Ep. 135: Spotlight: Epitome of Enthusiasm - Dr. John Strassner

In this Spotlight Series episode, we have the opportunity to speak with Dr. John Strassner, an Expert AKC Scent Work Judge and former AKC Field Representative. We delve into John's admirable enthusiasm for the sport of Scent Work, his desire to give back, grow and continually learn all while having a fantastic time with his own personal dogs.

John's love for Scent Work is contagious and we are thankful for all that he has done, and continues to do, for the sniffing community and promoting the sniffing game overall.

Be certain to join us on September 16th at 1:00PM PT/2:00PM MT/3:00PM CT/4:00PM ET for the livestream discussion with Dr. John Strassner that will be featured on the Scent Work University Facebook Page and YouTube channel.

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Speakers:

Dianna L. Santos

Dr. John Stassner

TRANSCRIPT

Dianna L. Santos (00:00):
Welcome to the All About Scent Work podcast. In this podcast, we talk about all things Scent Work that can include training tips, a behind scenes look of what your instructor or trial official is going through and much more. In this Spotlight Series episode, I am thrilled to be talking to Dr. John Strassner all about his journey throughout Scent Work, how much he's giving back to the sniffing community, and so much more. So before we start diving into the episode itself, please let me do a very quick introduction of myself. My name is Dianna Santos. I'm the Owner and Lead Instructor of Scent Work University. This is an online dog training platform where we provide online courses, seminars, webinars, and eBooks that are all centered around Scent Work. So regardless of where you are in your sniffing journey, you're just getting started, you're looking to develop some more advanced skills.

(00:44):
You're interested in trialing or you're competing even at the upper levels, we likely have a training solution for you. So now that you know a little bit more about me, let's dive into the episode itself. So once again, I had the distinct privilege of sitting down and having a wonderful conversation with Dr. John Strassner. So let's have a listen to that conversation. So we are thrilled to be talking to Dr. John Strassner for this wonderful conversation for a Spotlight series. I have been privileged to know John for a very, very long time, and he has done so much in the sniffing community, and that's why I said we need to do this for this interview for the Spotlight series. So sir, could you please give our listeners a little bit of a background about who you are and what your journey and set has been?

Dr. John Strassner (01:25):
Sure. Well thank you Dianna, and hi to everybody. I started out in Scent Work long before AKC was a moat in God's eyes, so to speak. I'm proud to say that I have two Elite champions, the number five and eight Shelties ever to achieve that awesome title. And I mean, if I listed everyone to thank that was there in my journey, the co-founders, Dianna, Tony Gravley, et cetera, I mean, we'd probably end up with half of the podcast I'm taken up. So as I was coming forward, I'm very analytical. I have a PhD in artificial intelligence. But the interesting thing was that I had never really thought of Nose Work. And of course everyone's familiar with the Shepherd or the Beagle at TSA that's doing their thing, but never really thought twice about it. Well, that changed really quickly at NACSW, and I thought to myself, what an incredible opportunity to not just spend more time with your best furry friend, but to actually have fun at something. And that just set off this chain of events that made me, I was not even with, I didn't even have an ORT at the time, and I remember volunteering for my first trial just because I was fascinated with it

(03:19):
Now. And so then of course you see what goes on behind the scenes and it's like, oh my God, this is amazing. Because whether it's AI or Nose Work or anything else, my philosophy is if you stop learning, it's time to retire. Right? Well

(03:40):
I am still learning not just in AI, but in Scent Work as well. And the opportunities are endless. I mean, if you think about the environment out there and all the complexities for trapping versus pooling versus simple blown odor for the temperature effects, for humidity effects. I mean, you can go on and on and on. The trial changes even between dogs no matter how robust a hide you can have in certain situations. And I've had the privilege with my Shelties to search in a lot of different situations. Our first Elite trial was in the snow. That was fun it, but just for any of you that are scared about the snow don't be because Lance found an eight foot hide on an antenna of a jeep in the snow because obviously with the climate in things, it was just running a nice trail right down the back. And there's, Lance goes up on the Jeep and he's jumping up and down, pick me daddy, pick me. And I said, Alert. And the judge kind of paused and said, wow. I mean, yes. So I'm not going to, there's so many memories that I have of that. Another memory. Lance always loved boxes. Oh my God, he loved containers. Didn't matter anything from an ORT box to a suitcase and anything in between, the more the merrier, right?

