First, my son is the best little boy dog in the world. He navigated wet grass, distractor containers, and shiny floors. each of those challenges individually would have been impossible a year ago. Let alone all three in one day! This article is all about how to be a supportive partner as the human end of the leash at an NW2 trial.
I will admit that I let the panic get the best of me. This is why I only filmed the morning searches. He was worried about some of the floors, but he was super brave and pushed through all of the discomfort.
The Week Before
Leading up to the NW2 trial, we did 2 training sessions surrounding slippery floors. These two sessions were removed from the context of searching. As a result he was much more willing to deal with slippery floors on a loose leash. Additionally, we did 1 container search with all of the other boxes containing distractions.
The Day Before
Knowing that Felix is incredibly sensitive to travel and treats, we did absolutely no training the day before. We knew we were getting up at the crack of dawn, I spent the afternoon baking treats and making lunch. His tummy was perfectly settled the day before the trial!
The Big Day!
The most important thing you can do is eat breakfast. In the rush to get out of the house it can be an easy element to miss, but it makes a huge difference in mood when you’re standing outside in the cold or rain. Depending on the weather, in our case pouring rain, I cannot recommend a hot sipping beverage enough. Having a hot tea to warm up my hands was wonderful in the down times. Depending on the weather, in our case pouring rain, I cannot recommend a hot sipping beverage enough. Having a hot tea to warm up my hands was wonderful in the down times.
We had a 90 minute drive to the NW2 trial location, so we piled into the car at 6:45. This set our arrival time as 8:20am, perfectly within the 8:15am to 8:45am arrival window. If you know that there may be traffic I would triple check your preferred apps to make sure you are on time but NOT early.
The Actual Searches
Exteriors
In our first NW2 trial attempt Felix completed 1 vehicle search, 1 exterior search, 1 container search, and 2 interior searches. First up was Exteriors. I was terrified of the grass and I could tell he had thoughts about peeing on the tree. I’m so thankful that his looking for a spot to pee sniffing is very different than his searching sniffing.
Vehicles
Next up we had a vehicle search. I knew he had found odor the second he doubled back, but it was incredibly windy blowing at us from the right hand side. So, I waited for him to indicate. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to do his full head whip trained final response, but he did freeze at source which is 90% of the way there.
Containers
After the Vehicle search, we took a break for lunch and I was very thankful that I had made stir fry for lunch. We moved on to the interior elements of the day. First up was containers, the element that I knew would be our make or break for the day. I put Felix into his booties and we waltzed into the gym like the floor was no problem at all. He was genuinely perfect. He noticed the distractor but immediately dismissed it and moved to source. I’m so glad that we were able to work through both his floor feelings and his food distractor feelings to complete that search.
Interiors
Finally, the last 2 searches of the day were both interiors. Again we had to tackle the shiny floor problem. Thankfully both interior searches were on carpet and not on linoleum. We only had to handle the slip and shine to get to the search area. In both interior searches he was very uncomfortable with the thresholds, so he completely blew past the hides that were just inside the door. I think the fact that he missed both threshold hides on the firs pass contributed extensively to his longer than average interior times. He did get to source eventually though and that’s what counts.
I’m so thankful to Sandra our trainer, Peter my husband who lets me play dog whenever I want, my pal Lexie who came along to experience the fun and soak up the good vibes, and finally to Nosework Magic and all of their volunteers for putting on a seamless trial.
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