AKC Scent Work – 3 Dogs, Lots Of Pretty Ribbons

AKC Scent Work was the name of the game on this past weekend. All three of us got to compete on at least one day at the Scott County Fairgrounds in Jordan. Mom entered a total of seventeen runs over the two days. Since the three of us are competing at the same levels, it made sense to only have two of us there on each day.

Olivia was at the fairgrounds with us for a nose work trial when she was nine weeks old. This was the first time she was there to compete, and she was pretty excited about it. She has come a long way in her eighteen months of age, and is a sports fanatic! Those paws are still huge, but now she uses them to paw at hides gently.

Saturday it was me and Olivia competing. I had a chance at two titles, my Excellent Buried and Excellent Exterior Titles. Well, I bombed out in buried hides, Mom was disappointed, but we will practice more and I will do better next time. I did earn my Excellent Exterior Title, and I failed in my Masters Interior search. My performance was not my best by any means, but I did get my one title and that was super important.

Olivia had a great day Saturday! She earned her Advanced Buried Title, which gives her an Advanced Overall Title. Now she is completely at the levels Bailie and I are at, and she is still just a pup! Even more impressive, she had her first Excellent Interior run and not only earned a Q, but a second place!

Sunday was Bailie’s day to compete along with Olivia once again. To be honest, Mom had second thoughts about even bringing Bailie because she has been so disappointing in her searching lately. Thankfully, Mom is an optimist, so Bailie went along and blew the pants off Mom! Bailie earned a Q in Masters Containers and a fourth place to top it off! Sunday was her first time ever competing in Masters. In Masters, the number of hides is unknown, in a range of one to three or four. She also earned Q’s in both of her first Masters Exterior searches! We are all so proud of her, happy she had so much fun, and thankful she earned some Q’s.

Olivia did pretty well on Sunday as well, earning one Q in Excellent Container, and one in Excellent Exteriors which gives her the Excellent Exteriors Title. Now the little squirt will be competing in Masters, how crazy is that? Olivia was at the trial both days, but she had fewer runs than Bailie and I did each day.

The weekend winner, no surprise is Olivia. She had a chance to earn three titles and she earned all three, plus her second place in her interior search. We are super proud of her, and actually of all three of us. Running three dogs who all search differently, and being the volunteer coordinator at the same time in a large trial, is not easy, so for Mom to do as well with us as she did is pretty good. She did make one big mistake which cost Bailie a title, but we can’t be mad about that. It looks like this will be our last Scent Work Trial for a while but we will continue to practice. Sniffing continues to make us all happy!

My GBGV Life is happy, so we’re joining Comedy Plus for Happy Tuesday!