(05:35):
So there was this one Elite trial, I think it was 60 some odd boxes, five known hides, unknown distractors, or maybe they were known. I never knew. And you had four minutes. And I'm looking at this going, huh? This is obviously going to be off leash because otherwise I'm going to tangle my leash on one of the boxes and screw that up. Amy, bless her heart, kept on trying to help me silky as well, trying to help me with leash handling. And I'm a lot better than I used to be, but still I'd never want to get into a leash handling contest with either of those.

(06:25):
So I asked and I run 'em off leash, and they said, sure, kind of a little snicker. This is going to be fun, right? 60 boxes. There was no pattern. And so I said, okay, Lance charge. And there he went. And the good Lord blessed me with a very good, not eidetic memory. So you could always kind of tell where he'd been and where we haven't gone. And it was hilarious. I mean, he just ignored the first couple of boxes bolted to his left, found a one on, I guess you would call the threshold, the start line Alert. Yes. Bolts randomly somewhere else Alert. Yes. And I'm going, wow, this is just a thing of beauty and Scent Work or Nose Work I've always felt should be like you're watching a choreographed dance. I mean, with Lance and Gwen, my two eldest Shelties, there was no hard pattern maybe in the beginning, but once they knew their job, Lance, even in AKC, when they let me run off, lead can have one of three configurations, right? Rows and columns or a U circle. Well, how hard is that? Right? Okay, charge Lance and he'll just follow the pattern. And that way he runs faster. I have more magnified changes of behavior that are easy for me to see,

(08:16):
And it's a lot more fun for him and me. But as I said, I had too much coffee. So back to the Elite search, I just let him run and he was so in tune, I could even see where a couple of distractors were because anytime there was food, he'd kind of side eye it and sigh and move on if it was something he really liked. And so he finished in either just under or just over a minute we found five. And he kind of sniffed air scenting and then looked at me and said, okay, so I called finish and damned if he wasn't right. And so we won first and everyone was like, he won first with that. She, and I mean, it was hilarious. I mean, by a minute, right? It's the old trust your dog. Exactly. In some other elements of he wasn't nearly as good, but containers was as bomb. He loved that.

Dianna L. Santos (09:33):
All the things that you're talking about is one of the things that I love about people such as yourself who are so invested in the activity, is that they're focusing on all the right elements. You're bringing up that it is observing the dog, that it's a dance with the dog, that there is a real genuine admiration that you have for the dog and an inquisitiveness as far as what odor is doing, and the magic seemingly that the dogs are doing as they're tackling the searches. And that type of enthusiasm is contagious. And you have been so instrumental throughout the entirety of the time that you've been involved in this, and whether it was with training or whether or not it was volunteering or when you were working for organizations, when you're interacting with people, they feel that enthusiasm. And I've heard it throughout the years of people who are just so appreciative for the warmth that you bring and that enthusiasm, particularly at trials where people are so incredibly nervous. And just taking that moment to just smile and be like, you and your dog are good. Be like, that's a gift. So can you talk a little bit about what turned you on to start working with some of the organizations you had just recently? You're an expert judge with AKC, is that correct?

Dr. John Strassner (10:53):
Correct, yes.

Dianna L. Santos (10:54):
So you've been working, you've been traveling the country doing different trials and being in that official capacity. Can you talk a little bit about why you chose to do that?

Dr. John Strassner (11:04):
One of these days? Actually, my dream is to become a CO for NACSW because of that, what got me into it was a couple of people when I was first trialing how you always talk in the parking lot, not about hides of course, but about what got you into it and things like that, said, wow, you should become an instructor. I'm a tenured professor in computer science and ai. I've loved, I love to teach. And I said, huh. I mean, at the time, I think that was at my NW1 level and AKC still hadn't existed or didn't exist at the time. I said, well, gee, I wish I could be good enough to help instruct because this is such a cool sport. And then the NW2 came and went, and life was good. That was hilarious. Fred Helfers, God I love him, one of the best webinar and teachers and instructors I've ever met.

