Carlin wearing the Spotlight medallion with his #1 IWS Scent Work trophy
Russ handed me a package and said “You’ve got mail.” I looked at the box. It was labeled “Bellissimo Traditional Cooked Meatballs.”
“Huh?”
“Russ answered, “It’s from Jeremy.”
Jeremy. My mind took a minute to process—it was busy solving a quilting problem. Then the proverbial light dawned. “Oh!”
Russ took his pocket knife out and handed it to me. He knew I had to get that box open that box, like right now.
And inside were several charms with Carlin’s and Tooey’s AKC titles from 2020, a certificate, and, oh boy!, a trophy recognizing the Irish Water Spaniel Club of America’s #1 Irish Water Spaniel Scent Work award for 2020. Carlin earned that by passing the most AKC Scent Work searches at the highest levels, beyond what other IWS did that year. (Although I know there are some others that are coming up quick!)
And there was also a medallion for the club’s Spotlight Award. The Spotlight Award was established to recognize a team for special accomplishments. Some examples are placements at National events, dedication to the world of dog sports, or any other notable occurrence worthy of special recognition from the club. It’s awarded to teams that are out there promoting the breed by showing everyone what IWS can do.
The winning team has to be nominated by another club member. I am thrilled with the award and touched that Sarah nominated us. Just knowing my fellow club members, I am sure that there were many who totally deserve this award, and I am grateful to be in their company.
Carlin was mostly happy to let me take his picture, in all his summer/field-cut glory. But then afterwards, he wondered, “Yes, okay. But where are the meatballs?”
The Pacific Northwest Scent Work Club offered four AKC Scent Work Detective runs over the Mother’s Day weekend, 2021. There were 11 teams that ran each search. Out of those 44 attempts, only 3 qualified: Three different teams each passed one run. And Carlin and I were one of those teams.
Patrice and Carlin with their Detective ribbon
Running Detective is exhilarating. Whether we pass or not, it’s always fun. Challenging for sure, but always fun. And this judge, Mia MacCollin, is known to have a few tricks up her sleeve when she sets hides. In this case, the three tricky hides for us were the cypress hide in a bucket (#2 on the map); an anise hide (#4) set close to and directly up wind from a clove hide (#5); and birch set high up on a plywood wall (#7).
Detective map, PNWSWC May 7, 2021, trial 2. Judge Mia MacCollin
The wind was blowing from the west (west is at the bottom of the map). So we started by going downwind. But the area was conducive to moving around in circles in each separate section of the search area, so we could move in each area first downwind, then upwind, and sometimes across the wind.
We got the threshold hide (#1 under the water fountain) first. Then Carlin found #2 (in a bucket), but I didn’t buy it—I mean, he often sticks his head in buckets. So we moved on, ignored Mia’s lunch and the mimic bunny, and went and found #3, the birch under the big rock. I didn’t buy that one either, at first, but Carlin insisted, so I called it.
We then moved past the human distraction and headed east, downwind along the building wall and into a short narrow alley. The end of the alley seemed like it was almost at the edge of the freeway—it was so loud that Mia and I couldn’t hear each other. So I raised my fist to call alert on each of the hides (#4 and #5), both set on almost identical large coolers, and she shouted “Yes!”
Then it was into the small gymnasium, crammed with exercise bicycles; weights, weight machines, and weight benches; multiple pairs of used baseball shoes; lots of baseballs and bats; old towels; soda cans; and miscellaneous stuff. We found hide #8, inside one of the shoes, pretty quickly. But hide #7, up about 8 or 9 feet on top of a piece of plywood used to repair a wall? Well, that one took us awhile.
Carlin got up on his hind legs, and searched up all along the wall. Then he examined each of the three or four exercise bikes, all parked below the plywood wall. He sniffed the seats, the handlebars, the wheels. And then he searched up again, all along the length of the plywood, about 16 or so feet. Finally, he went up one more time at the middle point of the wall, and indicated. I called it, and got another “Yes”.
Coming out of the gymnasium, we almost zoomed past a hide in the bristles of a yard broom set at the threshold between the interior space and the exterior space (hide #6), but then he did a head snap, stopped, and indicated. OK, got that one. So now where? Carlin was slowing down, which usually means we’re done with an area. We had found 7 hides, and that could have been all there were.
But there were two more places I wanted to check–I wanted to go back along the wall, this time upwind, and I wanted to check that bucket again. So that’s what we did. Carlin sniffed the dog brush distraction briefly, but then he took me right back to that bucket and sat. I called it this time, got a “Yes”, and then I took us out into the middle of the search area, just to see if Carlin was interested in anything.
He wasn’t, so I called “Finish”. Instead of a “Yes”, I got a hand raised in a high five. Just for a second there, I didn’t quite know what that meant. But then it dawned on me–we passed!!!!
And much later, I discovered that we’d gotten 1st place, too.
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