Trial day January 5th, 2014
Nose Work is still a relatively new sport, although many have gotten Nose Work level 1 titles. I even got one with Mickey. So entering Divine, since I've already been in a trial, I should be ready set to go. However, I was extremely nervous. I got jiggers and was anxious every time I thought about the trial. Though it was a good anxious. I had to remind myself that being nervous or anxious means I care. When you are not exited, you won't have the spunk or extra boost to do well. Nose Work does mean a lot to me. It is the only sport I have time to participate and also one I can physically participate in. So all my efforts go into this sport.
I use to joke that "Divine is my problem child." But, I had to stop thinking that because any negative thinking is not good for moving forward. And in the end, the problem child wasn't Divine, it was me. In the past I would be nervous, thinking the more nervous and anxious I was, that would work for me. As I got older, I found that wasn't the case, we need a healthy level of being nervous, but not to the level we turn into a deer in headlights. So to work through this, I had to coach myself.
The day before the trial I prepared. Getting ready really helped me feel as if I were in control. We all have control issues one way or another and putting them into getting ready for the trial would relieve Divine of me trying to control her at the trial.The week before I had Divine in a Sniff 'n Go where Jamie wrote, "pulled her off odor twice." This is me trying to "control" the environment. I don't know where the odor is, but I keep trying to mettle in my dog's searching patterns. Which to Divine, this interprets as nagging. I coached myself and said over and over, "Let her work out the odor in the trial!" And I continued to do what I could control, I packed up the day before. I also did 3 hides at Mast Park. No drilling, just a little easy fun to boost her enthusiasm. It did. After the first odor, the other one was about 40 feet away and she started pulling me to it! I just let her go, let her do her searching. YES! now keep this in mind when we trial tomorrow. Remember, "Let her work out the odor!"
I also reread the rule book and to avoid any driving mishaps, I virtually (using computer screens) drove to the trial site. I love the maps you can use on the Internet like you are there getting to see the landmarks. This proved to be the best thing for me to do as getting there was super easy. Nothing to raise my blood pressure if I miss a street and get lost!!
The morning of the trial Divine and I got in my truck and headed out. I tried the toll road to Long Beach for the first time. What a beautiful drive to calm the nerves before the trial. Hardly anyone on the road. There were patches of fog, but also beautiful. Stress free getting to the trial. The trial was held in San Pedro. I went over St. Thomas' bridge where you see Long Beach and L.A. Harbor, the two largest Sea Ports in United States. The stacks of shipping containers is an incredible sight. As I saw Harbor Boulevard off ramp sign, I got off as the arrows pointed to the cruise ship ports. Driving on Harbor Boulevard I started thinking of my father, who had passed away 9 years ago. The feeling was rather strong and I didn't know why I was getting this intense feeling for him. I'm already full of emotions for this trial and now I'm thinking of this? Good Grief! At the stop light, I looked to the left and saw a banner that said "Battleship Iowa". I was over come with emotions, I looked up and to the right past the cruise ship and saw the U. S. S. Iowa. The emotions were intense and i was trying hard to hold back the tears. The U. S. S. Iowa was the ship my father served on in WWII. I knew it was in Los Angeles but that was a back thought, I had no idea I would be driving right past it. Oh how I wanted to go see it, but I had a trial to attend. I knew I wouldn't be able to see it all day, but at least the thought of my father near and that I can go back with my mom was a bit comforting. I had a trial to attend. It was like that was there to say, "Hey, I'm here!" and my father was trying to tell me, "when you get a chance, you got to see the ship I served."Then I was able to put it in the back of my mind and focus on the trial.
I arrived at the trial in plenty of time, set up, and went to the front check-in table. Whew. Made it here! YAY! We were #8 to run in group A. As I walked around, I saw a few familiar faces and mingled a little bit. We are all in this together, we all want our dogs to succeed and get their titles. Some folks were there for the third time, the fourth and even fifth time. Wow, I really give them credit for their love for this sport and getting out with their dogs. The dogs love this sport and I know Divine does too.
We were right on the water. No waves because we were in a harbor. But beautiful full sun, not too hot, no strong winds. A perfect day to trial.
