08/25/2025
A Lesson in Expectations While Learning A New Dog Sport
Last weekend, Giddy Marie and I went to our first CPE Scentwork trial in Louisville. Scentwork is like drug detection dogs that are looking for illegal substances. But instead of looking for drugs, the dogs are trained to search for specific essential oils. It's a fun sport where dogs can use their noses. We had taken classes and done two Novice UKC scentwork trials back in Texas, must’ve been 6 or 7 years ago. In late spring, we started private lessons here in TN.
We were entered in Level 1, Containers and Interiors. The other elements were not offered at this trial. The day started smashingly, with Giddy Marie going 5 for 6 in her classes. Moveups were allowed, so we moved on up as requirements were met.
By Sunday morning, she was in Level 3 Interiors and Level 2 Containers. The wheels fell off. Poor Giddy Marie, I had not sufficiently trained her for the harder challenges. She didn’t recognize the different odors in the higher levels. She wasn’t sure how to alert on taller hides. She was confused about how to keep searching after finding the first odor. She wandered around the search area, picked up a distracter dog toy, began to just guess about what I wanted by offering her down indicator in places where there wasn’t scent.
I felt terrible! I put her in a position that she wasn’t ready for. I got greedy, wanting higher titles and I risked Giddy Marie developing bad habits that would be hard to break. But thankfully, the rules allowed for a move back down. So for the last four runs of the show, we went back to Level 1.
She cleaned up with two searches that she completed in four seconds! One search was so quick that the gal taking video missed it altogether. We left the trial feeling confident, motivated and excited. And with a To Do list of skills that we need to master before we’re ready for the higher levels.
It was a good reminder to honestly assess where my dog is in training before challenging her with skills that are over her head, especially in a show setting where everything is already harder due to new environments, distractions and handler nerves.
We are looking forward to progressing our training and tackling the next level - when we are READY!
