A 9th Detective Q for Carlin

Detective map, September 23, 2022, judge Liz Lynch; Bristle Nose Scent Work Club of Utah

8 minutes, 53.87 seconds. That’s how long Carlin and I took to find all 6 hides in Friday’s Detective search at the Bristle Nose Scent Work Club of Utah’s scent work trials.

8:53.87. That’s just 6.13 seconds short of 9 minutes. Which is a real heart-stopper, given that judge Liz had allowed us 9:00.00 total.

The search area was about 5,000 square feet, or maybe a touch larger. Looking at the map, you’ll see little X’s where the hides were. The pavilion at the upper right was crowded with picnic tables and benches, firewood, and forest debris. To the left of the pavilion were several trees surrounded by rocks, all of which Liz specifically mentioned were in play (noted by the one drawn left-leaning tree figure).

Going farther to the left and crossing a dirt road, there were a string of wooden benches along a filled pool. (The pool was out of play.) Connected to the bottom of the pool area was a log-cabin shower house and laundry room. Going a bit farther down, there was the very dark hallway leading out of the shower house and back onto the dirt road.

That’s about the order we took things. Carlin found a hide in a pile of firewood, just off the lower right corner of the pavilion. Then we snaked our way in and out of the picnic tables and benches, when he caught some scent and headed toward the trees and rocks.

But the trees weren’t quite right, so he took me back to the pavilion and the tables at the upper left corner of the pavilion, trying to isolate the odor. Finally, he lifted his nose and then his body, up one of the support posts. I called it, and we were right. I didn’t realize until later that that hide had been about 10 feet up that pole.

We took another look at all the trees and rocks, me trusting that he wouldn’t pee on them. (He didn’t but the dog before us had peed there, and another pooped there after our run.) And then he hurried over to the benches. He went up the road along the line of benches, and then we came down the line. I started to take him up along the benches again because they looked like perfect hiding spots to me. But Carlin just sort of deflated. I looked at my timer and decided, okay, he’s not excited. We have time and can come back if needed.

So then we headed into the shower house via the little hallway. There were about 6 little tiny, kid-sized shower stalls in there. Two stalls directly across from each other each had a hide on identical benches. Those stopped me for a second. When he found the second one, I had to wonder, had we found that one already? But if we had, and I called it again, it would have been just a fault, so I called it. But I was correct–there were two right next to each other.

Then we headed into the laundry room, where Carlin easily found a hide buried deep in a full laundry basket. I didn’t wonder until later if that laundry had been clean or not…

That was 5 hides. Five is the minimum number, so we could have been done. But we hadn’t covered all of the hallway. So we went out of the shower house and down the hallway (toward the left), and then turned to go back the other way, to the right. Something stopped Carlin, and he started searching up the walls on both sides of the hallway, and up the walls on both sides of a door, and then up a post, and then horizontally along one of the logs of the wall.

Finally, at the door, he sat and looked at me with what I thought was a big smile on his face. That hallway was really dark. I could just make Carlin out in the dark. I couldn’t read my timer, but I knew time was almost up. I was pretty sure that if this was a hide, it was the last hide, so I called “AlertFinish”.

At that, I could just hear all the spectators release the breaths they’d been holding. They knew we’d done it before the judge had a chance to say, “Yes!

And then I found out how close we’d been: a Q with only 6.13 seconds left. But still good enough for 1st place!

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Carlin pulls off his 8th AKC Detective search

AKC Detective map, judge Penny Scott-Fox, Spokane DTC, September 18, 2022

So here Carlin and I were at another AKC Detective search start line. If we passed this one, it would be our 8th pass. Yesterday, the judge predicted that we would pass today’s search. I so wanted to believe it.

The search area was again huge–I’m guessing another 5000 square foot search. And again only 8 minutes to find 5 to 10 hides. But hey, we did it yesterday with a huge search area and 8 minutes. And the judge was confident we could do it. “So… ok,” I thought, “Let’s just go for it.”

There were basically three parts to the search area: a grassy area with a couple of bleachers and some junk; a much bigger grassy area with a section of fencing and a sprinkler tripod in it; and another quonset hut with fans, fence panels and parts, wheelbarrows, boxes, and other assorted fairgrounds equipment and supplies lining the inside walls.

Carlin found hides #1, 2, and 3 pretty quickly. They were all in the first grassy area. #2 was on a flat panel of some sort, about 6 inches off the ground, pretty much right opposite the start line. #1 was on the back of one of the bleachers, and #3 was next to those same bleachers on a hose stand on which was hung loops of water hose. Carlin took himself around the bleachers in both directions just to confirm he’d found everything, and then pulled me out to the larger grassy area.

Well, actually, he pulled me through the larger grassy area. He had no interest in stopping until he got to the quonset hut. When we got there, he went outside of the search area along a side of the hut and thought he’d found something there. But no, and besides, that wall was out of the search area.

So then he ran into the building, and pretty quickly found the two hides in the fence grates (hides #4 and 5), and then the one at the threshold on the fan pole (#6). I went around in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions inside the hut, but he showed no more interest.

