This is our second weekend in a row participating in an NW3 trial and once again I choked making stupid handler errors! This time it was in the Container searches (we had 2). In the first container search there were a total of 3 hides, but I only called alert on 2 of them. Kaja actually found the 3rd hide but I wasn’t completely confident so I had planned on going back to that hide then completely forgot about it.
In our 2nd Container search I made one of the worst handling errors that I have in a long time. I should not be making these kind of handling errors at this level, but I did. Kaja “semi” alerted on a box, and if I would have been focused I would have seen she really didn’t have a change of behavior, but I wasn’t focused and called alert and heard the dreaded “no” from the judge. Then, I essentially fell apart. I start walking away from the search area completely forgetting you are allowed to continue searching after one “no.” Then I remembered we could continue searching and Kaja found the single hide. Honestly, I was embarrassed with my performance in this search. The CO (Certifying Official) was even watching us search which made my embarrassment that much greater.
To be clear about our continued failures in Container searches, it’s not Kaja at all. It’s me! 100% handler errors every time. I’m so nervous about not qualifying during a Container search that I’m all frazzled as soon as I cross the start line.
On the bright side, the rest of our searches went well and we received 2 “pronounced” designations from the judges for our two Exterior searches.
And, even though we didn’t didn’t earn our NACSW NW3 title after our 5th attempt, we did earn her NW3 Exterior Element title
