Sweet River Studios

Last night River and I went to Anything Goes for Dogs in Marysville for scent league. We did 2 searches at level 1 and 2 searches at level 3.  River did really well and Q'd in all 4 searches. She had a little trouble on the first search but apparently a lot of dogs did. There were only 4 dogs to Q in the Level 1 search, which was really surprising giving that all of the dogs have been doing this a while. The second Level 1, went much better since all of the dogs qualified. The next 2 searches were at Level 3, which is 3 scent hides. Most of the dogs did really well at Level 3 as well, and River completed her Level 3 ACE title. The second night of the December scent league will be on the 21st. Below is a picture of River's Qualifying ribbons, her Title ribbon and her ACE medal. After a busy night like last night, River will sleep until about 3 pm today. A busy dog is a tired dog!

River and I are participating in a fall CWAGS scent league held at Anything Goes for Dogs in Marysville held in September and October. Our September trial went fairly well. The first evening, she was way too excited to search during our Level 1. She mostly just ran around and alerted to 2 boxes no where near the scent. During a level 3 search she did a perfect alert but it wasn't there and when I told her "no" she bounded 3 times across the room and tackled a small object and looked at me like, "I was just teasing it's right here!", which it was. So she was quite playful that evening. We wound up with 1 Q at Level 1 and 2 at Level 3, which she really made me work for. The second evening of scent league, we were doing Levels 1 and 3 again. River qualified in each round earning her Level 1 ACE Title! It's a small dog paw medal on a lanyard of black with hearts and stars. She was pretty calm. So calm in fact that she seemed pretty bored with the whole t...

River and I attended a C-WAGS Scent Trial on April 13 and April 20, at Anything Goes for Dogs in Marysville, Ohio. Both nights, there were 2 trials at levels 3 & 4 each. I signed River up for level 4 only but I wound up signing up for one level 3 trial each night. On April 13, she got 1 Q at level 3 and 1 at level 4.  She did really well the first level 3 search but the first level 4 search, she got 3 of the 4 scents. I think she got frustrated because she just started batting around the boxes and alerting when the scent wasn't there but she got one of the scents that was about 3 feet off the ground. The second search she did really well but a train came through the area and she was a bit nervous and stopped searching. I finally got her searching again and she found the last scent. The Level 4 searches were fairly hard. A lot of the shorter dogs had never scented anything 3 feet in the air before but that height is within the rules. On April 20, River was entered in 1 l...

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...

River and I took a barn hunting class last August and did well. She's participates in scent work trials already and barn hunt is similar. She has to find a rat in a tube vs. scent. Barn hunting is an off shoot of Earth dog. Earth dog classes are where small dogs, usually terriers, go "underground" or go under a faux ground and hunt rats hidden in PVC piping. Big dogs can't go through little tunnels so barn hunting was developed for bigger dogs. Terriers can still participate but now your bigger dogs such as Dobermans and mixes like River who is a Shepard/Husky mix can join in the fun too. In barn hunting, a search area is roped off and a course is built with bales of straw. PVC pipping is hidden on the course which can contain a rat, litter or nothing. The pipping can be on the floor or up on bales and are covered with loose straw. The dog must go through the tunnel, climb on bales (all 4 feet off the ground) and of course locate the rat. And of course, you are time...

My dog River, participates in C-WAGS scent trials and has won or qualified (Q'd) in several levels. You need 4 Q's to get a title in each level 1-4. She has her title in Level 1 and 3 and 3 Q's at level 2 so we have quite a few ribbons. I thought I'd organize them on a piece of black foam core that I had laying around. So I got out my Cameo Silhouette and got cutting. I had some paper left over from my in-laws 50th anniversary party and then I found some paw print paper and stickers in the scrapbooking section at Joanns. The board isn't really all that big so I started with the Level 1 ribbons at the top left of the board then I dropped down a little and went to the right side of the board for Level 2 and so forth. I was trying to maximize the board space and I think this way worked out well. The Title rosettes are large and colorful and I didn't think it would work hanging at the end of each level. They are a lot longer then the purple ribbons, so I f...

On Saturday, April 18, River and I attended a C-WAGS Scent trial at Anything Goes for Dogs in Marysville. Although, there were 3 levels River and I entered Level 2. There were two searches at Level 2 and she qualified in 1 search.  Most of the dogs didn't do well on the first search for some reason. As for River, she's pretty excited in new areas and won't settle down for a while but she got into the rhythm on the second search but barely. There's also going to be a Scent League during the summer what should be a lot of fun and hopefully River will be able to earn a title or two.