Present. Patient. Purposeful.

I had a great time judging for the Wenatchee Kennel Club this weekend. I loved seeing so many teams out there enjoying the sniffing game.

I was still judging today, but I got a little time between assignments to play with my own dogs too. This is my boy Chiron’s Master Exterior search under judge Donna Morgan Murray.

The parameters: 1–4 hides, 3 minutes.

I knew all of that before we crossed the start line. But knowing the parameters alone wasn’t going to clear the search area for me.

I still had to rely on my dog.

From the very beginning, Chiron was working hard—hunting, moving, sampling the air, trying to sort out the scent picture. I stayed present and watched.

He was everywhere, but he wasn’t landing on anything concrete.

I knew there had to be at least one hide, so we kept searching. But I didn’t have enough information to suggest that he check any particular area. If I intervened simply because I wanted to do something, best case I might slow him down. Worst case, I could derail him from solving the problem he was already working on.

So I stayed patient.

He hunted. I observed and interpreted.

I CHOSE NOT TO SUGGEST BECAUSE I HAD NOTHING USEFUL TO CONTRIBUTE.

That, to me, is an important part of handling.

At around 1½ minutes, he solved the problem and found the hide.

Then we stayed in the search for almost another minute.

That was purposeful too.

Chiron stayed fully in the hunt. He didn’t ask me if we were done. He didn’t decide he had searched enough. That gave me the space to evaluate area coverage, think about anything unresolved I had seen, and consider whether there might be another hide.

Eventually, I came to my conclusion: if there were more hides in that space, based on everything Chiron had shown me, I believed he would have found them.

Finish.

This is what dog-driven searching looks like to me. It doesn’t mean I blindly follow my dog around and do nothing.

My job is to stay engaged. To observe. To interpret. To know when I actually have useful information to contribute—and, just as importantly, when I don’t.

And ultimately, I still have to make the decision.

Today I was really proud of myself as a handler.

I was present.

I was patient.

I was purposeful.

And my good boy stayed in the hunt the entire time. ❤️