing the SCN makes sense.  But you can earn an SWAE without an SWNE, so both should rightfully be shown as earned, one would think.  

Back to Numeric Elites: in June of 2022, AKC Board members approved the addition of "Numeric Elite" titles with rules to go into effect on October 3, 2022.  You can find the official communication here but here are the words to be included in the next reprint of the official rulebook:

The Scent Work world was pretty excited by the news.  Many competitors had continued to enter classes past the 10 Qs required to earn an element or overall Elite title with the hope that someday those Qs would count toward something more like an SWNE2 or SWME3, similar to the way that Agility or Obedience and Rally competitors can earn titles repeatedly -- MACH3, RACH4, OM2, etc.  

<Ominous Music>  This would turn out to indeed be the case... but only partly.  The acquisition of the Numeric Elite titles in Scent Work turned out to work differently than most people expected.  Eighteen months after they debuted, many still don't understand how they work.  I learned how they work last week!  So I wanted to create an example to walk YOU through how a Numeric Elite is earned, according to our data, and to people who have earned numeric Elite titles.

Example: Here are the Scent Work trial entries for a hypothetical team that is just entering a Level -- maybe it's Novice.  Their first trial at this level was on March 20, and this was their progression.  

On June 13, after 3 Qs, the team earned their Container element title.  At the next trial a few days later, they earned Interior and Exterior Elements and then in a few months, got that 3rd buried Q for their Buried Element title and their OVERALL level Title.  

YAY!

In the meantime, they had continued to enter at the same level.  Maybe they also "moved up" and entered at the next level after they got the Element title, but maybe they wanted more practice at this level or wanted to be eligible for a High in Trial award that was offered to the fastest team that qualified in all four elements.  But they acquired five Qs on top of the ones needed for their Element titles, the ones shown in aqua below:

And (important point) those Qs count toward their Level Element Elite Title!!!  So, with that great start, they keep going in this Level, working on the Elite Elements, which they earn, along with their Level Elite title on April 12 of the year following their level debut.

                                                                        SUPER YAY!

As before, they had continued to enter the same level, for practice, for HIT eligibility, or (this is the bad part) they may have thought those Qs would simply accumulate toward their level Elite2 title.  Because that's how it had worked after their overall level title. 

However, if you re-visit the rules, it says 

So here is what actually happens -- the legs earned BEFORE THE OVERALL ELITE TITLE IS EARNED do not count toward the next level Elite.  In our data collection project, we are calling those "Excluded."  To be extra clear -- the team absolutely qualified in that class.  They may have placed, they may have earned High in Trial for the Level during one of those 4Q days.  Nothing is being excluded from those achievements.

The Qs shown in gray below just don't count toward the Elite2.  Only the legs at the trial after the Overall Elite is earned count: 

And that's it.  That's what we are hoping to help everyone understand in order to make the best economic and strategic entry decisions.   

Does it perhaps suck?  Arguably, yes, and I would love to see the AKC Scent Work competitor community, which seems to be knowledgeable and well-connected on social media, figure out how to influence change with regard to The Sport at the AKC, both with regard to this particular irritation but also progress, in general.  The AKC has more than 99 problems and we don't need to be another one, which I think is why email, petitions, letters even phone calls make no difference, not least because, as they keep reminding us, the AKC is a "Club of Clubs" -- we, as individuals, are not their constituents.  

We need a way to work within the existing system.  Maybe that's by presenting a compelling argument that states both problem and proposed solution (how DO you 'fix' something like this retroactively?) through the existing Delegates (has anyone ever mobilized the Delegates before?) or the time-honored American system of encouraging folks with personal connection within the organization to take up the cause (you know who you are... WE know who you are!)   That's what I think, anyway..  

Note about a possible inconsistency:  After the "first" Elite title, the AKC does not recognize numeric Element Elite titles -- so there's no "Scent Work Novice Container Elite2" title, for example.  Some clubs do choose to reward this, so asking is always a good idea

(and if that is bugging Clubs, perhaps you'd want to include the plan for ribbons, pins, etc. in their Premiums; I know Clubs firmly believe NO competitor ever reads their Premium but you could always put the relevant page in a plastic sleeve and post it by your ribbons)

And perhaps because they don't recognize the numeric element Elites, they do not break those out in their Titles and Points Progression Report, instead showing only "SWNE2" (for example) and a number.  In the above example, I would expect that number to be 3, that this team has, as of that trial, earned toward the Elite2.  