(12:22):
So we're out in Arizona in our NW2 and darn him, he scans the crowd because they introduced the judges. He's one of the judges. And he settles on me. I had just taken, I was lucky enough to get a working spot on one of his lectures, and I had taken a bunch of his webinars. So he said, he points towards me and he says, look, everyone. And so of course I turn around, I think there's something in back of me, and he starts laughing and says, no, John, look everyone, we have a male competitor. And oh God, I mean, my face was burning. It was just so embarrassing. Everyone was laughing, come here high five, and I wanted to crawl under a hole. But after, and thank God we passed our two day, oh God. But he and I talked a little after that and I said, how did you get into instructing and teaching? And that really, I think that was the fuel that really ignited. It ignited me. So now, I mean, as you know, me, Diana, I'm a nice guy, but if I've got just as strong a competitive urge as anybody I know of.

(14:03):
So now that turns on. So I completely rebuilt my training because our first two NW3s were just a mess. And I was like, oh God, that was embarrassing. And everyone has those trials. But let me just interject and say the key thing there is two key things. One, never let your dog know that you're disappointed. And two, don't berate yourself because those things happen. But at any rate, now I'm on my third NW3 and I'm like, dang it, I am going to do something. Right? And as we got our NW Elite and then moved into Elite trials, God, that was an itch that I just could never scratch enough. It's like, look how cool this is. I got to start teaching. So I figured, okay, what the heck? I live in Gilroy. There's no one still no AKC, by the way, but there's no one anywhere near me.

(15:16):
Let me just reach out. And a couple of people said, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you're an Elite. I'm struggling on my NW1 or NW2. We'd love to start taking lessons. And God, that enthusiasm of watching the light click on in both the student as well as the dog that was pouring gasoline on the fire. So that's what made it happen. And then when AKC happened, Lance and I went to Capital Club of Austin for October 1st, 2018 for the first AKC trials. And the little guy at this time, he was almost an Elite champion. And so he's like, huh, this is easy. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

(16:21):
He went 12 for 12 in searches, got three novice titles. Of course you had to search and start at novice. And I'm like, damn, this is fun. Someone, let's see, I guess it was one of the couple of people from AKC happened to be there, and they went, holy crap. So I forget where I trialed the next time, but I had relatives in the Midwest. I think it was in the Midwest, probably Ohio. There's some clubs there. The Nose Club, isn't that a great name? Right? Nose Work enthusiast of Eastern Ohio. So noses, AKC, Cleveland, Al Breed. I got to know them. And with the demo dog, I was like, well, this is my sable and white, can we use him for a demo dog? And then things just spread. And I got to meet lots of people. I mean, Anita is such a doll and she's a wonderful judge. And now, and it was my privilege to mentor her judging, and it was so great because we would strategize, I would say, okay, this might be novice, but there's still got to be a challenge here somewhere, right? You're not just going to put one share in the middle of a classroom and say, okay, find it Fido.

(18:08):
But on the other hand, it's not going to look like an Elite search where there's so many rooms. Could you imagine a novice, a KC handler or an NW1 person? And some of these Elite rooms, I mean, They Probably have a heart attack. So there's got to be a challenge. And that ignited a whole nother stream. You know how joyful it is when not a novice AKC person says, fido, you found it. Oh my God, you're the smartest dog in the world, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah for like

(18:56):
10 minutes, or even an NW1. When you get that, yes. And you see this ear to ear smile across competitor's face. I remember in our NW3 Elite, I was in Nevada and I knew I had qualified on our final element, which of course was containers, which they let me run off lead, which Lance just nailed. And I just remember sinking onto my knees going, oh my God, we finally did it. But the journey wasn't over. The journey now continues into lead. Well, that feeling is how I feel in judging and in mentoring and in teaching. I mean because you're continually learning new things. It's easy to get excited. I can't imagine myself not get excited. And when I look at wonderful instructors, Amy and Jill, yourself, Tony Gravely, Chris Busch, the list goes on. I get that enthusiasm from all of them. I remember this one working spot under Amy.

