Just Along for the Ride…our NW3 journey

I started Nick’s NW3 journey in 2025, doing a handful of trials and ending our trial season last August with a perfect score and his first NW3 title, as well as all of his element titles**. For a variety of reasons, we didn’t have the opportunity to trial again until late April 2026. That’s when I truly committed to trying for this title.  Nick was closing in on 11 yrs old and I felt better prepared, and while I hated the travel that would be necessary, I decided to go for it.

**The NW3-Elite title is part of NACSW’s titling program.  Dog and handlers do 6 searches throughout the day with the number of hides unknown and it can vary from 0 (blank) to 3 hides. The total number of hides is usually between 9 to 11. Calling a false alert or missing a hide is an error.  A perfect score – no false alerts and all hides found across the 6 searches – results in a NW3 title. One error is allowed to earn a “leg”. Two legs earn a title. Three NW3 titles are required to earn the NW3-Elite title and earn the right to compete in Elite trials.**

I’m gonna be honest, I was nervous at that first 2026 trial and while we started and ended strong, a couple of the searches in the middle didn’t go well and I left feeling discouraged.  Especially since we bombed the container search, something that I had always felt I could trust completely. I couldn’t wait to get the last two searches over with and start for home.  I was surprised to learn later that we had placed 2nd in those combined interior searches!

But we persevered. And, like magic, I began to **really** trust Nick.  Here’s what I texted to my friend and coach, Julie, mid-way through our journey:

“Nick is searching so well!

I feel like I’m just along for the ride. 

Hopefully, I don’t fu*k it up.”

In Nosework, it’s easy to say “trust your dog” but in the pressure of a search, there are lots of things that work to erode that feeling. The pressure to be perfect or have only one mistake to get a leg, is real! Weird odor behavior can challenge the dog’s odor puzzle solving ability and our ability to read the dog. Call the hide?  Don’t call the hide? Expectations for where the CO might have set the hide, or the number of hides. How about the long waits in the parking lot and the parking lot talk that – positive or negative – can get into our heads.

But somehow, in this journey in the spring of 2026 – across New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts –  Nick let me know there was no need to be nervous. So I left my nerves behind. I had found that sweet spot of trusting my dog.

I went into the last four trials with only 2 goals: 1) No false alerts.  Be patient and let him source the hide.  He knows what he’s doing AND  2) Don’t keep him in the search after he starts giving me the signals that nothing else is there.  In other words, listen to him.

I feel that I largely accomplished those goals, getting the last four legs we needed (no perfect scores) to earn the NW3-Elite title, our ticket to move onto Elite trials where there is no need to be perfect!

We also made the most of our travels, finding parks and swimming spots whenever possible. We persevered even when the weather turned very hot, my hotel choices weren’t always great, and my air conditioning was on the fritz due to – we found out later – a MOUSE that had gotten into my blower fan.  Ewww! It was a fun, hard journey but I’m so glad we did it.

Some may think it’s  just a bunch of pretty ribbons but Nick is my special boy and this journey to NW3-Elite helped us make some very special memories together! Congrats to both of us!!