Meliora Drents

Iris and I had a blast at the Flagstaff Kennel Club Scentwork trial in Williams, Arizona on October 7th & 8th – it was our first out-of-state trial, our first time doing 12 runs in one weekend, and – our first time trialing at the Master level! As an added bonus, we had the opportunity to visit one of the few active Drent breeders in North America.

High Desert Drents

After an 8 hour drive from San Diego, CA to Flagstaff, AZ on Friday, and six months of working together virtually, we were delighted to finally meet our friends at High Desert Drents in person! Jesse and Rachelle and their family were as wonderful as expected. Iris and I got a tour of their homestead and met their three Drents: Finn, Lova, and Oakley (who is Iris’s half-sister!), who were all typical sweet, active, playful, and beautiful Drents!

I was particularly surprised by how similar Iris and Oakley were. In photos, they don’t look as similar as in person – perhaps it was their mannerisms, too, but their mama Tule was obvious in both of them. Oakley had just recently weaned her second litter, so they were able to give us some insight into their experience and how Iris might be similar.

We spent plenty of time talking about puppy whelping and raising in general, as well as the future of the breed here in North America. Being such a small community, we are really fortunate to have found some like-minded mentors and friends in Jesse and Rachelle.

Flagstaff Kennel Club Scentwork Trial

This was a “double-double” trial, with two trials on each of the two days, for a total of 16 opportunities to search! We originally entered all 16, but realized too late that I hadn’t done the math with the drive home Sunday night and would have to pull Iris from the fourth and final trial, so we ended up doing 12 runs and effectively donating our remaining trial fees to FKC. Still, it’s the most we’ve ever done in one weekend – and they were all at the Excellent level (except for one Masters run)!

We see mostly the same people these days at local San Diego scentwork trials, so it was fun to introduce the Drent to a whole new crowd of people at this trial! Iris was a great breed ambassador – though I’m pretty certain she knows people at these trials usually have treats on them, so I’m not sure her motives were pure…. 🙂

The searches were challenging and fun, we met lots of lovely people, and we learned a great deal! Iris came home with 3x 1st places, 1x 3rd place, 1x 4th place, 2x 5th places, and her Excellent Interior (SIE) and Excellent Buried (SBE) titles.

And, we officially accomplished our goal of trialing at the Master level by the end of the year! Sunday morning, Iris ran her first Master Interior search. We didn’t qualify, but the time pressure combined with the unknown number of hides and tough hide placements was quite the adrenaline rush. We’re finally to a level where Iris and I are both being truly challenged, and I can’t wait to see how our partnership grows stronger from it.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to trials within a <2 hour radius for the rest of the year. I’m glad we went (especially because we also got to meet our friends at High Desert Drents), but 8 hours each way solo is a doozy.

As always, a huge shoutout to the organizers, volunteers, and judges for a well-run trial!! Additional photos from the weekend below.