(20:18):
Oh my God, this was so funny. She says, okay, we're going to work on leash handling and everyone show me your leash. And so I dutifully brought out my 15 foot trusted Biothane wine, and she goes, that's nice. Here's your leash. And it was this four foot leather thing. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding. And of course, I had Lance, right? Lance isn't his prime. He's maybe seven eight. And it's like, I can't control him with this. And Amy gave me one of her patented smiles and said, of course you can. And I went, oh, crap. She challenged me. So I mean, I'm not sure that I actually controlled him, but we had a lot of fun trying. And so that's enthusiasm. I see it in the people that I value learning from. And so that's what instills me to try and bring that same positive attitude to my students. And then of course, mentoring a judge, I just consider that an honor, right? There's Jesus, I don't know how many judges in AKC. I think there's well over 400 now. And they chose me to mentor them. I mean, that's kind of special, right? Absolutely.

(21:48):
I'm going to do whatever I can to help them. And I mean, there's still some red flags. Why are you doing this? Oh, for the money, okay, next. But most people, I want to see something. Well take Anita, since you brought up Anita. Okay, well, what do you know? Well, I read the regulations. You know how awesome that is to hear even whether it's NACSW or AKC or UKC, so many people don't read the regulations.

(22:27):
It just fries me. And she had this naturally inquisitive line, so her awesome little dog Zuri, God, I love that dog. I forget where Zuri was, I think excellent. And in some and masters in another. And we were applying everything in novice in advance to excellent and masters. And she was amazing. She was like, well, I didn't bring Zuri because I just want to spend the day with you. And I'm like, damn, okay, let's make it fun. And so those same challenge questions I asked her, not just for novice, but for masters as well. And of course the challenges get harder, and we start talking about different types of scent vessels. We talk about the, well, I mean, I talk about the environment of novice. I mean, how can you not? But since the hides and the complexity gets so much more difficult at excellent and masters, it takes on a life of its own, so to speak.

(23:40):
But that enthusiasm, she's like, okay, that was room one. Let me try room two. And I'm like, you're the first one that asked that. I'm not sure we can, but sure. Tell me what you're going to do. And she came up with a really good idea and I said, damn, I wish I had thought of that. Okay, let's go with that. And then we just fed off of each other. I mean, she's just an awesome person. But you see that in instructors. I mean, I remember asking a question to Tony Gravley, one of my good friends had him on. In fact, I just was watching an episode two days ago from Tony, and he has that awesome ability to say, well, that's a great question. Here's what I do in NACSW. Here's what I do in AKC, and here's why I would do it, right? Because of the odor concentration and on and on and on. And it's like you learn so much. That's why I want to give back because the community has been so kind to me. I mean, all these people taking me under their wing, I mean, it's the least I can do to help spread the enthusiasm.

Dianna L. Santos (25:05):
Well, it is incredible. Again, what you have done throughout your journey and that enthusiasm that you're talking about is incredibly contagious. And the appreciation for the people who are new and how you're able to identify them being so excited when they have achieved something, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a cue. It could have been my dog was nervous, and they came in and their tail came up and they tried, and then we left and we had a good time. The fact that that is something that even for the length of time you've been involved in this, you can still see it and go like, that is amazing. That is a wonderful gift that you're giving to people, that they're able to maintain their joy for this or to build it if they're brand new. And that's not being diminished over time, which unfortunately happens. Just I think in everything. The longer that you're involved in something, the more jaded you get burnout oil, the good jazz. But with you, it's just the opposite as though the longer you've been involved, it's magnified your joy. It's magnified. This magnetic ability that you have with people of your desire to give back your genuine joy for the activity, your genuine excitement about it has only gotten greater over the years. That's impressive.

Dr. John Strassner (26:38):
You are too kind. You're making me blush. Thank God we're not on video. Well, yeah, because for me, I'm naturally inquisitive. And so here I am, it could be judging novice, it could be judging detective. It could be. And especially when I participate and I'm running a dog, just watching the dog and going, wow, look at that set of change in behaviors. It's just a never ending source of excitement. I mean, for me, when for my students, I explain a change of an Alert as a set of of behaviors that all end up converging on this single point. And so what about, well, this random going up? Well, the dog's inquisitive. If it doesn't connect to something, you toss it out. But if that lines up with the dog going up another place and then a third place, now you're onto something right now to start detailing and just being able to say, well, we can't really talk right now, but see me at lunch because your dog did really great.

