11/05/2025
I had a blast being on the competitor side this weekend for 4 Paws/4Point NASDA trial and UNTC UKC trial!
Lots of Qs and ribbons but also some challenges!
This is the note I sent to my students for this weeks class:
So good to see most of you either volunteering or competing in the last two local trials! Congratulations on both your successes and your learning opportunities.
This week I'll talk about those learning "opportunities" as even the most talented and experienced team will have them! We really need to be grateful for these opportunities as they are what make us better! I categorize my opportunities into a few groups:
1) Holes in my training!
2) Dog stress or discomfort!
3) Human impatience!
4) Thinking too much (trying to outsmart the judge)
5) Holes in my observations
I ran 5 dogs in multiple classes so had the opportunity to experience all of these!
1) Master Vehicle - my dog caught the odor on the front driver's side corner of a vehicle (hide on a back passenger wheel). I could see that the odor must be blowing from a different point and took him around the vehicle where he actually sniffed at the tire. He still wanted to chase it to opposite corner. I took him to another vehicle thinking that might help him clarify but he continued to insist it was driver side front corner so I called it and got a "no!" The judge told me location and it was as I expected. So what did this tell me? I have not worked challenging wind problems on vehicles enough with this dog! Vehicles have their main surface elevated so odor has lots of space to blow around - it takes a lot of practice for dogs to figure that out. We don't have a lot of vehicles but maybe I can convince students to periodically let us use vehicles for practice!
2) In one of the urban locating games I had to be silent and while I try to be silent in searches, with this particular dog, she needed encouragement to solve a challenging puzzle. She made her best fuess without my support but it was not qiotw correct. With another dog, I discovered that if I fail to call the correct location of a target lost item, she will adamentally select and insist on the distractor item - not typical stress but a kind of stress for her to try to give me something when I don't recognize her original correct response!
3) In another of the UL games, I recognized my dog working out a problem but called it too early as she was using an object in her environment to help her source that actual hide. She had not alerted me so I was just impatient.
4) In a lost item search, I saw an object visible in the area and thought the judge would not have the object so obvious so I didn't let my dog work out that problem and called the area clear!
5) In an elite interior search, my dog found two fun hides (one was a crack) and as I was leaving the area she showed INTEREST in an object but not INTENT! That was a hole in my observation skills when I called that interest!
As a long time competitor I have sometimes heard people lay "blame" for hides they missed - blame on the environment (which includes all kinds of factors - sound, wind, objects, previous use of an area.......) and all kinds of things to avoid reflecting on our part in an event; blame on hide placement; blame on the judge for not accepting your definition of what should be valid, etc.....
I was pleased to not hear too much of that this weekend and it is a testament to a good training community!
We all need to remember we are doing this for FUN! It is a first world problem to be disappointed in missing a Q - yes, we pay for entries, but we are NOT going to get every search in our career of trialing!
So I am asking you to reflect on your challenges this weekend and share what you are willing to share.
