I had a positively, snifftastic 2022! It is a bummer the year is coming to an end, but maybe 2023 will be even better. Shaun Rossman captured this photo of me sniffing at a trial last month. Mom and I love it! I’m looking for the hide on this big smoker machine thing. I found it on the other side of the trailer.

My sniffing fun started in February with a Scent Work Trial. I finished up my Master Container Title which also earned me my Overall Masters Title. Of course, I’m the first GBGV to earn an Overall Masters Title. Being first is so much fun! Getting an orange ribbon for Team Orange is also pawsome!

In March, I entered a Level 3 Interior Element Trial and I rocked it, finding all the hides and placing third out of twenty two dogs.

April would be the second month of traveling for my Elite Nose Work Trials. We want to make sure we find fun trial sites, so we have traveled a lot because of that. We went to Wyoming to search a prison, now that sounds fun, doesn’t it? It was my second Elite Trial and I earned my Elite 1 Title. Besides the title, I got to add Wyoming to my list of states visited. Now that I am at a high level, the ribbons are always big and fancy, which I love.

Later in April we traveled to Wisconsin where I had another Elite Trial and I earned my first placement at the Elite Level. Mom was shocked when we got a third place in our last search of the day. It would be the first of many upcoming placements for Team Orange. No one else in my family has placed in any level of NACSW Nose Work. My first placement was third in vehicles in my NW1 Trial in September 2020.

May was the beginning of FastCAT season here in the Northland. Sadly, Madison injured herself on her first run of the weekend. I continued on and on the third day, I earned my FCAT Title. I am the first GBGV to ever earn the title. Madison gets a handicap score because she is short, so I have to run more runs to stay even with her. At the end of 2022, I am also the fastest GBGV for the year once again, and the fastest of all time. It will be interesting to see if Nelson can take over that spot in 2023.

Later in May, I had two element specialty trials in nose work. I earned my Level 2 Exterior and Level 2 Vehicle Titles.

In August, we went up north for my Elite Trial and I earned my Elite 2 Title, second place in one of my searches and third place overall! This was my first overall placement at the Elite Level.

September took us to Montana for another Elite Trial. Being my first time in Montana, I got to add it to my list of states making states visited twenty three right now.

My Elite Trials in October and November were all super fun and brought me lots of placements both for searches and overall. The most special to Mom and I was earning first place overall with a score of 100% at a local trial. Not only do you get a pretty ribbon, they give you the tin with all the hides for the day. Mom has dreamed of this forever and never thought she would ever get a placement, let alone third place in a search, first place overall and the tin. She cried a lot, tears of happiness. Team Orange did it. Only two teams out of thirty found all the hides, and we beat a lot of very good nose work dogs. This was the most special day of the my snifftastic 2022 for sure and will always be the most special day for Mom.

We got to trial at the University of St. Thomas, where Mom graduated from college, many years ago. Surprisingly, we cleaned up pretty well at this trial! I earned my Elite 3 Title, Second Place Overall, and Third Place in both of my afternoon searches. How fun to be able to do so well at Mom’s alma mater! I wonder if her grades were as good as my searching, LOL!

No doubt, it was a snifftastic 2022! Mom never dreamed of having a teammate like me who is so sniff savvy! We always have so much fun and we can’t wait to get sniffing again in 2023! We have a master plan, let’s see if we can stick to it.