(28:07):
Or See me after and let me tell you what I saw. And then getting positive feedback from the exhibitors when I say, well, here's what I saw. And they go, oh, yeah, I noticed that, but I didn't know what to do with it. And the fact that they would trust the stranger who they don't know saying, well, here's what you did wrong, and here's what the dog was telling you, and here's how you can fix it. I mean that more gasoline on the fire. And so my interaction with exhibitors I think just encourages me to do more.

Dianna L. Santos (28:51):
And it's amazing, truly because the thing that always turned me on about this activity was exactly what you're just talking about of the dogs are constantly having a conversation with us just in daily life. And because we're humans, we don't perceive the majority of it.

(29:09):
But with Scent Work, you have to start listening. You have to start seeing. And there are those moments of brilliance where then I was like, oh, you can hear me? Oh, nevermind. You're not listening anymore, but just, you heard me for a second. So what you're talking about is through your interaction with people is you are reinforcing them for being able to see, for being able to hear, and to put all the pieces together so that it can really be that dance that you were alluding to before. Because otherwise, if we're just looking for something like, okay, I want them to sit when they find the hide, and I'm ignoring everything else, you're missing such a huge part of this picture that really is incredible, where the dog is painting you this beautiful tapestry about what odor is doing, and they're talking to you about everything during that process, and you are communicating with them, with how you're doing, your handling the decisions that you're making, your handling.

(30:06):
That's the real crux of this. It's not even so much about finding the hides, it's about the time that you're spending with your dog and the communication between each of you. The hide is kind of secondary. It's kind of the vehicle to do all this wonderful stuff together. And what I'm so impressed with your journey and the things that you've done is helping people better appreciate that part and to just be truly joyful and spending time with their dogs. And at the same point, also being very supportive of each other. One of the things that we love about this community is that people are able to celebrate wins that may not have, again, anything to do with a title, but there's a genuineness around it. I'll just share a really quick story is for being at a USCSS trial where you were there with Kim, your wife and I was waiting with Valor and we're doing our wonderful little thing that we would do together, and he's doing paws and nose touches, and he's just looking adoringly at me.

(31:08):
I'm looking adoringly at him, and one of you snapped a photo, and you both had mentioned that is just so awesome to see the relationship that the two of you have. And I practically melted in the moment. I just had totally taken that for granted that that was what I had. And it was as if I knew in the back of my mind, there's someone else who saw this. This is special. Here I am in this place with all these people, all this craziness. I was working as a staff member as well, but these two people took the time to take a photo that I get to keep forever, and they took the time to actually mention it to me, to remind me to ground me. Look at this amazing attachment and bond that you have with this dog that very shortly thereafter died of terminal cancer. And that was such a gift that you gave to me to just be like, Hey, snap snap remember what you have right now? This is really special.

Dr. John Strassner (32:05):
Yeah, I remember that. Well, I mean, Valor was just amazing. And again, my honor, that you would let me come in and play with him a little bit and scratch him a little bit. I did find a couple of his scrap spots, which were always hilarious.

(32:26):
Big, huge dog, get a going. But yeah, and that bond, I mean, how can I say this? So let's say I'm reading a paper about AI and it's a brand new discovery, and it's for us nerds, right? It's really cool. And you're appreciating everything. Can't compare to dog sports, right? Because it's not like I am married to the paper

(32:59):
And here I am with my companion, and you watch this dog. I mean, all dogs in dog sports want to please their owners, of course. But it kind of transcends it because you can see the dog really sinking into the game. They love this game. Simple story. Lance and Gwen, they're both in the backseat. Kim gets a harness out, and it doesn't matter if it's Lance's or Gwen's, right? She says, okay, time to saddle up. And the two immediately start going to the front of the seat trying to get their head in front of the others saying, me first, mommy, me first, mommy. How can you not love that? And now on top of that, where the dog is really enthusiastic to go to the sport rather than as I segued before Lance, with that cursive moving down, it's like, all right, daddy, fine, but you better have a good treat. Dammit, it's such a change. And now that, as you said, they're painting this beautiful picture for me, it's always been easier to kind of flow with the dog because I'm trying to figure out what is this picture they're painting? Why did they abandon that area and all of a sudden go over here?

