Trial Updates

Mar 2022 - Containers & Vehicles

Last nigh The Advanced Tracking Club of Western Australia ran the second trial for the year at the Veteran Car Club of WA in Forrestfield. Two elements were on offer – Containers and Vehicles and I am happy to say Harry and Charlie both successfully passed their classes. A large turnout with almost 40 dogs competing in Novice and 20 in Advanced. First up was Charlie in Novice Containers in which he completed in 15.63 seconds narrowly missing out in the placings. Then after a quick rest it was off to the Novice Vehicles search which he finished in 25 seconds coming in 4th. Not bad for his second trial!

Next up was Harry in Advanced Vehicles where he had to locate two hides – he had a little trouble locating the first hide on the vehicle so we moved onto the second hide placed on a trailer which he found quickly and then came back to the initial hide from a different direction which he then found. He completed his search in 2min 15 seconds. Onto Advanced Containers which was a variety of boxes and bags inside a room – again he had to locate two hides and ignore the distraction which he did in 38.37 seconds. All in all a great result!

Mar 2022 - Interiors & Exteriors

Last night there was another trial held at the Veteran Car Club of WA. The elements on the night were Interiors and Exteriors. For Novice, the odour was Clove and for Advanced it was Clove and Cypress.

First up was Charlie in Novice Exteriors which was held on the back verandah. In Novice Exteriors the odour can be placed to a maximum height of 60cm. That night it was placed at ground height at the bottom of a verandah post. With a maximum allowed search time of 2 mins. He aced his search with a time of 8.36 seconds – not quite good enough for placings in a massive field of almost 60 dogs but I was very happy with his search. Next up was the Novice Interior search which was held inside the main building. Being the last dog in the running order – 49, he had a lot of disturbance to contend with. The search items were a bunch of chairs. He did great with a search time of 11.28 seconds !

After a short break it was onto Advanced Interiors with Harry. In Advanced Interiors we needed to find the two odours – Clove and Cypress and ignore the distraction which was a broom. The hides in Advanced can be placed at a maximum height of 90cm. There was a bunch of chairs and a table in the search area along with several display cabinets. One hide was placed underneath the middle of the table and the other at floor level in a pocket between the display cabinets which resulted in a fair bit of pooling odour. The judge allocated a maximum time of 3 minutes for this search and Harry did well with a search time of 1 minute 44 seconds

Last up for the night was Harry in Advanced Exteriors. The judge allowed 4 minutes for this search and the maximum height for this search was 90cm. The wind had picked up and was quite gusty at times which had the potential to make the search more difficult. We also had to contend with the distraction item which was an old smelly gumboot! He founds the two hides and completed the search in 53 seconds which earnt us 3rd place.

So all in all a successful trial with 4 classes entered and 4 qualifying runs. Next stop – the Easter Extravaganza which is a two day trial covering all 4 elements – Vehicles, Interiors, Exteriors and Containers! Thanks again to The Advanced Tracking Club of Western Australia, Judges and Stewards for a well run trial.

Easter 2022 - Interiors, Exteriors, Vehicles & Containers

The Advanced Tracking Club put on an Easter Extravaganza over this long weekend. This 2 day trial was held at the Claremont Showgrounds and had all 4 elements on offer. Sunday we had Vehicles and Interiors. The scent for the day in Novice was Cypress and in Advanced it was Cypress and Anise. First up was Charlie in Novice Vehicles. There were 2 vehicles to search – a car and a trailer with a maximum time given of 3 minutes to complete the search. The hide was located on the frame of the first vehicle at the rear of the car. Conditions were challenging with a strong breeze and Charlie missed the odour on the car on his first pass and instead concentrated on the trailer where the odour was pooling. After investigating the trailer thoroughly looking for source and not finding it, he returned to the vehicle and alerted correctly. In a field of 29 dogs he did well in locating the hide in 44.56 seconds coming in 4th place.

