WOW. Expectations totally blown out of the water. We definitely discovered Cheeky’s game this weekend. Her mother Halo, turned in perfect performances in the bird field going 4 for 4 to both her Junior Hunter and Senior Hunter titles. Cheeky is tracking on the same plan for Scent Work. She went 10 for 10 this weekend in her Scent Work debut! She LOVED it and was an absolute star.
The first event each day is Handler Discrimination. In this event, you put a sock in a box and then it is hidden among a bunch of identical boxes. There is also a box scented with the judge’s scent in the mix. Both days Cheeky was pretty obvious about which box had Jenny’s scent…Sunday she about nosed the box out of the building!
We also did exteriors. In exteriors, the scent (birch in Novice) is hidden somewhere. Both times, Cheeky went straight to it. Saturday, Jenny made her check the whole area before taking her back the original spot she indicated. Sure enough, she was right!
In interiors on Saturday we had a tricky hide. It was on a barbecue grill! Jenny was convinced Cheeky was just indicating there because she smelled food! But a thorough search of the area turned up no other indications, so back to the grill we went, and she was right! It was on the grill!
Buried is the element we have spent the least amount of time practicing, but Cheeks did great! Super clear indications and no wavering on her decisions. And we ended each day with containers where Cheeky was equally clear about her nose.
And, to top it all off, Cheeky was High Combined BOTH DAYS!! Our next opportunity to compete will be at the Vizsla National in Estes Park at the end of the month. If Cheeky doesn’t come into season we might be able to wrap up her titles there! How cool would that be?!