I signed River up for the scent league at Anything Goes for Dogs in Marysville. We had two trials in March and I'm pleased to say that River finally, finally got her level 2 Title. She's had Levels 1 and 3 but Level 2 remained elusive.
On the second trial, I signed her up for 2 searches at Level 1 and 2 each. Usually, she's quite excited when she first goes in to search and alerts to the wrong box since she's more interested in just running around, so we get it wrong. But I'm happy to say that she seemed to focus much more quickly this time and she qualified in all 4 searches. These Q's at the levels she's already titled in now go towards her ACE in those levels. In order to get an ACE in Level 1, you need 10 Q's. This takes awhile since not many places are holding CWAGS scent trials in Columbus.
River is also scheduled for the second scent league in April at Anything Goes as well. Next month is levels 3 and 4. Since we have no Q's at level 4, I've decided to just enter her at Level 4. If she has to do 4 searches at the higher levels she may decide she doesn't want to play anymore by the time we do the level 4 search.
Last week we also went to Dogwood Agility in Ostrander, Ohio for a barn hunt practice. It's hard to practice at home when you don't have a rat available. Besides, I don't think River needs the practice, she knows how to find the rat just fine, but the barn hunt practices are more for me. There's several rules I have to follow as a handler and I admit, I need more practice. So we did two practice runs at the Open level, which means River finds 2 rats and I'm pleased to say she was on fire! We haven't had a good barn hunt since last fall so its been 6 months. And since this was a new place, I didn't think she would function all that well but we walked the entire location (inside and out) and I asked perfect strangers if they would pet my dog and she seemed to calm down a lot.
I think the training we did in the Rowdy and Reactive class has helped her. I'll continue having her lay at my feet at locations where there is a lot of activity.
On the second trial, I signed her up for 2 searches at Level 1 and 2 each. Usually, she's quite excited when she first goes in to search and alerts to the wrong box since she's more interested in just running around, so we get it wrong. But I'm happy to say that she seemed to focus much more quickly this time and she qualified in all 4 searches. These Q's at the levels she's already titled in now go towards her ACE in those levels. In order to get an ACE in Level 1, you need 10 Q's. This takes awhile since not many places are holding CWAGS scent trials in Columbus.
River is also scheduled for the second scent league in April at Anything Goes as well. Next month is levels 3 and 4. Since we have no Q's at level 4, I've decided to just enter her at Level 4. If she has to do 4 searches at the higher levels she may decide she doesn't want to play anymore by the time we do the level 4 search.
Last week we also went to Dogwood Agility in Ostrander, Ohio for a barn hunt practice. It's hard to practice at home when you don't have a rat available. Besides, I don't think River needs the practice, she knows how to find the rat just fine, but the barn hunt practices are more for me. There's several rules I have to follow as a handler and I admit, I need more practice. So we did two practice runs at the Open level, which means River finds 2 rats and I'm pleased to say she was on fire! We haven't had a good barn hunt since last fall so its been 6 months. And since this was a new place, I didn't think she would function all that well but we walked the entire location (inside and out) and I asked perfect strangers if they would pet my dog and she seemed to calm down a lot.
I think the training we did in the Rowdy and Reactive class has helped her. I'll continue having her lay at my feet at locations where there is a lot of activity.
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