# I accidently signed up for an ORT!



## trainingjunkie (Feb 10, 2010)

Without really meaning to, I am entered in an ORT at the end of June. I am utterly and totally clueless about what I am doing!?! 

Any tips? We are only doing Birch. I think he can pass the ORT, but man, I have not done the work...


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## dagwall (Mar 17, 2011)

Haha, accidental sign up? That's a new way to describe it. I'm doing my final ORT in June myself. Have you not done any nosework training or just not positive if you guys are ready yet? It's really not that hard if your dog knows the game and you remain calm and take it slow. 

Good luck and have fun!


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## trainingjunkie (Feb 10, 2010)

I got sort of led into it by a friend! I didn't think I would get in, but wanted to enter so I could say I tried! I waited until I thought it would be filled!

Guess what! We're entered!

My dog can easily do blind hides and can play all of the box games. I am under-prepared, but my dog can work birch.

A million years ago, I handled narcotics dogs. I have approached nosework stuff informally at best. Time to tighten things up!


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## dagwall (Mar 17, 2011)

It depends on your area a lot but ORTs don't tend to be hard to get into in my area at least. Actual trials are luck of the draw in my area but I've never not gotten into an ORT. If your dog knows the game you should be fine in an ORT. Just be calm and don't get excited and yell alert at the very first sign of interest like I did for clove at my last ORT and false alert haha. Thankfully we had clove THEN anise and I calmed myself down and waited for a very solid alert before calling it for anise. 

ORTs are set up to make it easy to pass as long as the dog understands the game and you keep your head on straight. Actual trials are when things get tricky plus the dog needs the focus to make it through a full day and still show up to search at the end of the day. I know a handful of dogs who rock it in travel classes with all three odors even on difficult hides but can't get their NW1 because they can't keep it together for the entire trial.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

If he knows birch I'd just practice some box work before the ORT. It's not bad at all! You'll do great!


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## trainingjunkie (Feb 10, 2010)

He has never seen 12 boxes. How important is it to duplicate the exact look of the ORT?


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## trainingjunkie (Feb 10, 2010)

And thank you for all of the kind words and assurances!!! We have a month to get it together! 

Thankfully, this dog performs the same in trial as he does in the yard. He is steady and solid. That should help. 

I will have to eat a bucket of crap if he doesn't pass though!


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## dagwall (Mar 17, 2011)

trainingjunkie said:


> He has never seen 12 boxes. How important is it to duplicate the exact look of the ORT?


Honestly I don't think it's that important to experience a "mock ORT" but my trainer did set a few up that we got to do before a few of us took our birch ORT. Couldn't hurt but really I don't think it's needed for most dogs. If your dog is environmentally sensitive it might be helpful but if he isn't I wouldn't worry about it.

Edit:
Haha, just remembered that the last "mock ORT" we did actually ended up being the intro to anise/clove for two of us. The travel class instructor accidently put out a box with anise or clove I can't remember which, might have been both, for our mock ORT at the end of the class. Both our dogs did fine and alerted on the correct box then he was all..."whoops that wasn't birch, well both your dogs are ready for sure, they get the game"


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## ireth0 (Feb 11, 2013)

We did our first DOT (same thing but Canadian) a while ago and it wasn't as difficult as I was preparing for. You can do it! Keep calm and trust your dog!


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

If your dog knows birch, you're fine. ORTs are set up to be super simple and just test that your dog has some idea of what he's doing. If you can read his signals at all you will do just fine!


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## trainingjunkie (Feb 10, 2010)

Well, we drove to a training facility and put out 12 ORT boxes. We were 6/6 with 4 blind hides included. Plus, there were feathers all over the place because I think they were doing some puppy hunt dog training in there last night. They were everywhere. We just put the ORT boxes on top of them with no effort to clean up. It took the dogs half a minute to work through the distraction on the first hide, but then they were golden.

I think we are going to be just fine!


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Yep sounds like it! Just remember you have more time than you think you do in there. Don't rush things too bad!


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