Last Friday and Saturday I was at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois for my third and last Summit Trial for 2023. We had a choice of this trial or the Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME and decided to go with the trains. Our decision didn’t disappoint. Mom had trouble deciding if she wanted to do nose work with me, or just wander around looking at all the old stuff. Of course, we did nose work together.
The first search of my day was inside old train cars. I had four cars to pass through, three of which I was to search. Train cars are not spacious, so there was no photography or video available. No worries, Mom has our GoPro. Well, that GoPro is nothing but trouble. For some reason it recorded in time warp mode and can’t be slowed down. So, Mom grabbed a few shots from the speedy video to give you an idea of my search areas.
We had five minutes to find an unknown number of hides. I kept working my way through the “sitting” car looking for hides. Mom is so happy I actually got to experience being in a train, even if it was parked. This one has a little bar unit and a booth for passengers to sit in.
Train cars are strange. They seem to be very long, narrow, and full of all kinds of stuff. My nose worked through it all just fine. I’m working on sourcing a hide in this shot.
Sadly, there was no food in the dining car! I had high hopes of finding food, but no such luck. Before getting in the dining car, we also passed an open sleeper cabin but I didn’t find anything interesting in there.
As we approached the exit, the “end of the line” so to say, I found another hide. Mom and I had so much fun in the train cars! I found six hides and finished in four minutes, eight seconds!
Only six dogs of twenty eight found all six hides and I was the fastest dog! This searched earned team orange a first place ribbon, my first at Summit. We also earned a pronounced for this search and for the container search. It means a lot to us as we have never seen that judge before and he really loved watching us work. The week before I earned a second place.
Unfortunately, there were no places to take photos of me by trains as I was either searching them or they were out of the area we were allowed to be in. Mom snapped some shots from afar, like the US Army locomotive. They fired it up and it went cruising Saturday afternoon.
I got to search the front of these four trains on Saturday afternoon and I found the three hides that were out there.
After searching these four train fronts, we went right to the Pack Alley search. There were thirty pieces of luggage and backpacks in a row. We had two minutes to find three hides. If we found all three with no, no’s, we got a bonus search. See how I did in the above video. What we didn’t know at the time was that eight pieces of luggage had super tempting distractors inside. What was inside? Hashbrowns and bacon, swedish pancake, eggs and lemon, fried fish, funyons, rye bread and sausage, kringle, potato pancake. Mom was quite impressed with me when she found out about all the temptations I ignored! I also got the bonus search hide.
Of course, you need more trains, right? The building behind them is full of old engines which I searched on Friday. It is dark and with black engines, there isn’t much to see on that video.
We love the old signage that is all around the place too. The Illinois Railway Museum is a bit like a toy train set in real life!
And another sign that has a great vintage look right by the diner. Friday was very cloudy and windy, thus the darker photos that day.
Everyone knows Santa Fe. The gate with these letters is one we went in and out of a lot. Mom had to take my photo with that name.
Unfortunately, I didn’t earn a Summit Title this year, but each of my three trials I have gotten a bit better. Now I have time to practice and work on my skills so I’m unstoppable in 2024! This weekend at the Illinois Railway Museum was so much fun! Mom and I plan to continue to find special places to compete since I only get to do three of these a year.
My GBGV Life is happy, so we’re joining Comedy Plus for Happy Tuesday!
wow what a cool place!!! and you were super brave to enter that big cars… we bet the dining part was the best… maybe there was a smell from the burgers of the past in the air? congrats to your beautiful ribbon…
It was really fun and I got to put my paws up on some of the giant locomotives while I was looking for the odor. All in all, a super special and fun experience.
You get to visit the BEST places with your mom, Olivia! Congratulations! We LOVE watching you work!
Thank you. Our instructor said to make sure and find interesting trial sites not just schools and parks and she is really right on with that advice. It was a lot of fun and I worked hard!
What a wonderful place to search! I don’t know if we would have passed up on those packs with distractors in them!!!!
Mom thought there were no distractors as I didn’t care at all. I’ve practiced at home with some high value stuff this fall as he needs to learn and I guess it worked.
She is such a star. I love watching her. I would had definitely stayed at the bacon
The bacon was in the first bag, so you would have had a no right off the start! I’m a good girl and I know my job 🙂
How fun. You did so very well too. They put people food in the luggage? That’s pretty clever.
Thank you for joining the Happy Tuesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Happy Tuesday. Scritches all around and a hug to your mom. ♥
Yes they do, and they also put toys in there sometimes. We train a lot on ignoring food in containers and I guess it paid off.
Congratulations, Olivia~ what fun and you are so smart and adorable ~ great photos of you and rr cars ~ thanks,
Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Thank you. I love my sniffing work.
What a fun place to sniff!! We are a big train family, and just love watching trains and visiting museums so this post was a real treat!
Congrats on some pawsome sniffing!
xoxo,
Rosy and Sunny
It was amazing. Mom loves traveling by train in other countries and for me to get to actually go inside train cars was a treat, even though they were old. Mom couldn’t use her good camera to take photos and tour the area since it was a trial, but she took it all in with her eyes and a few phone shots on our way to and from searches.
I live with a train brain…he would love to visit that museum. WOW. I will tell him to look at your blog tonight.
Well done Olivia
Hugs Cecilia
He should check it out. You can google it and get to their website. They also have an amazing toy train set up!
Woohoo-great job. Congratulations.
Thank you.
You did a fabulous job and you get better all the time. Congratulations!
We are slowly improving and having a great time doing it.
Well, it looks like you did pretty darn good to me and a big congratulations from all of us. Love that 1st Place Ribbon.
We are looking forward to more fun and even more ribbons next year.
Love your work ethic, Olivia! Always nice to impress new judges too! and although you saw a lot of trains, on the alley search, you didn’t CHEW CHEW!
That is very correct! I’m a hard working sniffer dog and I love that job.
You had a great snoop around, well done!
It was so much fun and we did fairly well too.