I was #8 to go. That gave me a little time to take a breather to give Divine a lot of time to sniff and potty. I've notice when I give her a lot of time to sniff other dog's pee, she cares less about it on a search. This doesn't mean another dog would care less, but for Divine it does work. So I gave her a nice long 10-15 minutes just to sniff pee. One of her favorite things to do. Then she will decide to pee. She's not like Mickey who does his business right away and ready to move on. He likes to sniff pee too, but he doesn't need 10 minutes of it. Divine needs to sniff, sniff, sniff and sniff more, then pee. Then sniff, sniff and sniff some more and then eliminate. Oh what we have to do when getting our dogs ready for show time! I wish she was like Mickey, do the business and be done with it and let's go!!!
As the time gets nearer, the adrenalin in my body starts to rise. I took Divine to the practice boxes and she got it right away, but i was so phased out that I didn't notice! Good to do that on the practice box instead of the actual search! I brought her on again and she alerted, I treated. Ok, she gets it, I just need to get my head together.
We waited in the waiting area. They said we could potty our dogs, so I allowed Divine to take a potty break, but because she just did the warm up boxes her brain was thinking ODOR and she started searching the area. I pulled her to the side and decided to wait on the side walk. They called us up.
We went down these steep stairs where I saw the judge. I told her I don't hear well so this is the time you can yell at me and get away with it! She laughed and said she knew I couldn't hear well.
Our first search were the containers. They were Pizza boxes! Oh fun! I knew this being NW1 they didn't have pizza smell or grease on them. So at least I could relax about my Labrador not sniffing any residual pizza! We started and her nose kept hitting the boxes. Bang, bang, bang and bang. Very distinct bang noise as if she is doing a quick sort. It was in a very random order that i couldn't remember which box she hit and which one she didn't. As time went on, I got a little nervous. I usually let my dogs go at it first and if they get a little lost, I will then lead them methodically to each box. She probably was a bit nervous herself, not that systematic and a little frantic, which isn't her style. She probably felt my anxiousness being at this trial. She finally hit the right box with both her paws on the box, which caved in a little. Opps. I hope that doesn't mean she will fault. But later found out we faulted for something else. When she went through training as a guide dog, I suspect they did a lot of platform training with both paws on a platform or box. She use to do this often and we had to work through this in her early training. That the odor was more important than planting both paws on the box. When I was able to look at the web site that evening, I saw we did fault, but I wasn't sure why. When I got my sheet a few days later, I faulted for food. DRAT! I did that with Mickey on his first NW1 trial with containers. I like to bend down and treat next to the box, but my dogs are experienced, I don't need to do that anymore and should stop. It is obvious in a trial setting I spill food. So I will treat them standing up. They do this fine in practice.
Next we went straight to vehicles. This is her best and fastest. We start off, but she hung on these two vehicles. after awhile I could tell there was no odor there. I tried to make sure she covered the first two cars fully, but not remembering what I did, the judge did note, "Not to sell the odor to her." Hmmmm, ok, I need to be careful when I go over an area too much. I finally got her to the third vehicle and ALERT and there it was. This was long for Divine, she's usually very fast with vehicles, but life in a trial situation is when we learn. I learned and I know Divine learned. The best thing is at least we passed!
Lunch time. We can relax, put her up and wait about 2 hours for our next run. It started to get a little warmer. Divine was panting a little bit. Not too hot, but was panting a little bit.
Just before our turn, I did the ritual of sniff all the pee you need for a good 10-15 minutes, potty and ok, let's rumble!
