HOPEFUL Training in Nosework
 at Craftco Metalworks’ storage yard
 8-11-24

My friend, Denise, and I are training every weekend at our favorite place, the storage yard at Craftco Metalworks.  They are always moving completed work out and bringing in supplies, so the places to hide scents are everywhere.

Denise is going to retire in October and told her employers that she would no longer work weekends, so we are able to work every Saturday and Sunday. She brings her three dogs (2 Shelties and a Cockapoo who are all competing), and I bring three of mine.  Each day I bring an experienced competitor (Spirit, Mercy or Lovely), a younger dog with whom I’m competing (Hopeful or Justice) and one of the beginner dogs (Pascha, Zest, Zeal or Dakuya) who won’t start competing until next year. 

We start training at 8 a.m. so that we finish before it becomes unbearably hot.  We usually finish about 11 a.m. We get lots of shadows in the photos of the earliest runs, and glare in the later runs, so some photos are much better quality than others. 

Another reason to train early is to finish before the hornets get too active.  They, unfortunately, target us for our training treats.  I swear they target our vehicles and know when we arrive.

We set two separate searches so that each of us gets to run “blind” (not knowing where the hides are).  Each search contains all 5 UKC scents and 1 or 2 distractions (balls or treats).  You can often see some of the hides in the photos, when they’re in little silver tins or copper-colored “bullets” that reflect the light.

All the dogs do both searches.  I have organized the photos by dates.  Denise sometimes gets a whole series of photos of a search, other times just gets one or two photos.

I am always surprised, as I edit the photos, at how many show the dogs’ tongues out as they leave the indication to receive their treat.  Some of those photos are extremely cute.  I never notice that when I’m working my dog.  I guess I’m too busy reaching for a treat and, in Hopeful’s case, preparing for her enthusiastic body slam.