It’s nose work anniversary time at our house. This year, 2026, we are starting our thirteenth year of sniffing! Emma and I started nose work with no idea how it would be such a huge part of all our lives. Had Emma not started her blog, we may never have done any dog sports. It was through reading a friend’s blog that we first heard about nose work. When Mom found a class, she signed us both up and it all began!
Emma and I finished our ORT, odor recognition testing, in April 2015. In the test a dog needs to search two rows of boxes and find the one containing the odor that is being tested. It sounds simple but it is stressful. Birch, anise, and clove are the three odors that are tested. At the time we also had scorebooks. These went away after a few years and everything is now online.
May 3rd, 2015 Emma and I both entered the first element trial in Minnesota. We both did pretty well, but only Emma earned a title, her L1V, Level 1 Vehicle Title. This is the first nose work title ever in our family!
Eleven months later we took our first nose work road trip to Olin, Iowa. It was kind of scary, so Mom and two other friends going to the trial decided to caravan. It is only a few hours from home but Mom was new at traveling with dogs and finding hotels, etc. Hard to believe the way we travel these days! It was a tough weekend but in the end I earned my L1V on farm machinery. Mom loves this photo because she thinks it is funny. See the horses behind me? It was a real farm!
AKC started Scent Work Trials in 2017. Madison and I did our first trial locally in October 2018, and then we traveled to Sioux Falls, SD for another. I’m proud to say I earned the first Scent Work Title in our family, SWN, Scent Work Novice, on November 11th, 2018, which also included a couple placements. It was freezing cold at a camp and there was no place to go to get warm, but we still had fun. That is ice on the river behind me.
Olivia earned the highest titles in AKC Scent work, earning her Scent Work Master, SWM on February 20, 2022 at two years old.
She then earned her AKC Scent Work Detective Title on March 26th, 2023, the day after she turned four years old.
Olivia then earned the highest title in NACSW Nose Work, SMT, Summit on October 12th 2024. Not only did she title, she also earned a first and third place in two of the eight searches and she finished third place overall.
We are all so thankful to have found sniffing sports and to have learned how to do so well. It’s a darn good thing Emma started our blog for so many reasons, but this is one of the biggest and best! Our family has created so many great memories through this sport and we have so many amazing photos and travel experiences as well. Sniffing is a sport that makes us all so happy!
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You are all so incredibly talented at scent work and we wish you an even better year this year, Olivia and Nelson!…