Promises — When To Keep Them, When To Break Them

Two years ago Logan and I competed at a Nose Work 2 trial in Huntington, Mass. It was a great setting and with the host being Karin Damon, it was an organized, well-run trial. However, afterwords I promised myself I’d never go back there again.

It was over the Fourth of July weekend, which as anyone in the Northeast will tell you, the heat can be intense that time of year. Temperatures were in the triple digits and the humidity made the heat index reading look like it came off the odometer on my 2004 Civic. The saving grace was Karin getting the host school to let us use the air-conditioned auditorium to crate dogs. But seeing how much Logan struggled in the heat, I was not in a hurry to try that again.

But now we’re at the NW3 level. Getting into trials can seem tougher than passing federal gun control legislation. So when this year’s Huntington Trial came up on the calendar, and Logan and I been shut out in getting into any trials for 2015, I signed us up. At first we were wait listed. It didn’t break my heart. Then we got a message saying we were in. So I broke that promise, and accepted the spot.

Thankfully the heat was not nearly as intense as the last visit, but it was still hot. To help maintain Logan’s energy throughout the day I promised myself that once I heard the 30-second warning from the timer I’d call “finish” and move on.

We started with the vehicle search and then later the exterior search. A time limit of 3 minutes on both, and the audio transcript would for both search would read as such:

Me: OK Logan, go find it!

Me:  Alert

Judge:  Yes 

Me:  Alert 

Judge:  Yes 

Timer: 30 seconds

Me: Finish

Two searches down and this 30 second finish calling is working well. Not sure if there was a third hide in either area, but I’m feeling pretty good at this point.

We moved on to interiors, which I see as Logan’s strongest search element. The first of three interior search areas is a long corridor with lots of stuff stacked against each wall. Back to the audio transcript.

Me: OK Logan, go find it!

Me:  Alert

Judge:  Yes

Me:  Alert 

Judge:  Yes 

Timer: 30 seconds

Me: Finish

This strategy is working well. Let’s go to the second interior search area — a class room.

Me: OK Logan, go find it!

Me:  Alert

Judge:  Yes

Timer: 30 seconds

Me: Alert

Judge: No

Me: **censored**

Yup, I went off script and called a false alert several ticks after the 30-second warning. Logan had shown some interest in a cabinet area but left it. I knew time in the 2:30 minute search was winding down, so I guided him back to the cabinet. I heard “30 seconds,” but waited. Sometimes Logan doesn’t give me his usual alert when the hide is inaccessible. He was sniffing pretty intently, but never did signal an alert. Sorry Logan. My bad.

For the third interior room search and the container search I wisely went back to the previously successful game plan. At the end of the day I see that Logan did his job. He found all the hides. Had I kept my promise to call finish upon hearing “30 seconds” we would have titled.

I don’t regret breaking my promise to not return to Huntington. It was a great trial experience, and I learned a valuable lesson.