What happens when severe weather hits at a nose work trial? We have always wondered, but until this month, never had to worry about it. Initially the weather was supposed to be almost 100 degrees, so the trial time was moved up an hour with the hope of getting done earlier. In actuality, the weather turned cool, and severe storms became the problem.
The NACSW has policies for everything, including weather. The rule is, for lightning within a mile of the trial site, everyone must remain in their vehicles until thirty minutes has passed without another lightning strike within a mile. If things get really bad, every location does have a shelter plan in the building. Just our luck, right as the first dog was going to get started, the storm hit. There was such heavy rain, we couldn’t see out the windows of the car, the winds shook the car, there was hail pounding the car, and there was heavy thunder and lightning. The storm went on and on and on. After being in our car for two and a half hours, the storm cleared and we could finally start the trial. Bailie is the dog who is afraid of storms, so Mom was hoping she would be fine once the storm ended.
Bailie was dog #18, exteriors started with dog #16, so she was up almost right away once it was safe to leave the car. If you saw our post last week, the video shows that Bailie had no problem getting on task after the storm!
Right after exteriors, they walked around the corner for the vehicle search – three vehicles, one hide, two and a half minutes. You can see all the water on the ground from the rain, but otherwise, nothing from the storm caused problems.
Bailie jumped up on the first vehicle. Mom knows that vehicle belongs to a woman and dogs Bailie knows, so she didn’t take her sniffing too seriously.
She had no interest in the middle vehicle, but coming around the front of the first vehicle, her nose started to get busy.
They continued on to the rear wheel, where Bailie was able to find the hide in the rim.
Check out that tongue again. It seems to be a good sign to take note of.
There was a break, then Bailie was up for interiors. Sadly, no photos or videos are ever allowed for interior searches. Containers were the last search of the day. There were fifteen backpacks placed in three rows, with one hide, in the school gym. That tongue is out again as the air was moving towards the start.
Bailie did a good job checking out each backpack.
It’s a tough job having to sniff each one. At level two, bags can also have distractors in them, food or toys, so the dog needs to ignore that and find the odor only.
She did a good job of going up and down each row. There were two bags of interest on the first pass that Mom wanted her to go back and visit.
And the second bag she had shown interest on turned out to be the bag with the hide in it. The blue bag behind Bailie is the one she spent a ton of time on but didn’t alert. One needs to have patience as an inexperienced handler may have called alert too soon which would have been incorrect. Another successful container search for team purple.
**Search photos have been purchased from Caprise Adams Photography for my use only.**
Way to go! Glad the storms didn’t effect her work and that there was no damage
Mom was most worried about hail damage on the car, but it was small hail and nothing happened.
Congrats!!!! I just imagine what hard job it would be if search dogs had to check the back packs of the school kids efurry morning….but I think you would find all illegal things … your nose is simply the best… :o)
how bad that this storm came as the test started… but it’s good that they have rules for such weather-accidents, even when the noise of the hard rain can be scary when you sit in a car… that’s like sitting in a drum :O)
Mom and Bailie huddled up together in the backseat for the duration.
It must not have been fun sitting in the car for over two hours so I’m glad it was all worth it,
Mom tried to do some napping, but Bailie was a shaking, drooling mess. They did survive.
We would run and hide if bad weather hit. What a super fun activity
Lily & Edward
There’s no where to go except the car!
That is the same rule for ball games too. It is always tough having to wait out a storm but I am proud it didn’t faze Bailie! ♥
She was scared the whole time until they got out of the car and started sniffing. It’s a long time to be in the car!
It is so great that Bailie’s fear of the storm didn’t affect her performance afterwards! I don’t like storms myself so I might have decided to just drive right out of there. 🙂 The backpacks look like fun but definitely much more challenging!
Just curious – why don’t they allow photos and videos for interior searches?
It’s mainly a space issue as some interior searches are super small, and you have to have the judge, a timer and an NACSW official videographer in the room. That video is only for NACSW use in case anything comes up about a search, or if the timer messed up, etc. Dogs need their space to work and some dogs are people reactive and they need even more space.
WHat an experience – glad it ended well!
It was definitely interesting.
Good job, B. Your nose is spectacular – rain or shine, indoors or outdoors.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
She is real good at sniffing when she tries.
Way to go Super Nose Bailie!
Sniff on Bailie!
Way to go Bailie! We are so glad she kept her cool and stepped up even after the storms!
xoxo,
Jakey & Arty
It was a rough morning in the car, but they still had a great day!
She did such a great job! Yaaay
She was really on task. Hopefully it will continue.
Way to persevere after a big storm, Bailie! Good girl.
It was hard on Mom and Bailie. Mom really wanted to go home and go to bed, but they got each other going again.
Talk about making the best of a “wet” situation! Good job
Yeah, the morning was not the finest time ever at a nose work trial!
WOW, 2 1/2 hours waiting out a storm. In a car. I’m not sure I’d be willing to do that. Kudos to mom and Bailie for waiting it out, and Good job Bailie!
If you had to wait months for a trial spot, those few hours would be worth the wait, but it was pretty weird!