Walking The Plank Over Elite Waters

Typically when arriving at a K9 Nose Work Trial site, you’re greeted by a volunteer who directs you were to park and points out where Registration is located. That all took place as I drove up to Camp Carpenter outside of Manchester, N.H. last weekend, except the volunteer added this direction; “At some point you’ll be driving to one of the search areas so don’t set up too much.”

What??? You mean don’t set up camp like we usually do in what is pretty much a K9 Nose Work tailgate party? That’s when I truly realized Logan and I had made it to an Elite Division Trial.

Having earned our Nose Work 3 Elite Title less than three months ago, this was our maiden voyage into Elite waters. No more strict structure of their being a container search, exterior search, interior search and a vehicle search. It’s more of a freestyle vibe in Elite. It’s usually a combination of interior and exterior searches, with some areas being much larger than what you find at the other three levels. However, as we learned at Camp Carpenter they can be small as well, with very short search times.

Also absent at an Elite trial is that sinking feeling you would get when you called “Alert” and the judge said “no.” At the other three levels that meant your search was over, and no title for you and your dog that day. There is still a penalty for calling a false alert at the Elite level (a half a hide deduction from your score), but you can keep on working for up to three false alerts in one search.

Our first search was the Dining Hall area. This huge room with no tables and chairs set up was one of the most cavernous search areas Logan had ever faced. Given he had been on leash rest for three days due to a minor injury, he was chopping at the bit to search. For Logan he did a great job covering the room. In a little over 5 minutes he had found three of the four hides. Technically he found the fourth one, but I didn’t call it.

It was then off to the search we had to drive 3/4s of a mile to — The Pirates Cove. It was a cool search area that included the replica of a ship’s bow. With 5 minutes on the clock Logan had a confident stride into the search area. He found two hinds in 25 seconds. On the third hide, I called it too early and got a false alert. But, hey, no problem now. I just stepped back and let Logan work it out until he got it. He found two more hides before time was up giving us 5 of the 6 that were out there.

The only search Logan struggled on was the Waterfront area. Here it took him nearly 3:30 to find only 1 of the 3 hides. In the speed search, held in small cabins with 1 minute search times, he found 4 of the total 6 hides.

Our total was 13 out of 19 hides for the day. I was very happy with Logan’s performance. He was having so much fun, as was I just watching him play. It’s hard to believe four years ago he refused to go into a building to do his odor recognition test. Logan has come a long way.