(34:38):
It just keeps drawing you in. And that's so fundamental to the sport. Even if you don't cue, if you did a good job and the dog had fun, I mean, the dog doesn't know if they cue or not. I'm not sure the dog cares because they're that into the sport.

Dianna L. Santos (35:04):
Again, I'm just so impressed with your ability to maintain this level of enthusiasm, even grow it over the years, and the positive effects that it has on dogs and their handlers cannot be overstated. So sir, you should really just give yourself a pat on the back because you've traveled all over the country spreading this enthusiasm and working with people, being able to give back to the sport in so many different ways while also celebrating with your own dogs. What you've done is not easy by any stretch. So I really hope that you can appreciate everything that you've given us. So thank you.

Dr. John Strassner (35:38):
Well, thank you, Dianna, that you've been really kind and absolutely. I mean, the day I stop learning is the day I retire, and we're not in danger of that.

Dianna L. Santos (35:51):
So do you have anything coming up as far as, do you have any judging assignments or do you have any teaching, any kind of events that you have coming up that you want everyone to know about?

Dr. John Strassner (36:00):
Sure. Let's see. If you're in Ohio, there's a number of places that I am judging at the Capital Dog Training Club of Austin. I'm returning to, I'm excited about that. I'm judging Detective in some other classes with two fabulous judges, very good friends of mine from Ohio, June Mitchell and Ann Lache. Let's see. I'm going to be giving a very cool seminar in Cleveland. What else? And hopefully we will get into an NW2 for Gwen's two pups. She had a beautiful litter of seven, five were show quality confirmation. Not that I would ever get behind the ring with my mind. I mean, I would not, I'd be a horrible handler, but luckily we have a good friend that's an awesome handler, and I support confirmation. Just don't ask me to handle. So champion Camelot Sir Perceval the Loyal, finished in four shows with four majors, and he wasn't even a year and a half.

(37:30):
Yeah. Well, he got his NW1 about six months ago, and he's got his Scent Work, Novice Elite, and now I'm ready to put him in Advanced. And we're hoping to get into an NW2. The same with a Camelot's Lady, Guinera of Avalon, short for Ava. And of course Guinera is the Walsh Tive of Guinevere my baby. And the same thing with her. She's a little bit ahead of Percy. She's actually into Advance now. That's probably the other thing, right? I mean, don't be in such a rush, right? There's so many people that said, oh my God, I've got to get to Masters. And with just your three cues, why? Right?

(38:33):
I mean, I've got, in our training, I mean, Percy and Ava have found five and six foot hides. They could probably pass most excellent courses, but what's the point? We haven't gelled yet. I want to run Ava and Percy, or I want Kim to run Ava and Percy just like the two of us run Lance and Glenn. And until we do that, we're going to take it nice and slow.

Dianna L. Santos (39:07):
And that's a wonderful piece of advice. What a wonderful thing to end on is that there is that need for you to build up that bond. It doesn't happen overnight. And there is absolutely a lure to rush, but you're missing out when you do, because the feeling that you have when you are really gelling, like what you're talking about is magical. And there are times where it can be fleeting in a search where you have it and then you're losing. You have it, and then you lose it, and it almost becomes addicting. I want that feeling all the time, but you have to work up into it. It doesn't happen automatically, right? I think it's absolutely amazing thing for you to point out.

Dr. John Strassner (39:49):
Yeah. Well, thank you. And I think because I've got that, I've had that feeling with Lance and Gwen, it makes me try that much harder with Ava and Percy. But I'll tell you, restarting and the baby levels was, oh my God. And here's another Fred Helfer story. He was my judge for our ORTs in Arizona. And I mean, I am shaking it like a leaf as we go into the gym, and he looks at me and says, John, what the hell is your problem? This is an ort settle down, or I'm going to whack you one. Okay. And sure enough, there went Percy, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Here it is, daddy Alert. Yay. This is So it was funny. But

Dianna L. Santos (40:46):
I think that that's also a good thing for people to recognize is we can go through a journey with a dog and then we get either another dog, another dog joins into our home, and you do have to start over. And it can be very, very challenging to make that shift because you have developed that gelling, that partnership with dog one, it doesn't automatically carry over. And you also do have all of that pressure that can be put on because you've done so well with dog number one, and now you're trying to do things with dog number two. And it's like, oh God, am I going to break dog number two? Oh, what's happening? This doesn't look right. This doesn't look the same. What's happening? And it's like, okay, calm down.

