The American Kennel Club recently announced the date for the first ever AKC Scent Work Master National Championship event — October 12-14, 2025, at the Roberts Center in Wilmington, DE. As of this post (June 14, 2025), the Premium has been posted. The event is limited to 400 entrants, with a first-come-first-serve entry, both USPS and electronic, that opens on August 1 and closes on August 29. Eligibility is limited to those teams who have earned the Scent Work Master (SWM) title and to the teams that finished in the first four places in any class at any of the Regional Competitions.
Upon hearing this, a number of people said… “There were Regional Championships?” And others said, “Yes, I was in them… but I can’t remember how we did.” So I thought perhaps we should revisit the Regionals, and celebrate the Host Clubs and Qualifiers, because it seems that never happened.
Background
Regionals and a future National Championship were announced in November of 2019. Most of the other sports seem to have 15 defined Regions, but there are five Regions defined for Scent Work:
The Pandemic slowed things down, but the AKC announced in November of 2021 that Regional Championships for Regions 1, 2 and 3 were in the works, while 4 and 5 still needed hosts. In February, 2022, the five Regional Championships were announced. In June of 2022, the Region 1 (North) event was cancelled. In July of 2022, the Region 2 (South) event was cancelled. And, also in July, the Region 5 (West) event was moved from Chehalis, WA to Albany, OR.
No reason was given for the cancellations, but online conversation at the time by clubs that considered hosting mentioned the difficulty in finding appropriate sites with enough space, enough line-of-sight-protection, parking, accomplished judges, rounding up enough volunteers, but, most especially, financial risk and likely net loss for the host club.
Qualifying Trials
The trial format required two days of “qualifying trials,” with every element offered at every level in both the HD and Odor Division (No Detective). In order to enter, a dog had to already have the ‘regular’ title for that element (and so was eligible to earn Elite Qs from this competition but no ‘regular’ titles), and could only enter the most advanced element for which they had a title at the time of entry — so a dog that has their Scent Work Container Advanced (SCA) title and their Scent Work Buried Excellent (SBE) title was eligible to enter Advanced Containers and Buried Excellent. In the Odor Division, the first place dog from each class on either day was then eligible to participate in the Regional Championship Runoff competition that was held at the end of the day on Sunday, and they would compete at the most advanced level for which they qualified. In Handler Discrimination, the top four dogs in each class were eligible to advance.
The results of the two days of qualifying trials were posted to the AKC Scent Work Trial results on the AKC Website, the same place from which we pull the WeSmellBetter Data for reports:
Region 4 (Central) Qualifying Results: April 9 April 10
Region 3 (Midwest) Qualifying Results: September 3 September 4
Region 5 (West) Qualifying Results: September 10 September 11
Regional Championship Round
For the Regional Championship, Odor Division, courses were designed to include all four elements in one large area, except for Advanced, which had two elements in two areas. For the Handler Discrimination division, Novice scent was in containers, Advanced had an interior course, Excellent had an exterior course and Master used a combination of two types of spaces. The scoring in both Divisions was points-based.
The first ever AKC Scent Work Regional Championship was for Region 4 (Central). It was held at The Depot at Cleburne Station in Cleburne, TX, on April 11 and 12, 2022. The Host Club was East Texas Scent Club. Debbie Holmes was the Trial Chair and Ann Bridges was the Trial Secretary. Judges were Peter Betchley, Diana Butler, Kathryn Butts, Ellen Heavner, Giovanna Imperia and Khara Scheutzner. Results from this Regional Championship Round were posted on Facebook by the official AKC Scent Work account, and are included below.
Region 4 (Texas) Regional Championship Round Odor Division Results
Region 4 (Texas) Regional Championship Round HD Division Results
The Region 3 (Midwest) Championship was held next, five months later, on September 3 & 4, 2022. It was at the MAAC Training Center in Valparaiso, IN. The Host Club was No-Z K9 Scent Work Club. Sherry Russo was the Trial Chair and Rachael Alspach was the Trial Secretary. Judges were Lora Barlow, Dave Conroy, Laura Feldt, Carol Kozanda, Lisa Godfrey and Shirley Tipsward.
Region 3 (Indiana) Regional Championship Round Odor Division Results
Region 3 (Indiana) Regional Championship Round HD Division Results
The Region 5 (West) Championship was held the following week, on September 10 and 11, 2022. It was at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Albany, OR. The Host Club was The American Belgian Tervuren Club. Nancy McClure was the Trial Chair and Judy Marquardt was the Trial Secretary. Judges were Amanda Hutchinson, Lisa Kretner, Mia MacCollin, Terri Spaeth-Merrick and Tannis Witherspoon.
Region 5 (Oregon) Regionall Championship Round Odor Division Results
Region 5 (Oregon) Regional Championship Round HD Division Results
At the date of this post, June 15, 2025, those are the only AKC Regional Scent Work Championships that have ever been held.
And….?
I made this post for a few reasons:
- To recognize the people who made the 2022 Regional Championships possible — and to memorialize their status as Experts should Regionals ever be considered again.
- To recognize the participants in the Regional Championship Round competitions, since the results for two of the events have never before been published.
- To point out that the 2022 Regional Overview stated that “The top placing dogs 1st through 4th from each Regional Master Championship Round will be guaranteed a spot in the following year’s Scent Work National Championship.” There was, of course, no 2023 National Championship nor a 2024 National Championship. The Premium for the 2025 Scent Work Master National Championship says that those first to fourth place winners from the 2022 Regionals are ELIGIBLE to enter the Master National. Some have asked whether a qualified entry isn’t the same as a guaranteed entry; do we really think they will fill 400 spots? I don’t. However, I think those people deserve the bye, the “Golden Ticket” that they were promised, just to honor their achievement.
Thank you so very much to the trial secretaries for making the above results available to me.
And (belated) congratulations again to everybody who participated in the 2022 Regionals in any way!