Rōnin finished his Superior Vehicle nosework search title in a series of 4 timed trials today. We are very proud of him! It is the 3rd level difficulty of 5 with multiple vehicles, target odors and hides. He also qualified 1st place High in Trial for one of the Master Interior (2nd highest of 5 difficulties) searches, so he needs just one more successful trial to finish his Master Interior title... overall today Rōnin successfully completed one title and placed twice 1st place High in Trial. We are really pleased with these results and his progress. All the trial times and results can be found on his page here.
Czechoslovakian Vlcak are not the easiest dog to work with, but they do have their own style and strong points.. Rōnin definitely does not work as 'frantically' and he prefers to do things at his own pace, and if he feels like it.. of course. He was having a good day today despite his nonchalant approach. Trying to hurry him along only just earns you some judgmental looks, so a handler really needs to learn to read the dog, trust him, and let him work.
On the Superior level Vehicle search, there are five vehicles, 2 target odors and 2 hides, and in the Master level Interior search, each trial has two interior search areas with two or three hides using 1-4 odors. The handler does not know the total amount of hides and there may also be blank areas which don't contain a hide at all. On both these levels distractions like food and toys are also required on the search area.
And yet again, Rōnin becomes the first Czechoslovakian Vlcak to title at these Nosework levels and so we are doubly happy for him! It's definitely a challenge to train a Czechoslovakian Vlcak, especially apparent since Rōnin's 'brother', a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, is also trialing in Nosework and isn't temperamental at all. Czechoslovakian Vlcak may be classified in the Herding group in the FCI but they really do not train like a typical herder.....
Today Rōnin will get a nice raw dinner and some extra belly rubs for a job well done.. Congrats to Team Rōnin and Marius, co-owner and handler!! 🙂