Dr. John Strassner (41:28):
Oh God. And I think the only thing that protected me from that was the fact that Lance and Gwen just ran so very, very different. I mean, Lance was a tiny little bull in the China shop just full speed ahead everywhere. And Gwen was much more methodical and both have their advantages, but both have their disadvantages. But the one thing with Gwen was that when she searched an area and she detailed it, you never had to go back. And if I miss something, it was either because I didn't see it or because it just wasn't our day. And that's okay. You can't be perfect all the time. And I wish people would cut their dogs some slack. I mean, we're never perfect every day. Why do they expect their dog to be perfect on trial day all the time? Right?

Dianna L. Santos (42:38):
No, that's a very, very good point. And also the fact of what you just mentioned with Gwen is yes, either it could be that there's a breakdown where we just don't see something. Again, it is very hard for us to see everything all of the time. We're also under pressure under trial, but it could also just have not been your day. There are times when no matter how hard everyone is trying this, that where God's saying, not today, and that's okay. But for you to go through that journey with them, I think is such a gift because to have those two different types of dogs, the way that you were describing, and to learn from both, and to be able to handle both effectively, that's difficult. And to do that, you're trying them around the same time.

Dr. John Strassner (43:25):
Yeah. Well, I mean, Gwen is about four and a half years younger than Lance, but so as Lance was into his elites, Gwenie was charging into her ORTs and NW1S. And as I said, I mean even when she was young, she just didn't miss, I mean, she missed her one on some really bad pulling odor. Well, she did make that mistake again for a long time.

Dianna L. Santos (43:57):
I think that it's, it's such a gift for the dogs to have given to you that you're able to have experienced such two different workers and that you can develop your own skills as a handler to be able to cope with both. And now you have these younger dogs that you're bringing up. Again, that's not easy. So for people who are out there who also have multiple dogs, or if you only had one dog, but now maybe you're moving on to dog number two, that give yourself a little bit of grace, that there's a whole other set of skills that you are now developing as a handler and that they are going to give to you if you receive it. But you have to be willing to actually say, okay, this is a brand new dog, and I need to figure out what to do with them.

(44:41):
And that as long as you're able to receive that information, you'll grow as a handler, and you can even have better appreciation for what you did with the other dog. So John, truly, sir, I am so impressed with everything that you've done throughout the entirety of the time that you've been involved in the sniffing community, and I'm really happy that we had this conversation. You highlighted so many things that I've been trying, I'm not so sure effectively, but been trying to get people to focus on, which is have all for your dog, be really super excited, be enthusiastic, and giving back as much as you can, volunteering at those trials, making sure that you're also going to workshops and seminars that you're continuing to learn. Everyone is always learning, and that you should be excited and having a good time doing it. So sir, thank you so very much.

Dr. John Strassner (45:30):
Oh, thank you, Dianna. It was truly my pleasure. Again, I'm honored that you would spend some time with me, and I thank you very much for it.

Dianna L. Santos (45:41):
I want to give a very big shout out to John for sitting down with me for this interview. Again, having people like him involved in the community is a really big deal. He has given back so much and his enthusiasm for the game, his genuine love of his dogs and all dogs, and how open and enthusiastic he is with everyone else, it's contagious. It really is. So I really am appreciative for all that he's done and continues to do. We're also very excited to be hosting him for a live stream that will be on the Scent Work University Facebook page, as well as our YouTube channel. So I'll make certain that there are details for that listed in the show notes, and this will be posted on our website as well as our social media. So come join in that live stream, ask John some questions about AKC Scent Work, and we'll see what other fun things we can cover in that conversation. As always, if you guys know of someone who is giving back to the snippy community that you would love for me to interview, please let me know. I want to make certain that we can share more positivity. We need it. We're also going to be doing other interviews with fellow colleagues and other people who are involved in the sniffing community, so definitely stay tuned for those. But thank you so much for listening. Please give a cookie to your puppies for us happy training. We look forward to seeing you soon.