Next up for Charlie was Novice Interiors with a nice little search inside the Pavilion It was a tricky hide located on the underside of some dog benches. There was a field of 35 dogs and a pass rate of just under 40%. He had an awesome search time of 13.47 seconds to come in first place.Harry was then up in the afternoon and his first element was the Advanced Interior Search. There were 2 odours for him to find along with a distraction for him to ignore. The distraction of a ball in a milk crate proved interesting to Harry as he returned to check it out a couple of times but was able to work through it and located the two hides in a search time of 1 minute and 4 seconds.Last for the day was Advanced Vehicles for Harry. Again, this was a tricky search with one hide placed in the door seam of the vehicle and the other on the rear of the trailer. The breeze was strong and played a large part in the difficulty of the search. The distraction item was a shoe which Harry didn’t show any interest in thankfully. There were 26 competitors in the class and a pass rate of 55%. Harry had a nice search time of 56.13 seconds to come in 2nd place.

The odour was Clove for the Novice search and Clove and Birch for the Advanced searches. The elements on offer were Exteriors and Containers. Charlie was first up in Exteriors. He did well with a nice precise indication on an Easter bunny sign located on a brick wall in a time of 32.91 seconds. Charlie already has two passes in Novice Containers and Harry was competing in the Advanced Container class so Charlie couldn’t compete in the Novice container search but he did get a run as the Demo dog. Next for the day was Harry in Advanced Containers which unfortunately he did not pass. There were two odours located in 20 different containers along with a distraction hidden in one of the boxes of an old cat blanket. A search time of 2 minutes was given. Harry located the first hide quickly but had a lot of trouble with the second hide which was located in a flat pencil case. The class ended up with a pass rate of just over 30% and what became apparent was the smaller and methodical dogs went well and the larger faster dogs seemed to have issues locating the smaller hide. The flat pencil case was positioned in between two larger containers and dogs were not searching thoroughly the different height containers. So definitely something for us to work on. Lastly was Harry in the Exterior search in which he successfully located both hides in 61 seconds.As a result of the weekend Charlie has obtained his Novice title (Dogs West pending). A Novice title is obtained when the dog has 6 novice passes – with at least one pass in each element (Containers, Vehicles, Interiors and Exteriors). Harry is one of a handful of dogs in the state that have obtained his Advanced title (Dogs West pending). An Advanced title is achieved when a dog has 9 Advanced passes (minimum of two passes in each element). Many thanks to Advanced Tracking Club of Western Australia (Inc), Judges and the many stewards that gave their long weekend to hold another fantastic trial.

Apr 2022 - Interiors

This one came around quick! Last night another trial was held, this time at a new location of the Lesmurdie Hall. There was a single element on offer – Interiors.Novice was the first class to be held – a field of 24 dogs with an awesome pass rate of a 100%.Next up Interior Advanced class – it was first the time that Charlie was entered in an Advanced class which now had 2 odours to find in a time limit of 3 minutes. In this case it was Cypress and Anise and he also had to contend with a distraction of some sheep wool – and it was a distraction for him! He qualified with a respectable search time of 1 minute and 40 seconds in a class that had a pass rate of just over 55%.Then for the first time in WA we had an Excellent class.

The 7 teams entered needed to find 3 odours – Cypress, Anise and Clove and deal with two distractions – non food and food! There are 2 separate search areas each with their own time limit and handlers do not know how many odours are in each area. To be eligible for this class, dogs needed to have their Advanced title or 3 Advanced passes in Interiors. As with every class the running order is decided randomly and we were drawn first to compete. There was also a large amount of spectators watching this class so needless to say the nerves were up there! The 2 search areas each had a separate time limit of 3 minutes. These times are added together for a total search time.

Harry did well on the first search area locating the first hide in 14 seconds. We kept searching the area as I had thought there may be a second hide in this area and I called ‘Finish’ right on the 3 minute mark. In hindsight Harry gave me many signals to say there was no more hides in this area and I should of called Finish earlier- there is truth to the saying ‘Trust your Dog’. As we had correctly identified the one and only hide in this search area we were allowed to continue to the second search area. The next area was a kitchen and in there were 2 hides - 1 under the bench in a corner and the other hide was inaccessible in a cupboard. Harry found both in a time of 2mins and 29 seconds. Harry was one of two dogs that qualified in Excellent Interiors at this trial and came in 2nd place. I’d like to say a big thankyou to Jase and Lisa at K9 Solutions Australia for their expert training and support that played a big part in us achieving this level. As always, another big thank you to the Advanced Tracking Club of Western Australia (Inc), Judges, Stewards and Competitors for another successful trial.Side Note - Charlie was not feeling that photogenic this morning

