A journey to titles
Mookie's got some accomplishments... titles you might say!! What is a title, anyway? For my non-dog friends, a title is evidence to me that we have spent time together, learned together and achieved goals that may not have been achieved otherwise. Each title has requirements which I look at as a path or roadmap to follow. This is essential to keep ME focused on what is necessary to achieve those goals and not try to go too fast before a foundation is built.
Mookie is only 3.5 years old and has earned 149 titles in 10 venues. Now, just like a pyramid with a wide foundation that gets narrower the higher it gets, we are now starting to narrowly focus on what he likes, what we have available to us and what he's good at so we can reach our goals. When we achieve those goals, we'll choose another one perhaps in another sport to do because it is, after all, time spent with each other learning new things together. As a youngster, Mookie has years left to explore other sports and venues.
Currently, scent work is Mookie's thing! He loves it, he's good at it, and when he searches, he's all business (mostly, as we're still working on some things!!)! Of those titles, 92 involve Mookie using his nose. He loves searching for essential oils, shed antlers, my scent on objects, rats in tubes, his ball or toy, his dinner, treats in grass or simply a frozen chicken neck I've hidden for him in the house! The list of titles started out as virtual puppy titles, then lower levels of AKC, UKC, NACSW and C-Wags, then virtual titles through NASDA, NACSW and the Fenzi TEAM program. Now we've narrowed our focus and compete in the upper levels of AKC and UKC.
After a long winter (we take 6 months off from in-person events and that's when we do the virtual titles) we entered several trials this spring and he finished the UKC Nosework Elite title and the AKC Scent Work Excellent Elite title. As we have climbed through the levels, we did the UKC Champion/Grand Champion titles and the AKC Elite titles. This required hundreds of passing scores and I 100% believe the "easy in, easy out" progression of the lower levels gave him a strong foundation for competing in the upper levels!
Fun training! He has a great final response! He freezes and he looks at it until I call "alert" and then races back to me for a treat! These hides were on grass which has been a challenge for him because he often would rather smell that than search! I think we're getting past that!
These training indoor searches were challenging because there were a lot of other smells but after a bit he sourced them all.
These ribbons were from the most recent AKC trials where he earned the Excellent Elite title and the ones leading up to it. He is now 2 Qs away from a Master title!
These ribbons are from the recent UKC trials! He earned the Elite Nosework title and is one Q away from the Master Champion title!
And what dog doesn't like to be hosed!! Now if he would only think jumping OFF a dock is fun, I'd be happy!!
And not to leave shed antler hunting out of it, here are some photos of him searching. The video is also included. He LOVES this probably better than anything!! I normally put 5 antlers around on 1-2 acres but because it was so hot I only put out 2 and he looked at me as if to say: "We're NOT done"!!
And the video of the antler search!!