Truffle and I recently attended our very first AKC scentwork trial, hosted by the North Shore Kennel Club at the Topsfield Fairgrounds on July 18 and 19. Spoiler: we came home with five Q ribbons, a handful of rookie mistakes, and a dog who is apparently a scentwork dog now. Let me back up.
How we got here (reluctantly)
We’ve been training in scentwork for about 11 months. If you’re not familiar with the sport, it’s modeled on the work of professional detection dogs: cotton swabs scented with essential oils are hidden in a search area, your dog sniffs them out and tells you when she’s found one, and you call it out to the judge. Neither of you knows where the hide is, so for once the dog is the one in charge — the AKC page has a full rundown of how it all works.
I picked it because Truffle loves to work and learn, and I thought scentwork could be her “thing” — I never expected her to take to agility, but she proved me wrong on that one and turned out to be quite the tiny athlete. Still, she just turned 7, so I figured something low-impact would be smart to have in our back pocket as she gets older. (All evidence points to her just now hitting her prime, by the way. Love that for her.)
There was just one problem: she did not love it. She jumped on the boxes. She fooled around. She guessed instead of sniffing. She generally did not seem to be having a great time, which meant I wasn’t having a great time either. It got bad enough that I tried to quit — not quit quit, but I asked my instructor if I could swap in a different dog. Request denied. So we reluctantly persevered.
The breakthrough came a couple of months ago, when my instructor suggested I start paying Truffle four or five treats at the odor instead of one or two. This did nothing for Truffle’s waistline but everything for her motivation, and almost overnight she became a determined, focused search dog. Isn’t it funny how much more fun things are when you’re actually successful?
So when my instructor’s club (NSKC) announced its very first scent trial at the Topsfield Fairgrounds — basically down the road from our training facility, when most trials mean a drive of one to three hours — it felt like a low-risk chance to test our skills. I sent in our entry before I could talk myself out of it.
Saturday: three Qs and an oops
We were entered in Novice A, which is a class for entry-level dogs whose handlers who have never put a scentwork title on a dog. In other words, a class full of first-timers figuring it out together — the perfect place to make your rookie mistakes, as you’ll soon see.
Truffle had been searching beautifully all week, so I went in optimistic and nervous in roughly equal measure. The trial being local, I saw lots of familiar faces, which helped. But trying something brand new is always a little scary.
Containers. Our first-ever trial search was set up in a dark, dirt-floor barn with the boxes on a tarp. A brand-new and, frankly, weird environment — and Truffle froze in overwhelm. She stood there taking it all in, looking at the judge and the gate steward instead of working, while my heart sank. I’d put my poor girl in over her head. I supported and encouraged her as best I could, even as the judge warned us we had 30 seconds left of our two minutes. And then, suddenly, she snapped to attention, sniffed down the boxes, and gave a clear, confident alert. The whole room cheered. At 1:50.15, we took last place, but I could not have cared less about the placement. She worked through it, and I was so proud of her.
Buried. Whatever nerves she had in the barn, she left them there. She strutted into the outdoor buried search ready to work. We haven’t really trained buried — or much outdoors, honestly — but Truffle wasn’t about to let inexperience get in the way of her trademark confidence. Hide found in 31.2 seconds, sixth place.
Interior. Set in a classroom-type room, and her nerves crept back a little, but she worked through them and found the hide in just under a minute. Probably half of that was me wrangling the leash through chair and table legs, thanks to Truffle’s blatant disregard for the fact that I can’t follow her under literally anything. The perils of being more than five feet taller than your dog.
Exterior. Three for three, riding high, we headed outside for our last search of the day. The judge pointed out two cones marking spots where previous dogs had peed. I noted this information. I did not, apparently, know what to DO with this information, because I let Truffle follow her nose straight to a pee cone, where — you saw this coming — she peed on the same spot. Instant excusal. Womp womp womp. A total novice fail on my part: she was on fire and I just didn’t think it through.
Still: 3 for 4 on our first day ever is a solid first showing.
Sunday: redemption and rookie mistakes
Exterior. We ran exteriors as our first search, which I felt good about — not many dogs had gone before us, and none had fouled the area. There was a weird breeze funneling between the buildings, and Truffle chased the scent in and out of the search area before pinpointing the source in 20.75 seconds for another sixth-place finish. Sweet, sweet redemption.
Interior. We didn’t carry the momentum. The room was small and dark (sensing a theme? I think we know what we need to work on), she was nervous, I was nervous, and I called alert before she’d finished working. She was close, and I blew it.
Containers. Back in the barn, and I did the same thing — called early, this time on the cold box right next to the hot one. Two NQs, both on my calls. Fortunately, Truffle didn’t seem too embarrassed by her handler (me).
Buried. We picked up a startline fault when she went around the start cones instead of between them — another rookie lesson for me, but not a deal-breaker — and then she found the hide. YES. Fifth Q of the weekend, and we got to end on a high note.
What I learned
Our homework list is pretty clear: my patience in waiting for her to finish before I call alert, training in weird dark spaces, and working past potty spots without incident. Among other things.
And I’m sure I’ll never hear the end of it from our instructor: the team that tried to quit is now writing checks to enter more trials. It turns out hard work really does pay off.
Huge thanks to the North Shore Kennel Club for a wonderful inaugural trial, and to my brave, funny, occasionally-incontinent-at-inopportune-moments girl. I am so proud of my tiny teammate, and I love her very much. Truffle, you were a star. On to the next one. 🌟
Photos from Truffle’s first containers search by Jeremy Kezer Photography. Photos of her Saturday exterior and Sunday buried searches by Olivia Rachon.