May 2022 - Exteriors

Last night we had a trial held at the Lesmurdie Hall with a single element on offer – Exteriors. Luckily the rain held off for the entire time we were trialling! Novice was the first class to be held with the target odour being Clove with a time limit of 3 minutes. The search was located out the back of the hall in an enclosed outdoor area and competitors were given the option of an off-lead search. There were several objects placed in the search area and the hide was placed on a small step ladder. There was a field of 37 dogs with pass rate of just under 80%. Then, trial organisers mixed it up a little with the next class to run – Excellent. The 3 target odours were Clove, Birch and Anise. This time the search area was out the front of the hall – utilising a large undercover brick paved area and a bush area which was off to the side. The distractions for this search were some fruit and a used small dog jacket. We had a time limit of 5 minutes and a large contingent of spectators watched on.There were only 2 dogs entered in this class – one of which was Harry. This class had a pass rate of 50%. We were up first and located the first 2 hides in under 40 seconds which were converging odours as they were placed 1.5 metres away from each other. One was located at the bottom of a verandah pole and the other under the corner of a table. Unfortunately, we did not qualify in this search as we were unable to located the 3rd hide and timed out. It was a tricky ground hide located at the back of a small limestone wall in a natural bush garden bed. Whilst disappointing that we didn’t qualify I was still really happy with Harry’s searching – he searched for the last odour for over 4 minutes not once giving up or false indicating -he was working the problem. Still, lessons to be learnt for me as a handler as with every trial!Lastly, Advanced Exterior class – it was first the time that Charlie was entered in an Advanced Exterior class which had 2 odours to find in a time limit of 4 minutes. In this case it was Clove and Birch and he also had one distraction to contend with. In this search area we were also given the off-lead option but I chose to stay onlead. I usually reward with food for the first hide and a toy for the second hide but I’ve been training rewarding with a toy for each hide and it was time to put this into practice at a trial. To do this, you must have a good ‘out’ so there is no conflict that has the potential to impact on your search. I also had to choose a toy (kong on a rope) with a longer rope as the toy must stay in contact with the handler at all times. One hide was located in a large vent in the wall and the other was on a small step ladder. He qualified with a nice search time of 1 minute 25 seconds and this class had a pass rate of just over 80%.As always, a big thank you to the Advanced Tracking Club, Judge, Stewards and Competitors for another successful trial.

Jul 2022 - Exteriors and Interiors

After a break of seven weeks, yesterday we had a trial held at the new location of the Serpentine Pony Club. Two elements were on offer – Exteriors and Interiors and both elements were oversubscribed but a ballot was able to avoided as some lovely people chose to withdraw on learning that the trial was oversubscribed. Judges have a limit of only being allowed to judge 80 competitors per day. First up was Exteriors commencing 2pm which was held on the verandah of the main building. Novice had 34 entries with quite a few first time competitors and had a pass rate of 70%. They were given a time of 3 minutes to complete their search. Next class was Advanced and Charlie was entered in this class which had two odours to find in 4 minutes – Clove and Anise along with a non food distraction of wool on a verandah pole. He was the 25th dog to run in a class of 35. He qualified in a time of 46 seconds which earnt him 3rd place. The pass rate of this class was 69 %.Next up was Harry in Exteriors in the excellent class. This class was held at around 6pm and it was dark outside and the temperature had plummeted! It ended up dropping to around 6 degrees by the end of the night. Harry had 3 odours to find in 5 minutes. Clove, Anise and Birch. He also had 2 distractions – food and non food. They were a dog chew toy and a container with some tasty ziwipeak. The search area was the back of the verandah and then there was an area that went out into the dirt along a fence line. This was a challenging search with a high threshold hide underneath a windowsill, a low hide around a downpipe and an inaccessible hide in a stack of foldup chairs. He was the 2nd dog to run in a class of 8. He did awesome with a time of 2mins and 48 seconds which earnt him 1st place. The pass rate of this class was 50%.

