How boring can I be? Or, can I put you to sleep while I brag?

I was in Hawaii for two weeks moving the contents of my house back into the house after the inside was painted.  I also was buying a few more things it needed.  It will become a vacation rental, starting today!  I get to "rent" it myself when I want to see Frank, Michelle and the boys and all the other sweet people there who mean so much to me.  Kathleen threatens to move there to be near her brother, so I am happy I could find a little fixer upper!  ANYWAY, back to dogs!
I arrived in the Seattle airport from Hawaii on Oct. 18th at about 10:00 PM and drove home, arriving about 0130 on the 19th.  I worked on that Friday, and Saturday the 20th, the dogs and I went to Whidbey Island.  I had signed Pip up for a MOCK Nosework 2 trial, despite not having practiced for the two weeks I was in Hawaii.  I will tell you that Pip has not yet done much in the Nosework world besides passing her ORT for birch.  ORT stands for Odor Recognition Test and tells the governing body that the dog can at least recognize and tell the handler that they recognize an odor.  Then, when that is passed, the team can enter a test.  We passed the ORT, but have not had a test to enter since we passed the ORT.  Note the "we."  I should have said "she."  Pip is a "sniffaholic," for sure.  She LOVES this game.  I love to watch her play the game and am as delighted as I can be at how much fun she is having.
So, our instructor told the judge that Pip had never practiced "containers," which means Pip telling me where the scents are in spite of there being distractants planted inside some of the containers to stymy some of the dogs.  The judge told her she'd tell me where the distracting things were and Pip could practice finding the birch and anise smells since she has practiced both.  We had only just started on anise a week or so before I left.  The distractants were things like bacon grease, cinnamon rolls, bison treats, etc.  That is what the judges told us afterwards anyway.
When we went into the gymnasium, I told the judge that I would just like to see what my dog would do, not to tell me anything.  She motored through the gym and told me right where the anise and birch were and we passed!  Then we went outside and passed half of the vehicle search.  I was happy, but happier yet at lunchtime when they announced the best dogs and Pip came in fourth for the morning!  I cried I was so flabbergasted and pleased.  This novice dog with her love of sniffing and playing the game made her mom proud, proud, proud!

No pics of Pip hunting, but some of the house in Hawaii!

The front porch, a room in itself!

Backyard, looking toward Maui which we see in the AMs before the clouds roll in.

Some of my sweet, favorite people in my living room.

The banana patch Frank and I planted a year ago.  It is forming its first bananas right now!

Another view toward Maui, in the afternoon!

For the afternoon we did average, meaning she did not find the scents outside where the bunnies distracted her.  Another story for another day!  She did great on the inside finds and the judge even gave us a "pronounced" designation, which means that she thought we were a great TEAM.  I was pretty pleased with that too!
So, I just got to bore you.  Now you know what makes me cry, besides the fact that Zinger's brother, Norman, Select Dog at this year's National Specialty, is lost.  Someone left a gate open Oct. 30th, where he lived in Temecula, CA.  I'm sick.
What I REALLY want to tell you in this blog is to go out and do Nosework with your dogs!  They LOVE it and have a blast doing it!  Old dogs, deaf dogs, sick dogs.  All can do it and have FUN!