“Hmmm,” I wondered, “… where haven’t we been?” Well, we hadn’t been almost everywhere in the larger grassy area in the middle of the search area. So I took him out there, and we searched along the section of fence, did a bit of wandering around the downwind part of the area just to see if he’d catch any odor, searched along the front wall of the hut, and then I took him over to the sprinkler tripod.

Now, that tripod was about 5 to 5.5 feet tall. It’s a perfect place to put a hide. So I asked him to search it. He jumped up a couple of times, sniffing. And then he sat.

Here’s where my heart about sank. Just a couple of weeks ago, we’d failed a Detective search because I called a hide on a tall section of fencing. Carlin had spent quite a bit of time jumping up and down searching that fence, and then sat. He did the same thing in that search as he did in this search: he searched and searched, and then sat.

The confusing thing is that a sit is often his hide indication. So when he sat in that failed search, I thought he’d found a hide, and called “Alert”. But a sit is often his “I’m done” indication, too. So, when he does this, I have to decide if the sit is a hide sit or a finish sit. I was wrong in that failed search, and would have passed if I’d just called “Finish”.

Since that last, heart-breaking failure, I’ve been working on trying to figure this out. I’ve been videoing Carlin myself and having my friends and instructor video us, trying to figure out the difference between his hide sit and his finish sit.

And of course, in the moment when Carlin sat next to the sprinkler, smiling his aren’t-I-a-good-boy smile, all this is going through my mind in a fast-forward flash.

Finally, I realized/remembered that there’s this thing Carlin does with his mouth when he’s located a hide. And he hadn’t done that thing when he was jumping up and down on the sprinkler tripod. So there was an excellent chance that there wasn’t a hide on that sprinkler. Plus, this was the last place we hadn’t searched. So I called “Finish”.

The judge came up to me and said, “I was so afraid you were going to call Alert on that sprinkler.”

What I said to her was, “He only searched that because I asked him to.” And to myself, I thought, “You have no idea.”

So that was pass #8, just like the judge had predicted the day before. And on top of that, we’d done really well this weekend, with a 1st place in Saturday’s Detective and a 2nd place in Sunday’s.

I slept well that night. And maybe our next Detective search will be pass #9.

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Carlin with #7 AKC Detective Q

AKC Detective map, judge Penny Scott-Fox, Spokane DTC, September 17, 2022

The search area for this Detective search seemed huge to me. Turned out it was the max size: 5000 square feet. We entered through a doorway; out into a large grassy area between three buildings, of which only an L-shaped section was in play; to a patio in front of the building farthest from the start line; and into a large old quonset hut. And we had 8:00.00 to find anywhere from 5 to 10 hides. To me, that’s a very large area for such a short amount of time.

But at walk-through, Penny (the judge) said, “If you just let your dog work, you’ll pass. If you think, you won’t.”

Hmmm… That seems, I don’t know. Intimidating? Confusing? Against every instinct (of mine, but probably not Carlin’s)? As we exhibitors left the briefing, we were all sort of joking with each other. “Don’t think, now,” we said with an encouraging smile. “No thinking!”

Probably the dogs heard this, and were rejoicing. “Finally!” they’d say. “Finally someone gets who is in charge of this game!”

Finally, it was my turn. Typically, at the start line, I wait for a couple of beats before we actually go through. If there is odor to be found close to the start line, I want to give Carlin a chance to catch it before we actually start. And sure enough, he found the hide on the concrete block that was at the threshold, but behind the open entry door (#1).

Then he took a couple of trips around the picnic table (one clockwise and one counter-clockwise) before he finally climbed over the bench to get under the center of the table to find hide #2. Of course that cost us a few seconds while I unwound his leash, which was caught under a bench leg. (I always run Carlin on leash, although I’m allowed to run him off-leash if I choose. It’s just that he moves too fast, and I can lose my ability to see him indicate or to make search suggestions if he’s off leash.)

Then he found #3 under the first bench, #4 under the opposite bench, #5 at the threshold of the quonset hut, #6 behind the back edge of a high shelf (I took him back and forth along the wall under that shelf before he caught it), #7 under a table, and #8 in a cart. I was very pleased with his ability to handle all that converging odor.

By this time, I knew we had a few minutes left. I kept him out searching for almost 2 more minutes. There was all that large grassy area to search, plus the walls, windows, and doorways of all the buildings, plus the sprinklers, flower pots, and myriad cracks in the concrete. Plus that place where it turns out another dog had peed. So much to investigate!

Finally, Carlin slowed down and started walking next to me in heel position. So, I figured he’d found everything in places where we had been, and I couldn’t see anyplace where we hadn’t been. So I called “Finish.”

The judge said “[mumble]” as she made notes on my score sheet.

“Sorry?” I said. “What did you say?”

“Well done,” she said smiling. “He found them all in 5 minutes in the same order that I set them. What number is this?”

I whooped, and danced with Carlin a bit, and fed him more cookies, and then said, “Thank you! That’s pass number #7.”

“Well then,” Penny said, “tomorrow will be #8.”

And with that, I went out into the crowd of my clapping friends and sat on a bench to catch my breath.

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