At the same time as Excellent Exteriors was running Novice Interiors begun. We had our first interstate judge Debby Lemprecht come across to WA to judge – many thanks for making the trip! Novice class had 37 competitors with a time l imit of two minutes and a great pass rate of 95%. They were also given an off-leash option.Next Interior Advanced - our interior search was held in the main area of the pony club building. Charlie was entered in the advanced class which had the same two odours to find. This time the time limit was 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The non food distraction was sheep wool. He was the 12th dog to run in a class of 26. He qualified in a time of 1min and 4 seconds. The hides were on a bucket handle and in a little nook of some plastic stairs. The pass rate of this class was around 54 %.Last up for the night was Harry in Interiors in the excellent class. He had the 3 odours to find in two search areas. Competitors do not know how many odours are in the first area - it could be one or two. Each search area was individually timed and we were given two and half minutes in each search area. The distractions for this class were coffee beans and alpaca wool . He was the 2nd dog to run in a class of 10. His time for the first area was 1min 14 sec (which had two hides) and the second search area time was 26 seconds (1 hide). He qualified and came in at 3rd place. The pass rate of this class was 60 %. A special mention to students Lesley Brain Sharon Turner and Stella Cornish Smith for all achieving qualifiers last night! You ladies are awesome! As always, a big thank you to the Advanced Tracking Club, Judges, Stewards and Competitors for another successful trial.Side Note: Charlie is taking the photo opp very seriously this morning - Harry looking like he just woke up

Jul 2022 - Containers

A short break between trials this time! Today we had a single element trial held at the Lesmurdie Hall. We had 71 entries and luckily avoided a ballot again as we didn’t hit the maximum 80. Our judge was Yvonne Haynes and the element was Containers.As I am part of the 2022 Scent Work Judges trainee course, part of the requirements are that we must be a hide steward for a trial in every class so unfortunately I wasn’t able to compete with my dogs. However, the lovely Jane Wood and Danielle Grosse handled Charlie and Harry so they were able to have a run.Novice Containers were 15 identical boxes in three rows of 5. The time limit to find the hide was 2 minutes. The odour to find was Anise. There were 30 competitors and the fastest time was 9.41 seconds. The overall pass rate was 47%. It was interesting as the judge had put the entry cones on the side of the search area and that seemed to unsettle a few handlers.

Next up, Advanced Containers with 2 odours to find – Anise and Birch. There were 20 containers of different types with a non-food distraction of a dog blanket hidden in a container. A field of 32 competitors. It was also the first time that the containers were set in rows. Jane Wood was handling Charlie and he was the 4th dog to compete. He did really well with a search time of 30.56 seconds and came in 1st place. Thanks Jane! The pass rate in the advanced class was also 47%Finally Excellent Containers with the 3 odours – Anise, Birch and Clove. There were 27 containers of all different types placed in a random pattern. There were 2 distractions - a ball in the search area and a food distraction that was placed in one of the containers. There was a field of 6 dogs and Harry was the last dog to compete. Danielle did a great job handling Harry but unfortunately Harry was only able to locate 1 of the 3 odours. He also liked the ball distraction a little too much. He worked well for his new handler and searched the whole time so I was very happy with this. Thanks Danielle! The pass rate was 17% .Many thanks to Jane and Danielle for handling my boys – it can’t have been easy with me watching on.

Aug 2022 - Interiors

Yesterday we had a single element trial held at the new location of Riverton Pavilion. We had 77 entries across 3 classes and luckily just avoided a ballot again. Our judge was Fiona Cowie and the element was Interiors. The ATC who was the host club was trialling a new format of staggered start times which allowed each class to be completed in full including presentations before the commencement of the next class. This allowed for competitors to leave after they have competed their search and for the Advanced/Excellent class competitors they could arrive later in the day. I have to say I loved the new format!!! Novice Interiors was held in the corner of the pavilion and had a sporting theme to the search. The odour to find was Clove. There were 26 competitors with lots of first time triallers. The fastest time was 13.31 seconds and the overall pass rate was 77%.