In some cases, it seems like the number shown in the free Title and Points Progression report is something other than 3.  However, if those handlers order the "full" AKC report, which I think costs $18, the information in that report agrees with the example.   

I don't know what to tell you about that except that, when in doubt, before you get into discussion with the AKC, I would strongly advise ordering your official AKC report.  It's their data and only whatever they officially have matters.  

What's going on with Ziva? Facing hard truths.

Ziva and I participated in our 9th NW3 this last weekend.  The trial site could not have been more beautiful, nor the trial run more efficiently.  The weather in Sedona, Arizona, was absolutely gorgeous, just a little nippy in the morning, perfect for us midwestern folk.

Coming into this, I had high hopes.  Ziva has 1.5 NW3 titles, needing three for her "Elite."  If we could get a clean title here and another leg at the trial in Benson in February, we could meet that goal.  And surely she could.  With no errors, you earn a full NW3, with one error, you earn a "leg," effectively half a title, and we'd never had more than two errors in a trial -- we'd been SO close so many times!  I felt like I knew what our weak points were -- getting tired at the end of the day and not keeping focus, rushing past a hide in order to cover a large space, having mixed communication -- and we'd worked on those things.  

We stayed overnight for this trial, so had plenty of time to get ready and only a short drive the morning of the trial.  We were #1 on the run order, which is fine with me, I'd much rather get going.  We made it through the first four searches with no "No"s and I felt good about the day.

We did get a "no" on pooling odor on vehicles on the 5th search. We weren't the only ones, but it was a disappointment.  Still, we could get a leg, I thought.  

But as we waited for the final search, I noticed Ziva's back legs were trembling with fatigue.  She was rocked back onto the pad of her foot, with her toes sticking up in the air.  She gave me no other indication that she wasn't up for this and charged off the start line.  Checking a nearby utility box, she came up under it and hit her head.  Hard.  I asked if she was okay and then said "but was there something there?"  And, bless her heart, she stuck her nose under and clonked her head again.

We moved on and I tried to gauge how she was doing, but my heart was sinking.  She nosed both ends of a bench and looked at me, questions plain in her eyes, and I called 'alert' and got a No.  So we were done for the day, but could keep searching.

But I looked at Ziva and she said "I'm so sorry, but I'm tired.  I'm tired and my feet hurt and my legs hurt and now my head hurts.  And I just wish I was back at home.  Can we go home?" 

So I said that we were retiring from the field.  And as we walked away, my heart broke and I sobbed, because I realized this really was the end for us.  Not because we failed an NW3 but because she wasn't having fun anymore -- this format, with the six searches and long walks and long day -- is just too much for her at this point.  I'm sad to let the dream go, but heartbroken at the thought that my constant partner is facing physical limitations.  It's SO not fair!

Ziva will be 11 in March.  A lot of people -- a lot of Veterinarians who have seen her -- seem to feel her physical condition is perfectly normal for her age.  As someone who's had Standard Poodles for 25 years, I know they are wrong; my dogs have typically been able to bounce up onto the bed right up to the very end, which should be at least 13 or 14 years if some bastard like hemangiosarcoma doesn't get involved.  Arguably the best measure, Ziva's littermates, and especially her closest buddy, Pippa, with whom we spend lots of time, do not have similar problems.  

Ziva began presenting with intermittent lameness in 2018.  One morning in November, she couldn't put weight on one front leg, so we sped to the teaching hospital at U. Wisconsin.  The Ortho department tested her for absolutely everything, with x-ray and ultrasound and joint taps.  They couldn't find anything.  

The limping seemed to resolve once she was diagnosed with IBD in January of 2019.  Then we had the pandemic and moved to Arizona, but in the winter of 2021, I was determined to try to figure out what seemed to be making it uncomfortable for her to stand or sit for any period of time.  We saw a Canine Sports Medicine Specialist in Scottsdale, who was also mystified until she looked very closely at the full-body x-rays.  Dr. Chun said that Ziva has mineralization (most likely calcification) at every tendon insertion point in every leg.  This is typically something seen when a tendon is over-stretched and tiny, hard particles form in an over-reaction to the injury.  If it is uncomfortable enough, surgery is done to remove the spiny bits.  However, Dr. Chun had never seen it in ALL the tendons before.  She theorized that this was a systemic response of some sort and referred us to an internal medicine specialist.

That doctor was quite dismissive of Ziva's situation.  He said that we were lucky to have managed her IBD and keep her alive as long as we had.  He had no idea why her body was attacking her tendons but said infirmity was only to be expected, given her age and health history.

