07/28/2025
This weekend we competed at the Merrimac Dog Training Club AKC Scentwork Trials.
Mama Epic went 17/22 this weekend and earned 4 new titles! With Khloe (my 9 year old daughter) she earned 10 first place ribbons, 2 third place ribbons and a 4th place. She was in the placements every single time she qualified in HUGE classes (some had 20+ dogs entered). They struggled a little in containers this weekend so she wasn't in contention for High in Trial except once but they made it count! They went 4/4 first place scores in Novice B, including a 2 second container run. They were High in Trial, Khloe worked so hard this weekend because she had her sights set on that ribbon. They also finished her SENE and SINE titles. I also ran Epic, we did exterior and she went 4/4. Yesterday she earned her SEA title so I thought I'd move her up to Excellent, neither of us have ever seen 3 hides but we gave it a go. She not only Q'd in Exterior Excellent, she did it with a 1st place! Today she went 2/2 in Excellent Exterior earning both a 1st and 2nd place and she finished her SEE title going 3/3. Onto Master! I couldnt be more proud of this dog and Scentwork is definitely her game. Pending AKC approval she is now known as
GCH CH Inspired Poetry in Motion RN NAJ NAP CA BCAT SWN SINE SENE SEE FDC DSX DM TKN RATS
It was Grandma Ember's first ever Scentwork Trial and she definitely reminded me that she is NOT Epic and does what she wants, which she's done for the past 12.5 years. Yesterday she NQd both interior runs, she really just wants her treat, so alerts on everything. Today in Interior Trial 1 she NQd for the same thing. In Trial 2, she also was alerting on everything but then gave me a nice head snap so I called it and I WAS RIGHT! So we earned our first ever SW Q. Not only did she Q but she earned a 4th place! We then gave exterior a try and she didn't disappoint, she went 2/2. I'm very proud of her. I think she'd much rather be retired so we will try to finish up these two titles and let her just enjoy being old but it was wonderful to walk to the line one more time.
It was also Void's (Niko x Ever) first Scentwork Trial, Void is 8 months old today so I really just wanted him to have a good time. This was a full trial and crating was tight. Staging was pretty chaotic to say the least, I was worried how he'd handle it but he didn't seem too worried about anything going on. We NQd in our only Container and Buried runs. Buried was my fault, he'd never seen buried, but also, he didn't really alert and I called something I probably should have given him a little more time to work out. He also REALLY wanted the cone but I was able to convince him that he didn't need to carry a cone around during his search, so that in itself was a win. In Containers, he did head snap on the hide but I missed it and then he alerted on the box next to the hide, so I called it. I then handed him to his co-breeder/owner for Interior and Exterior and they went 4/4 and earned second place in Interior Trial 2. He clearly loves her more than me but that tracks because his great grandma thinks she is the best person to walk the planet.
Thank you to for training us all in Scentwork, it's really paid off!
