This post was written by Trish “Roxy’s” owner, it will appear in the next issue of American Chesapeake Club bulletin. Photo credits are to Trish as well.

First Chesapeake Bay Retriever Earns AKC Scent Work Detective Title    The Detective title (SWD) is considered the peak (pun intended) of success in the popular AKC Scent Work sport. Trish Neel-Wilson (OH) and Roxy are the first chessie-team ever to conquer this feat with only 2 other dogs having ever attained this elusive title.

“Roxy” U-SC U-SI U-AN U-SJ Sand Spring Get The Party Started, BCAT SWD SWM SCNE DM DSA AM AS CGC TKI DM DSA AM AS CGC SN RL1 NW3 CW-SS 

Roxy owned by Trish Neel-Wilson, bred by JoAnn and John Stancer, closed out 2019 with highest titles in AKC Scent Work: Scent Work Detective (SWD) and Scent Work Master (SWM). Over the past couple of years, Roxy and Trish have made many great friends in the sport and had lots of fun competing in scent work. Roxy loves to search, has lots of hunt drive and is a good independent searcher, which has lent itself to many placements.

 AKC Scent Work events have taken place in fun places such as a horse arena, a church, a municipal building, an amusement park with searches on a put-put course, go cart area, and other game rooms, fairgrounds, boy/girl scout camps, a couple different types of schools, a church, a municipal building, a resort on a pond and a few training facilities and clubs. 

To get to the Scent Work Master title, a dog must achieve Containers, Exterior, Interior, and Buried Element Titles with 3 passes at the Novice, Advanced, Excellent, and Mater levels. In Novice, the dog must be able to find one odor that is accessible. As the levels increase, the number of odors increase, distractions are added and increased, the size of the search increases and the challenge of the odor puzzles increase, including inaccessible hides. 

The Detective title achievement is considered the most challenging in AKC Scent work. To enter this level, you have to have at least one Master element title. Searches are 2,000 to 5,000 square feet, include both interior and exterior areas with distractions, inaccessible hides and height of hides has no limit. To get a pass, you have to clear the areas with an unknown number of odor hides between 5-10 and call clear within a designated time frame without notice that time is about to expire. Ten passes at the Detective Level are required to get the title. It’s very fun and CHALLENGING!

 At the Master level, you have an unknown number of hides up to 4 and may have blank areas that have to be cleared within a set timeframe. Novice levels are relatively easy if your dog can find the birch odor. As the levels increase, the need to work on handling skills, ensure your dog covers all areas in a search area, odor obedience and your ability to read your dog’s indication on odor (or lack thereof) becomes more important for success. Because Chessies are bred to hunt, Scent Work is a venue that our breed can really enjoy and excel in. It’s very fun to watch dogs use their instincts and brain in this sport.   

 True to her name, Roxy is known to find table hides on top of tables instead of underneath them (like most dogs do) and make the judges laugh. In one Detective Search, there was a stream running thru the search area, Trish made a decision to let Roxy work off leash due to the size of the search area even though there was a big stream running thru it. Roxy quickly hit on 4 hides, jumped in the stream for a quick swim and went right back to work to find 3 more hides and get first place in the search. Roxy and Trish also compete in NACSW, CWag and UKC Nosework venues where Roxy has been successful. Trish and Roxy are currently working toward their NACSW NW3 Elite Title and getting back in to obedience and rally competition.  

Roxy was born 2/6/16 to HRCH U-CH Sand Spring No Gut’s No Glory SH CGCA CGCU TT SPOT-ON x Lzy Mtn Piper’s 3-D Brown Bear MH

We are super proud here at Sand Spring Chesapeakes that one of our pups have received such a distinguished title in Nose Work and to be the first Chesapeake ever to do this is just beyond words. We can’t thank Trish enough for all the hard work, time, money and love that she put into Roxy. They are an awesome team and we couldn’t be more blessed to have them in our Sand Spring circle. This is a breeders dream come true to say that we produced this but we also know that the breeding only holds a small part of these titles, it is the owners dedication and work ethic and to trust their dog, to be able to work well together and just click which Trish and Roxy do! Thank you Trish and huge congrats from John and I.