The year is drawing to a close and I decided to post our family highlights from 2025. Being the CBO, Chief Blogging Officer, it is part of my job. Some of us had a lot of highlights, others, not so many, but overall, it was a fairly decent year.
To start this off, I would like to mention our late sister Madison. 2025 was a year of firsts without her which was hard, especially when we travel. Olivia still checks to see if Madison is in the car, but she is not physically there, ever. We miss her a lot, but Mom is still having a really hard time. Lots of tears are shed but we know Madison would want us all to be happy because that is who she was. Our navigator gave us this precious ornament for our tree so Madison is with us for the holidays. She hangs near the ornament our navigator gave Mom when Emma passed away.
Now on to the more fun things! Bailie accomplished pretty much nothing in 2025, but she isn’t into sports and doesn’t like to travel, so her life is rather boring. We did pack her up and take her along to Illinois over 4th of July weekend. Mom would never leave her home when fireworks happen. The trial we entered was perfect timing and we did not hear even one firework the entire weekend. Bailie was her usual hot mess in the car but she was happy at the hotel and to go for walks at the trial site with our Mom. Lucky for Bailie, the drive to the trial was about five minutes. This was a trip without our navigator.
2025 had a lot of travel, but only two larger trips. We went to places like Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa for quite a few sniffing trials. On our two big trips, we managed to pick up four new states, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Maine. We also added Washington DC, the District of Columbia.
Our favorite trip this year was the one out to Maine. We had a great time and our navigator was along to help Mom with directions and the two of us traveling hounds. The Maryland trip we did alone with Mom and she had some “directional challenges” but we managed to not get super lost. In the end, our state count is Bailie with 24, Olivia with 37, and me with 29. Olivia and I also have District of Columbia which isn’t a “true” state.
In October Olivia and I went to Ohio for a week for the first ever AKC Scent Work Master National and the FastCAT Invitational 2025. We had a fun trip and success as well.
Olivia was the 6th place dog out of 188 after the first two days. She competed in the final day and finished 15th out of 100 finalists. She also received the Best of Breed medallion being the only GBGV in the event. She and I are the only two GBGV’s with Masters Titles.
I was the only GBGV out of the top five that attended the FastCAT Invitational. No matter, I still ran my heart out and did my breed proud. Of course, I also earned the Fastest in Breed placement.
Now we come down to new titles in 2025. Olivia warned me that at three it rained titles on her, and the same did happen to me as well! Olivia and I both earned the same title on the same day in September, our FDC, Farm Dog Certification. It just happened as we never planned to ever earn this title but we both did it!
Olivia also earned her Elite-Premier Title and her Elite-Select Title. She calls 2025 her “Year of the Trolley” searches as she competed at the National Trolley Museum in Maryland and the Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine.
I earned twelve new titles this year! My FCAT2 Title came in May which is also when I retired from FastCAT, but came back for the Invitational. I hit 20mph which was always my goal, and both my Releaser and Mom posed with me for my photo. Coincidentally, I did my very first FCAT runs and earned my BCAT at the same place with the same club back in 2023!
In September I earned, my ATT, which is the AKC Temperment Test Title. This was also purely because I was there and it was offered, nothing I ever planned. It was not easy but I passed both trials and earned my title. Olivia tried but didn’t succeed.
Over the course of the year, I earned six new nose work titles, L2I, L2C, L3I, ELT2, ELT3, ELT-CH. It was a lot of heavy sniffing to earn those titles and I’m super proud to have my Elite Champion Title at just three years old. Now I can move on to Summit Trials just like Olivia. Summit is the highest level of NACSW Nose Work.
I also earned my AKC Scent Work Interior Master Title, SIM, which gave me my overall Master Title, SWM. To finish off my Scent Work I earned my Detective Title, SWD, the end of October. Now I have the highest Scent Work Titles, so I won’t be doing much Scent Work going forward.
Overall, 2025 was a good year and we look forward to a fun, adventure filled 2026! We have some plans in the works, and we will see how things pan out.
My GBGV Life is happy, so we’re joining Comedy Plus for Happy Tuesday!
English (US) · 