We were lucky enough to get into four NW3 trials since then, and to get two legs.  And I thought we were going to be able to keep trying.  Right up until last Saturday.

Ziva loves the game.  And she would be mortally insulted not to get to Go with me, wherever I go.  That's been the norm for the last 11 years -- she has been through eight years of Junior College, after all!  So we'll continue to take classes and train.  She seemed to enjoy her Detective attempts in October, so we'll keep doing those as long as we can, and then there's always AKC Elite legs and UKC Grand Champion legs and online challenges.

But for now, I'm just so sad.  I wish I knew how to help my beautiful, sweet, imperious, fabulous companion, and I don't.  And I wish her NACSW journey hadn't ended this way.

Thoughts on the care of Nosework Volunteers: Part 2 Working Smarter

 As is the case with all of the dog sports, Nosework and Scent Work trials are dependent on Volunteers.  Trial Hosts and Secretaries/Score Room Leads do a tremendous amount of work up-front and, although there may be compensation, it's of the "How do you make a hundred dollars holding Nosework Trials?  Start with a thousand!" variety.  

But the rubber meets the road on the backs of the Average Citizens who answer the call of the Volunteer Coordinator.  Perhaps they lived nearby, or they may have driven for hours to be there, to give back to the sport, find out what it's about, or just be a Nice Person. Showing up at 0:00 Dark Hundred on trial day, they are given their instruction and sent off to make the trial run.  God Bless Volunteers!  

It's not always easy to find enough volunteers to make a trial work successfully.  In a previous post, I made the argument that trial organizers use the "we can't hold this trial unless you volunteer!" plea sparingly, only when really needed.  But here I'd like to look at another reason that I suspect we may have trouble finding volunteers: we're abusing them.

Before you bristle with umbrage -- Not Me! -- let me clarify.  I certainly don't mean that we are purposefully treating volunteers badly, or allowing anyone else to do so.  Every Trial Host I know very rightfully has a zero tolerance policy for verbal abuse toward volunteers.  Almost every competitor I know reveres volunteers and is effusive in their appreciation of them.

But how many "Volunteer Opportunities!" posts or Jotforms or emails have you seen that run something along the lines of "Be sure to wear your running shoes!" or "We can make sure you get all your steps in!" "Expect to be on your feet most of the day," or even "Lunch will be provided (and you may even have time to eat it!)" 

I understand that trial organizers are trying to be open and honest about requirements.  They want folks who can stand up to the rigors of the day.  They are looking at the incredible amount of work to be done and trying to remember why they thought this was a good idea in the first place.  They want Comrades in Arms to shore them up should they, themselves, run low on enthusiasm and energy. 

But let's take a look at the demographic for our sport: it is dominated by Women of a Certain Age.  As I heard someone say recently, "Nosework is where you go when your knees and hips make Agility impossible."  We market Nosework as being low-impact, and while fitness for both dog and handler are encouraged and recommended, we also welcome the halt and the lame.  

So why are we making volunteering into an endurance challenge?  

Effective trial planners work to minimize competitor steps and provide chairs for them to wait in along the way.  At the briefing, they encourage competitors to crate their dogs and allow them to rest between searches.  Yet often no chair is provided for volunteers, and, despite recommendations to bring a chair in the volunteer instructions, I've seen Volunteer Coordinator eye rolls when the volunteer actually shows up with one, "You plannin' on sittin' around today?"  

But unless you have designed a "walk and talk" volunteer escort situation for competitors, why should the volunteer have to walk along with the competitor?  I've seen situations where the two waiting stations for a search were both in plain view, maybe 100 feet apart, but the instruction given to the volunteer was to "take the competitor to the next chair."  Why?  Why can't they just point and say "go there and sit down until you are called?"  

This, of course, requires significant pre-planning, and that seems to be the spot where many trials have issues.  Someone needs to be familiar with the trial site and actually assign volunteers based on flow, providing a methodology for communication along the way.  Why don't more trials use walkie talkies?  And I loved the club that gave volunteers red and green bandanas to use as a "traffic signal" for  the competitor sitting 30 yards away, no yelling necessary.  

In addition to providing incentives for volunteers -- drawings for prizes, free trial entries, increased opportunities in the competitor draw, etc. -- I just wish that more trial organizers would exchange the attitude of "They're tough as nails, they knew what they were getting into when they signed up, they've done this a thousand times," for "What good people these are to come and help.  We should make their day as pleasant as possible."  

That's what I think, anyway.