Next up, Advanced Interiors with 2 odours to find – Clove and Birch. There was 1 nonfood distraction of a towel that was used to dry wet dogs. The search area was in a locker room which made for an interesting setting. A field of 30 competitors and Charlie came in fourth with a time of 47 seconds. The pass rate in the advanced class was 67%. Charlie has now achieved 3 Interior Advanced passes so even though he hasn’t completed his Advanced title yet, he now has to move up to Excellent class for Interiors.Finally Excellent Interiors with the 3 odours – Clove, Birch and Anise. There were distractions of a tennis ball and an orange in the search area. This was our largest field of Excellent competitors to date with 16 dogs and Harry was the 10th dog to compete. The search area comprised of 2 individual searches. The first search area was a large part of the Pavilion and had a search time of 3 minutes. The second search area was a small kitchen with a search time of 2 minutes. Whilst the total number of hides in known (3), you don’t know how many hides are in the first search area. We successfully located the one and only hide in the first search area which allowed us to continue. In the small kitchen there were two hides and we quickly located the first hide but unfortunately got caught up in the pooling odour and were unable to locate the second hide in time. The pass rate was 37%.As always, a big thank you to the Advanced Tracking Club of Western Australia (Inc), Judges, Stewards and Competitors for another great trial. Only three left for the year!

Sep 2022 - Containers

Today we had a single element trial held at the new location of Cannington Exhibition Centre & Showgrounds. We had 72 entries across 3 classes and avoided a ballot again. Our judge was Fiona Cowie and the element was Containers. The ATC who was the host club stayed with the new format of staggered start times which was great and changed the class order with Excellent going first with a 9am start, Novice not before 10am and Advanced not before 12pm.The trial was held inside the Exhibition Hall. Excellent Containers had a field of 8 competitors and Harry was the 6th dog to run. Spectators were allowed in this class. There were different types of containers and they were placed randomly in the search area. The 3 odours to find were Anise, Birch and Clove and the 2 distractions were kangaroo poo and a lollipop that were placed inside two of the containers. Harry qualified and placed 4th although he almost did a false indication on the lollipop so we need to do some work on novel odours! The overall pass rate was 87%.

Next up, Novice Containers with a field of 31 competitors. The odour was Anise. There were 10 containers, all the same size and shape placed in two rows of 5 boxes. There are no distractions or spectators allowed in Novice classes but an off leash option was given. The time limit to complete the search was 2 minutes and the fastest time was a blistering 7.78 seconds!!! The overall pass rate was 71 %. To end the day was Advanced Containers with 2 odours to find – Anise and Birch. There was 1 nonfood distraction that was placed inside one of the containers. Spectators were allowed to watch competitors in this class and an off-leash option was also given. There were a variety of different types of containers and they were placed in rows. There was a time limit of 2 minutes to complete the search. A field of 25 competitors and Charlie was the last dog to compete. He placed first with a time of 23.35 seconds. The pass rate in the advanced class was 52%. As always, a big thank you to the Advanced Tracking Club of Western Australia (Inc), Judges, Stewards and Competitors for another great trial in a new location!

Perth Royal Show Sep 2022 - Containers, Vehicles & Exteriors

Yesterday we had a trial at the Perth Royal Show! There were 3 elements on offer – Containers, Vehicles and Exteriors in both Advanced and Excellent classes. All judged by Yvonne Haynes.This is the first time Scent Work has been offered at the Royal Show and it had its challenges! – First off was even though the trial didn’t start till 9am the gates opened for us at 6.30am so that meant a 4am wake-up call! The dogs needed to stay in the ‘benching area’ for the day as there is no parking onsite for competitors. Competitors aren’t allowed to start leaving the showgrounds until 5pm so it’s a long day for the dogs. Next, we have the location of the searches – close to a lot of the rides so there is a lot of noise and movement. The search area is also on grass which has been used for the dogs competing in the previous days so lots of great smells! The event had significantly less entries than other trials due to many of these reasons. The fact is that not all dogs can cope and work in this environment.The Royal Show is a difficult trial to prepare for as you can’t replicate the environment but I tried to prepare for it as best as I could by taking the dogs to local food truck events where there were crowds of people, training searches at the local dog park when there was no-one there so they could search on grass full of distracting smells and we also spend time in soft crates around another dogs. The two odours to find for Advanced were Anise and Clove, for Excellent the three odours were Anise, Clove and Cypress.

