As you know if you follow me, I earned my NW1 Title (Nose Work Level 1 Title) July 18th. Since a title is earned by finding hidden odor, no photography is allowed except by NACSW photographers during the trial. The photos are now available and I wanted to share some of them with you. Note, Mom and I are a team, and since I always wear red, Mom always dresses to match. I’m very particular about how we look, not just how we work!
The Nose Work Trial was held at Afton Alps Ski Resort at the Meadows Chalet. I have marked the four search areas with arrows. There were forty dogs entered, I was dog two in group B which means I was the sixteenth dog to run in the morning two searches and the second dog to run in the afternoon two searches. To earn a NW1 title, a team must find the hide in all four searches in the allotted time.
We started off the day with the exterior search. We had three minutes for our search. The start line is marked by a tape and two cones. Time starts when my nose crosses the line.
I was searching the asphalt pretty well! It was very hot, humid, and sunny out. The extra cones you see here mark the search area boundaries.
“Alert” is what I’m telling Mom here. I found the hide in the wheel of the cart you see on the right side here.
Time to “get paid” for my work. My search time for this exterior search was 0:24.14 which placed me as the sixteenth fastest dog. The three fastest dogs in each element get a ribbon and the three fastest overall get a ribbon. Speed is not my thing, I prefer to be slower and methodical.
Off to our next search which was vehicles. We had to walk up the hill to the back of the chalet in the heat. I was excited to search more and was pulling Mom along.
Mom was pretty nervous, so I stopped to smell the flowers along the way. It was my way of saying “relax, I’ve got this”.
On this day, there were two vehicles to search. I searched one and found nothing and moved on to the second vehicle.
I had three minutes once again to find the hide. In Nose Work Level 1, all the hides are the birch odor.
“Alert” Mom! I found it right here on the back of the car! My time here was slow, 0:49.65 and I placed twentieth. I was getting slow because of the heat.
Time to get paid once again for my work. See how happy Mom is. We now have two of four, half way to our title.
Our third search was in the afternoon and was containers in the A-Frame part of the chalet. There was no a/c, so it was rather warm and stuffy. See my tongue? I’m thinking about my reward and my nose hasn’t even crossed the start line yet!
Time to sniff these boxes. I find boxes soooo very boring. I try to fool Mom a lot when I work boxes because I don’t like them.
Mom has learned to read me and tell if I am fibbing or if it is the real thing when I seem interested.
Going down the second row, I’m finding some odor and it is getting interesting.
Here it is, “alert”. I placed twenty fifth here with a time of 0:29.84.
There are no photos of the interior search as the room was really tiny and rather dark, it was the final search. I found the interior hide fairly quickly with a time of 0:21.13 which was ninth place. Once I heard the yes, the fourth one of the day, I had my NW1 Title. I placed sixteenth overall for time with 2:04.76. Mom and I were both so very happy!
Photographer Vahneesa Norberg took the exterior search photos, and Photographer Caprise Adams took all the rest. I purchased these photos for my own personal use. Please do not use or copy them without permission.
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Congratulations! You look great! Speed is overrated anyway. Better to be thorough. ๐
Bailie tends to be the speed one, I’m always serious and methodical when I work.
We are so proud of you both! Of course, y’all look adorable in your matching red. Slow and steady always wins the race. โฅ
I bet you would be just like me, Bentley! I just want to make sure I get it right.
A big congrats!
Thank you.
We absolutely love the expression on your face when you “alert!” Then you look so smug with your ribbon. Finally, being the very first GBGV to earn that title….ATTAGIRL! XOXO Sparkle the PBGV and the mom
Getting the title is so awesome, and to be the first one representing my breed makes it even more special. Mom said I had some “attitude” going on for a few days because I was very proud.
You earned that “attitude!” ๐ The mom and I are so thrilled I have CGC after my name! Sparkle the PBGV with the CGC
It is pretty cool isn’t it! Bailie and I have our CGC certificates on the wall in our office ๐ Titles are made to be proud of as they represent hard work. If everyone had titles, they wouldn’t be worth anything.
Go Emma, you’re fab!
My sports aren’t quite like yours where there are events all the time, but when here is an event and I can title, it is pretty special. Thanks for your support.
You are so amazing and we’re so very proud of you! That takes a lot of work and you handled it like a real pro!!!
Thank you. Mom tells me I’m amazing and hard working all the time. I do my best and I love to sniff.
Very nice. Congrats again.
Thank you.
Congrats! Love the photos and explanation of how this works. Good job, Emma!
Thank you. It looks pretty easy, but it is a lot of work narrowing down where that tiny hide is located and then getting Mom to read me correctly.
