Olivia’s Best Nose Work Trial Yet Happened!

I recently had my best Nose Work Trial yet when we were up north for the weekend. Since it happened during Madison’s birthday week, I had to wait to share the news with everyone. Mom and I had such a great time searching and so many people complimented Mom on how good I am at searching and that I am super fun to watch. Our only goal for the day was to have fun and for Mom to call hides faster. She did pretty well at meeting that goal which makes us both happy.

Now for the bad news, we don’t have any photos of me from the trial. There will be professional ones and videos, but they will come later. Where are my ribbons and what is with the one I am wearing? Well, there was a score room error we didn’t know about. When we left Pine River, MN for home, I had earned one placement and had missed my ELT2 (Elite 2) Title by .6 points. Mom and I were kind of bummed as our goal, although a lofty one, was for me to earn my ELT2 but it didn’t happen. So close, but not close enough is hard to swallow. The box of ribbons the host received was for the wrong kind of trial, so there were no ribbons to pass out either. They made some paper ones to give out so we could at least bring something home.

Now for the best news, like Christmas morning in dog sports. Someone had corrected the scores for the trial. When we woke up Monday morning and checked the trial results online, there we were, third place overall out of thirty teams, only missing second place by about five seconds. What? Could this be? It is my first overall placement at the Elite level. I did earn a third place in my Pennsylvania NW3 Trial last September, but that is much different. Mom and I were shocked and over the moon happy! For the day we had to find eighteen hides. Only the first place dog found them all, then four of us found seventeen, but I guess I am quicker than some of the others. My complete search time was 14:39:12. Our score is 94.44, which is our highest in Elite yet!

Next we checked on the locker search where I earned second place. Yes, I still have my second place and that one too, I only missed first place by about eight seconds. It is my second locker search and in both I earned second place. Mom says I need to get a job searching lockers because I am great at it! There were five hides to find and I found them all in 3:13:21.

Finally, that ELT2 Title Mom and I were dreaming of? Well, we did earn it. ELT2 is 400 points and we finished with 402. It only took us five trials to earn the title which is pretty good. If someone scored perfect in four trials they could earn it too, but that is pretty darn hard to do! I earned my ELT1 in Wyoming at the prison. Now I’m working on ELT3 which is another 250 points down the trial road.

When my ribbons come in the mail and I get my photos and videos from our funtastic, best Nose work Trial yet, I will post again. In the meantime, this is the best I can do, but know Mom and I are super happy. FYI, I sure get a lot of loving when I do such a good job, even more than I normally get!

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