Come on out to Berwick, Nova Scotia for the most exciting weekend of the sport detection year! The National Challenge Cup will feature fun and creative searches for all levels of dogs plus a dinner with speaker Robin Greubel of K9 Sensus (link below) on Saturday night.
Registration is HERE
Banquet Tickets are HERE
On Saturday evening after competition, enjoy a delicious roast beef dinner with SAR and detection handler Robin Greubel of K9 Sensus on Saturday night. It will be a night to remember! Robin has been involved in detection work since 2001, beginning in wilderness and human remains detection (HRD), which expanded into disaster work. She trains and deploys with Nebraska Task Force 1 and Iowa Task Force 1. She is a certified explosives and narcotics detection dog handler. Robin is also an instructor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and a Chief Examiner/Evaluator for several national SAR organizations. Her focused education in behavior technology started in 2016 by attending two Chicken Workshops (Behavior Technology Workshops). In 2018 she completed a four month resident apprenticeship with Parvene Farhoody, Phd. In 2022, Robin completed the Scandinavian Working Dog Institute year long Master K9 Trainer Program. Robin is the CEO of K9Sensus (https://www.k9sensus.org/) K9Sensus serves working K9s and sport dogs by teaching trainers to decode animal perceptions and responses to stimuli. Their progressive, research-based training translates theory into practice, empowering handlers to truly collaborate with their canine partners.
The event will be held at the beautiful Camp Berwick (see map of campground). You can camp or rent a cabin right on site and walk to your search areas! There are also nearby hotels and B&Bs as well as restaurants and attractions.
Note that you may enter more than one dog into the NCC but not in the same Level. Teams will only be competing against other teams at the same Level. The levels are as follows.
Cadet (Level 1): enter untitled or Started-titled dogs
Master (Level 2): enter dogs with Advanced or Excellent titles
Pro (Level 3): for dogs with MACHs or Elite titles and above
If you have more than one dog at Cadet or Master, you may level up one dog so you can enter both. You may not Level down (note that accommodations may be available upon request and may require a vet note). If you have higher level titles in other organizations, we trust you to enter at the equivalent SDDA titling level. For example, CKC Excellent level teams should enter Master and CKC Master Level teams should enter Pro. If you enter at one level and then achieve a title after entering that moves you up, please let us know as soon as possible so we can sort the run orders to assist those with multiple dogs with time between them.
Searches will be both indoors and outdoors with hides that will have points assigned. The teams will collect points for each hide they identify within the time allowed. The usual NQs will apply. They will end that search with the full time allowed applied, but teams will keep the points they have collected prior to the NQ. We have six judges and 9 search areas. Areas will vary in size and number of hides by Level. All teams will search the first six areas on Saturday then the remaining three areas Sunday morning followed by the Finals for each Level with the top pointed teams competing for the trophy!