Congrats, how cool!!! Slow and steady always wins, great job!!!
That is me, the dog with a plan and no rush.
Congratulations Emma! Great job!
Thank you. I’m quite proud of myself and so is Mom.
Thanks for sharing the photos Emma, It’s fun to see you at work. Congrats again on your title!
I could work forever, even though it really wears me out. I love it.
Very impressive Emma! And good work on your mom’s part too, you guys are a great team! Love Dolly
Mom is learning more and more, so we are getting to be a better team. We work well together, Bailie is a bit more difficult. She has her own style.
We just love watching you Emma, you are so very professional!
Smileys!
Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo
Thank you. I do take my searching very seriously, and nothing really distracts me. I love doing a good job and making my mom happy with a correct alert.
I am so excited to see this post. I’ll have to go through this site to find all of the posts on nose work. As soon as my life settles down, I want to start a series and it’ll be helpful to link back to your posts here. Zoey is going to get started on nose work and to start, a trainer in our area gave me some tips and my neighbors up the road do nose work with their pack so they offered to help get me started too. I’ll be working with Zoey slowly until we can find a trainer or a class. I think she’ll be great with it and it’ll boost her confidence too.
That is awesome! We started posting way back in the beginning classes, so we can see how things have changed, fun places we have searched and our trials. We hear from many humans that their dogs have gained a lot of confidence through nose work. It is an awesome sport for so many reasons. You can do it almost anywhere, you don’t need lots of space or equipment, and any aged dogs and humans can do it. It definitely helps dogs and humans work together and learn to read each other too. We just love it. I would love to see how it goes for you, so we will be looking for your posts!
Congratulations Emma! Way to go!
Thank you!
So proud f you Emma. Well done.
Thank you. I am quite proud and so is Mom.
You guys make the best team! Congrats both of you ๐
Thank you. Mom seems to finally be getting her act together which I appreciate. A dog can only help a human out so much!
Oh wow, that is SO SO very cool!!!!! Way to go!
แฆ husky hugz แฆ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Thanks! We love doing nose work. I enjoy the work and Mom enjoys being amazed at my talents.
Awesome job, Emma! You and your Mom are quite the team, and I love how you wear matching colors. You look so proud with your big ribbon there, and you deserve to be. It doesn’t look like you let the heat get to you, and I think your finishing place was very respectable!
Mom was surprised I was in the top half for time as she says I’m slow, but I like to be methodical and make sure I get it all right. I am still real proud of myself!
Congrats Emma, you made your mom proud!
She was so proud of me and of our team work! I love nose work!
Nice work, Emma & Joy! The heat would have slowed me down, too ~ pretty pawsome of you to pull Mom up hill ๐
I am always in a big rush to get to a search, but when I am done, Mom has to pull me as I want to keep working!
Great job, Emma! Congrats to you and your mom!
Thank you. We are still real proud and excited about it!
Congratulations! I love how good you are at communicating with your mom–from your sweet “alert!” face to telling her to chill out, you’ve totally got this. ๐
Thank you. I let her think we go to classes to train me, but it is really Mom who needs the training. She is finally starting to get the hang of it ๐
Congrats, Emma! Awesome job and I love your matching outfits. I’ll have to coordinate our outfits at the next trial ha!
Always remember, Mr. N., it is not just what you do, but how you look doing it!
That’s pawsome, Emma. Congrats!
Thanks. I work hard at my sport and Mom says I deserve a title.
A-Mazing, you did doodle*tastic. Congratulations again.
Thank you. I love to sniff!
Awesome to see the photos! And, there’s always time to stop and smell the flowers!! Congrats on a job well done!
I’m a dog who doesn’t like to be rushed along, so for me there really is always time to stop and smell the flowers.
Hi Y’all!
Congratulations! I say methodical means no mistakes! That was the important thing. You and your Mom are quite a team!
Y’all come on back,
Hawk aka BrownDog
That is exactly how I feel, and now that Mom is starting to get the hang of things, we are going to be super good!
Congratulations, Emma. Great job for both of you.
Honey moves very quickly when she’s searching for something. But it doesn’t necessarily translate into a faster find.
Sometimes all that movement is just a distraction.
Glad to see you took the cool approach.
Bailie is the speed demon, but she often blows by stuff in her rush, I tend to go slow and let it smack me in the nose!
You are so amazing and weโre so very proud of you! That takes a lot of work and you handled it like a real pro!!!Dogs
Thank you. I love doing nose work and I really work hard at it.
What a great day and some really nice photos to show us how you did. Congrats again.
Thank you. Now I’m working on my getting ready to try for the next level, probably not until next year since it is hard to find a trial around here, and then to get a spot.