Submitted by Oriole member Linda Grskovich. Article updated on 4/13/2016 with additional pictures and videos.
April 2016 Nose Work Trial in Stevensville Maryland
Oriole Dog Training Club held its third NACSW sanctioned nose work trial event on April 2 and 3 on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The weather was true spring Maryland weather – that is, variable every day. Saturday (NW1), we experienced a rainy morning, with fog and the faint romantic call of fog horns in the distance. On Sunday (NW2), we had cold temperatures and winds at 40 miles an hour. The Bay Bridge was even on traffic advisory. Our site was right on the bay. If it was any closer to the water, it would have to be called an island.
Our Certifying Officials were Jessica Schulte from New York and Wendy Krehbiel from California. Our judges were Christina McCauley from Maryland and Janelle Hohnke from Virginia. The volunteers were awesome and handled the weather very well considering either rain or cold and almost violent winds. They kept competitors’ spirit up in spite of their personal feelings of being either wet or cold; many serious kudos to the professionalism of a super group of people from the nose work community, and their friends and family. Thank you also to Don Grskovich who organized the volunteer effort and flow; he rotated volunteers so they could observe handler competitions and maintain warmth of our volunteers. Our hospitality table was awesome: hot coffee, tea and hot soup were great for these two days, plenty of sandwiches, salads.. desserts.. we were all well fed!
The weekend resulted in 22 NW1 titles with 3 pronounced. The Harry Award was awarded to Monk handled by Chris Hardsock. In first place was Mary Wingfield with Comet, second: Chris Hardsock with Monk, third: Stacy Bennet with Joey. The element pass rate was containers 82%, interiors 91%, exterior 93% and vehicle 89%. There were 27 NW2 titles with 5 pronounced. In first place was Susan Baldwin with Quinn, second: Joyce Smuda with Niven, third: Kimberly Ward with Zayle. The element pass rate was containers 89%, interiors 84%, exterior 95% and vehicle 92%. (And that was with 40 mile per hour winds bay side… the dogs rocked it!!)
Four Oriole members competed at this event and all came home in ribbons. Debbie Knowles and her Smooth Coated Collie, Anna, competed on Saturday and got 2nd place in Interiors. Betty Gardner and her Smooth Coated Fox Terrier, Rascal, got their NW2 on their first time out!! Gail Gee and her Smooth Coated Collie, Lilly got their NW2. Carol Jennings and Stella also got earned a NW2 and a 2nd place ribbon in the Vehicle search element.
The video below is the container search conducted by Betty Gardner and her Smooth Coated Fox Terrier Rascal. There are actually 3 distractions in this search though only two are identified, you can see Rascal pause at the one suitcase in the foreground (wheat thins) and decide to move on to complete his search. Good decision there Rascal, great job!!
Videographer credit: Karen McMillian of Fido Photography
This next video is also of Rascal and Betty. This is the exterior hide. There are two hides. The conditions were cold and the winds were 40mph coming up over a hill off the bay. The winds were keeping the odor swirling under the table. It took some work but Rascal figured it out.
These next two videos show Stella successfully performing a container search and an exterior search. In the first, Stella, handled by Oriole member Carol Jennings, checks out several containers before committing to the odor box.
Videographer credit: Karen McMillian of Fido Photography
Complete Trial Results are now available.
Oriole Dog Training Club 