The next two runs were Exterior and Interior. The sun was bright, so it was easy for me to see well. The search area was a bit convoluted. So convoluted, it is kind of difficult to explain here the ins and outs and inlets and marked off areas we had. I really didn't care about the boundaries, other than just let Divine do her search and work it. She had a little bit of a challenge but got into the area of the odor. I could tell, but sourcing it was a bit of a challenge to her. It was an inlet. Like ones you see in apartments that are semi-enclosed with an over hang and door. It had a gate, that was permanent for most of it, and a gate that was open. When Divine went into this inlet, she went to the crease of the door. She did a half alert. I could tell she wasn't sure, so i didn't call it. If this was a few months ago, I probably would have called it. She continued to source. Her nose went up the crease of the door, then went where the crease was in the cement where the gate would close, then back to the door, then when she went back to that crease, her nose stuck, she looked at me and I called alert.....that half of second while you freeze hoping to hear "YES" from the judge feels like it is 10 seconds long. You hold your breath hoping and praying to hear that word "YES" and I heard the "YES!" my body relaxes and I let out a big sigh of relief. I got a pronounced on this element. This means Divine and I worked well as a team. The judge commented, "Enthusiastic dog!" I just love it that Divine is much happier now. I stopped nagging her, I make it more fun and she is having a blast!
When we did the walk through, I couldn't see inside the room that was set up for the Interior. Laura, who guided us through the walk through said, "See that big chair there? That is also in your search" I couldn't see it. The room was too dark. It was an awkward feeling when Laura asked me twice. I couldn't say yes. This room had no natural light. It was like a dungeon. There was one dim florescent light. Those lights are a frequency that it makes grey spots in my vision. With my floaters that semi-block my vision and only seeing out of one eye, there isn't a lot I can fall back on. It is extremely hard for me to see. I can see Divine's silhouette, but no details. This is when knowing your dog well comes into play. If I have a dark dog, this will be very difficult, which I will face with Duffy, but Divine is a nice light yellow lab. There is hope.
When it was our turn to go, I told the steward, "This is just a precautionary, but my eyes do not adjust well to dark rooms and I most likely won't be able to see well. You do not need to do anything for me, but just to let you know." The Steward said, "You can wait a few seconds for your eyes to adjust." I said, "My eyes don't adjust that quick. I will just wing it as I go." I was thinking the minute Divine goes into the door of the room, the time starts. The best thing to do is just let her work it because that clock is running. We could have had this off leash, but I needed to know where she was located, so I left the leash on that was hooked up to her harness. This really helped to give additional feedback of what little I could see. When Divine first went in, she ran to the end of the boundary. As she ran in front of me, I let the leash out, she was grey to me, but I knew she was running. My hesitancy was not to run into an obstacle I couldn't see, so I stayed, as best I could behind her. I knew this was safe. It was a half partitioned room where the other side of the partition was not part of the search area. I remember having a practice session with Kim we had the same situation. During Kim's workshop, when Divine would go to the other side, "I pulled her off odor a few times" because the odor was right there on the edge. She went to the other side to work the odor. I was thinking she is out of the boundary, there can't be odor there and pulled her off. But, remember, odor doesn't know those boundaries unless it is a solid wall. Odor was going to the other side of the room. I wasn't going to make that mistake again today and pull her off odor. So today in the trial I let her work it, not being worried about her "going out of bounds." Fortunately Divine is a light yellow lab and I could see the contrast of a silhouette. She didn't look light yellow to me though, she was like a grey that was lighter than the light of the room. I let her do her thing and work it. We know how to do this and yes my vision is extremely impaired, but it isn't completely black, but a huge disadvantage. I was able to follow Divine around and she went back to the front part of the room. Probably 30 seconds passed and my vision started to adjust just a little bit better to the dark room. Just enough I could see her head move. As she worked the front part of the room, she found the odor, sourced it and ALERT. That half a second I wait to hear the glorious word.....and "YES" was given. WOW, she passed all four! WE DID IT! And having a huge disadvantage in that room with it being like doing night time nose work, we succeeded. I also got a pronounced on this search too. I can't tell you how special that is to me, being at such a huge disadvantage of not being able to see. This is a sport, I'm not looking for any handicap advantages. Then that means I can't compete with the big boys. I will work it out and learn how to do this like everyone else that will have challenges to work through. That is what a sport is all about, not to whine of your disadvantages, but to say this is my disadvantage, acknowledge them and finding ways to get around it. It is exhilaration when you succeed because you were able to be tested on the same level as everyone else. This means a lot to me. I now can say I got two NW1 titles on two dogs the first time. I need to be careful to not get too full of myself, because NW2 level is a whole new game. Some great handlers are not passing the first time in NW2. However, I will work with Divine about a year before I decide to enter her in an NW2.
