Does your dog need a hobby?
 
Novice Nosework Test Day
     27th February 2016.

Canine Nosework is an exciting new sport for dog lovers. It is based on MPI detector dog search work, with dogs being taught to identify and find odours in a fun way in several “real life” situations. Sue Williams and Patricia Murdoch at Noseworx have been running classes in Hamilton since 2012, and after a meeting with other like-minded individuals last August, some guidelines for running test days in NZ were formed. This opened the way for Noseworx to host the first ever Novice Nosework Test day on Saturday 27th February at Hamilton Hounds doggy day care facility in Hamilton.

A field of 14 people entered the test, keen to try their dogs in a Novice Nosework trial which consisted of 4 test elements.  The first was a box test to find the odour in a line of 12 boxes, the second was an interior room search, the third was an exterior area search and the fourth a vehicle bumper search. Three contestants had travelled from Wellington to compete, and we acknowledge their commitment to the sport! 

After a weather forecast threatening rain, we arrived to a fine and overcast day, helpful for the outside components of the test. The venue at Hamilton Hounds was well suited with several large rooms suitable for the inside searches, and an outside wood chipped area for the external area search.  This outside area was set up with all sorts of outside equipment – picnic tables, fishing rods, old boots, pots, an umbrella, outdoor clothing etc. to make it as realistic as possible.  The vehicle search was held in the car park, with three cars to be searched, the odour to be located on the front bumper of one of the vehicles – with modern cars this is not always easy to achieve with the use of plastic bumpers!  Each component had a maximum time allowed for completion.

The odour used was Clove Bud Oil, which has been identified as the odour to be used nationally in New Zealand for the novice level, thus making it easy to run tests in any part of the country.

---

Internal search area.

Gaye and Java getting ready for their test.

The day was organised with each dog completing the first three elements (box search, internal room search and external area search) one after the other.  All dogs were then brought inside the venue, and the car park vehicle search was carried out by each dog.  The results were either a pass or fail in each component, and each run was timed in order to find the overall winner from those who completed all components.  Where people passed only some of the components, they were able to enter the other parts as well for a good training opportunity. There were also practice boxes set up for a last minute practice before the test began.
​

Four dogs completed all four elements of the test (two from Wellington and two from Hamilton), and the overall winners were Catherine Napp​ with her dog Griffin, from Wellington. 

Results:
1st: Catherine Napp with Griffin, in a total time of 3 mins 06 secs.
2nd: Jenny Boyd with Sabi, in a total time of 3 mins 40 secs
3rd: Jan Voss with Halley, in a total time of 4 mins 60 secs
4th: Heather Westerby-Jones with Ruby, in a total time of 5 mins 95 secs