[alaskayorkie]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Just waking up and making sure it all wasn't a dream!

Interestingly, 99 percent of the training that goes on in Nosework is Eddie training me! Dogs are born master sniffers! Once he learned what I wanted him to find, I just had to get out of his way and let him do his job! I have to help him by approaching areas from the right wind direction, etc., but my main job is to pay attention to him and relay that information to the judges.

What it has involved is practice, and I can count on two hands the number of days we haven't practiced when I wasn't out of town since we started in 2009. In fact, we do it mostly as a fun activity for the dogs, like hiking or fetching a ball. We trial less than once a year, and this was Eddie's fourth trial. Jillie has only trialed once but has a perfect winning percentage and is an NW1 dog.

And yes, both Eddie and Jillie are registered therapy dogs with Pet Partners