Ava placed 2nd in one of her Scent Ops trials, with a fantastic score of 95/100 🏆
We were so happy with this – the search was one of the best we’ve ever done and both our best traits came together.
However, the other trial did not go well – I want to talk about it because social media is full of false perfection.
Ava’s searching in a brand new place was brilliant, but I as a handler made a mistake about halfway through the timed search, becoming VERY nervous as a result.
Ava is a very obedient dog; what is perhaps a downside to her scent skills is that she will do whatever I say, whenever I say. Meaning she missed a key area when I was obsessing over an irrelevant area because she did as she was told immediately – ‘wilful disobedience’ has a role in Scentwork.
Thankfully Ava is confident to search independently; this is a major part of detection & tracking and must be solid before you start competitions.
Transitioning Ava from a professional role as a NASDU drug detection dog to a sport dog comes with much less pressure in some ways, but trial pressure is enormous! I’m going to re-do the disastrous trial before progressing because I know we can both do better, and I want to set the best example possible as someone who teaches Scentwork as well.
The most important part of the day is not the brilliant 95/100 score or the fact Ava is undeniably a brilliant dog, but the fact we all had a great day out to a new place and Ava spent the day doing what she loves 🥳
Watch this space for more of our trials, and message me about our online scent school!