First up at 9am was Vehicles. Charlie was competing in this class and was the 13th dog to run in a class of 14. We had 2 vehicles to search and they were placed side by side and a time limit of 3 mins. Charlie came in 3rd with a time of 52.38 seconds and the class had an 85% pass rate.Harry was next up – this is the first time an Excellent class in Vehicles has been offered. We had 3 vehicles to search in a random pattern and a time limit of 5 minutes. It was a quite a tricky search with 2 hides place on 1 vehicle and lot of odour movement between the cars. He was the 6th dog to run in a class of 7. He came in 2nd with a time of 4 mins and 4 seconds and the pass rate was 43%. Then came the Container searches. In the Advanced class there were 15 assorted containers placed in lines and Charlie was the 10th dog to run in a class of 14. He did a lovely search with a time of 19.23 seconds which earnt him first place. The pass rate for this class was 78%.Excellent Containers was next and Harry was the 3rd dog to run in a class of 7. There was an assortment of containers placed inthe search area. The grass search area was set up under a marquee that had housed dogs for the last 4 days in other dog sports. Unfortunately, the distraction of this was just too much for many of the dogs including Harry and we didn’t passas I called an incorrect alert. Note to self – we need more training in this sort of environment! The pass rate for this class was 28%.Last for the day were the Exteriors searches which started around 3pm. Charlie was the first dog to run in aclass of 18 and did a good search in 33.35 seconds which earnt him 2nd place. The pass rate was 78%.Then onto the last class of the day – Excellent Exteriors. Harry was the last dog to run in a class of 7 and with a time of 1min 14 seconds, it earnt him 2nd place. The pass rate was 86%.For my first experience at competing at a Royal Show it was awesome. It was very well organised, ran smoothly and had a great atmosphere. This wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated team – the organisers, our judge, the amazing stewards and other competitors. A fun but very tiring day was had!

Oct 2022 - Vehicles

We had our last trial for the year yesterday. A single element trial – Vehicles, held at the Claremont Showgrounds. Novice, Advanced and Excellent classes were all on offer. All judged by Yvonne Haynes.With an original start time of 10am, this was brought forward to 9am due to the warm weather predicted of 30 degrees. Unfortunately, I think it hit about 32 degrees!First up we had Novice Vehicles. Competitors had to search 2 vehicles – 1 trailer and 1 ride on lawn mower to locate the odour in a time limit of 3 minutes. The target odour of Anise was hidden at the back of the ride on lawnmower. There are no distractions or spectators in this class. It was a large class of 41 competitors and the pass rate for this class was 74 %.At approx. 11.00am, Advanced Vehicles commenced. It was quite warm by this time so presented an additional challenge for the dogs. Again, competitors had 2 vehicles to search – both cars and had to located two hides – one Anise and one Birch in a time limit of 3 minutes. These were located in a door seam and a wheel well. There was also one non-food distraction of a harness hanging off the front of one of the vehicles. There were 26 competitors in this field and Charlie and I were the 12th competitor to run. We qualified in a search time of 1 min 19 seconds and he has now achieved his Advanced Scent Work title. Unfortunately, I dropped food in the search area whilst rewarding his first find and thus incurred a fault. The pass rate for this class was 59 %.

Last up for the day was Excellent Vehicles that started approx. 1.30pm. There were 10 competitors and Harry and I were first up. We had 3 hides to find – one Anise, one Birch and one Clove. We had distractions of a toy and a food distraction of a donut in a container. There were 3 vehicles to be searched in a time limit of 5 minutes. These vehicles ranged from a 4wd car, a trailer and a ride on lawn mower. We qualified in a time of 1 min 33 seconds to come in 4th and thepass rate for this class was 90%. So now that the 2022 Scent Work trial season is over, it’s time to rest, review and plan!A big thank you to the team @Advanced Tracking Club and @Danielle Grosse for working tirelessly behind the scenes to put together such well run trials. Thank you also to our judges, the amazing stewards that volunteer their time and other competitors for a great atmosphere. Photo of my dogs not interested in posing for a photo.

Feb 2022 - Containers