Therapy dog evaluation and scenting trial

[Mikelia]

On Friday Eli and I went to a therapy dog evaluation with Therapeutic Paws of Canada (TPOC). After 3 hours of intense testing he passed! They really test the dog, push it's buttons and try to dominate the dog. The other dogs being tested were retrievers, a spaniel and a newfoundland and I swear each time Eli went up they tested him longer than the others. I understand that though, as he is a guard breed as opposed to a bird dog. So now he has to do 2 supervised visits and then becomes a certified/registered therapy dog and gets his ID vest and ID tag. I am very proud of my boy!
And then on Saturday we went to a scent detection trial. In Canada scenting is just starting to become organized, and our organization is SDDA. This was his first trial, scenting on just the wintergreen scent and he received his DOT (designated odour test) and a qualifying score on container search and a room search. I am so so so proud of him. We have lots of improvements to make as he is brand new to this but he loves to search and has proven he can find what he is searching for
Here is a picture of him with his room search find. The scent is hidden in the pink backpack. Not the perfect picture as he is not staring at the find but this is the only picture the trial instructor sent to me.
I am also impressed he can go from super relaxed, well behaved and mannered one day to busy, bold, almost out of control searching the next. Gotta love a dual purpose dog.
Sooo proud of my boy and excited to be able to add some new titles to his name soon!

[ken k]

way to go! congrats Eli

[Debbieg]

Congratulations to you and Eli!