Hoping and Hot Boxing

If all goes well, this time tomorrow Jedi and I will be in West Palm. Am I nervous? You bet! First of all, I'm not real fond of driving. According to MapQuest it's 275 miles from my house to the testing site. My plan is to leave early so that we can get to West Palm before rush hour. The weather forecast says there's a good chance of rain as well, so I want to leave plenty of wiggle room for stupid drivers. Cross your fingers.

We've been practicing nose work in the driveway. Sometimes Jedi gets really excited and skips the first few boxes. I'm trying a trick called "hot boxing" to help remedy this. Every second or third run, the scent is in the first box. Hopefully this will encourage him to check the first box.

Most of the time Jedi paws at the box with the target scent inside. This is great, as I have to tell the judge when he finds the odor. Sometimes all he does is give me a look. I don't always "get" the look. And if I can't read his alert we don't pass. And I will have wasted a lot of time and money. sigh. Fortunately, the friend going down with me has done this before with Jedi's brother. She's walked me through what to expect so it's not such a mystery. Still, I'm nervous.

On a happier note, Jedi and I started our new nose work class this morning. A few of my friends from the German Shepherd Dog Club are in the class too. I really like the instructor and think we're going to have fun. I'll tell you all about it another time. Right now I've got to get ready for tomorrow. You know, last minute shopping, packing, laundry, blah, blah, blah. Wish us luck. I'll share the results when we get back!

It's Thoughtless Thursday! And as usual, I'm thinking too much. Lucky for me Ruckus the Eskie, M.K. Clinton and the pups over at Love is Being Owned by a Husky let me link up anyway. Thanks guys for hosting this. Anyway, hop around below and see what others are thinking (and not thinking) about today. -- K