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!