Copy Cat – info and rules

Copy Cat 

This is a search area that is great for smaller areas and that may have line of sight issues.

The search area can be anything that the person can see their dog from wherever they choose to release their dog. Can be off leash if the search area is fenced off and secure.

There is one hide and everyone can watch and see where the hide is.

There is a line that the handlers can not cross. This line goes around the entire search area and the handler chooses where to begin. Once a dog is released to search the handler may not move or talk after the initial search command is given.

The judge then watches the dog and says alert when the dog finds the hide. The handler then can run in and reward the dog by the hide.

This game works on several different skills, such as reading the search environment to plan where to release your dog, learning to be quiet and motionless while your dog is searching and for the dog to independently search.

Fastest time with no faults.

Moving or talking after the release or before the praise is a fault.

Minimum hides: 1

Maximum hides- 1

Minimum points – 95

Maximum false alerts – 1

USCSS News – Feb. 2021

Hello everyone,
We are hoping this finds you and your pups well. We are excited to get rolling on new things in the works for USCSS.


First and foremost we are happy to announce after working with 10 different programmers we are REALLY REALLY close to having a made for us, user-friendly scoring program!!!! One of the pluses of this new program is that the trial results can be uploaded to the USCSS site the day after the trial. Hats off to the affiliates that have been able to host trials and to all that have supported them. We are still in crazy town here in CA ;(

But we hope to get rolling again very soon! We are also working on getting the USCSS regionals on the calendar again. This may take some time as larger venues are still hard to come by due to COVID-19.


It is that time again to look at the USCSS rulebook and entertain input and suggestions and make needed or wanted amendments and rule changes or clarifications. We have a rule committee in place and they will take any constructive ideas from March 1st to March 15th, 2021. We appreciate you all, Affiliates, CSD’s, Judges, and Competitors and we welcome the input. Please submit any suggestions to Easytospotdals@gmail.comAnd give as much info as you can to support your ideas, if it is a rule change or clarification please include the rule.


While USCSS is not the oldest or biggest scent work organization we will continue to strive to be the most friendly and most fun scent work organization 🙂
Thank you Julie & Daneen

United States Canine Scent Sports

Fringing and Trial Etiquette

With another fun USCSS trial in the books we now have the time to reflect on the trial and the rules. What is working and what areas would benefit from a few tweaks.
First we would like to thank everyone for all your patience as we take this new organization from infancy to the next stage. Growing pains are a fact of life and we appreciate your understanding.

Sometimes an idea with a specific intention is implemented and even if the intentions are honorable sometimes the real world application is too cumbersome. So we have run into this little issue and will be taking steps in fixing this.


The issue is with fringing.

The intention was to help green dogs and handlers be more successful. The reality is fringing, all the way around, seems beyond the grasp for all to wrap their heads around. And this is not a hill I choose to die on. So we will be updating the USCSS rule book to reflect the decision to take fringing out of the 2 lower levels of USCSS trials.


A couple of other things came up and we will be meeting to see how best to address these.
I would like to mention one of the issues here and give you all something to think about.
Hides and searches at a trial CAN NOT be talked about in any way shape or form while the trial is still running. It is not cool, not fair and down right disrespectful to do so.

Our hope was to not have a rule book that was of epic proportion. …. a little courtesy and common sense on everyone’s part will help keep the rule book a smaller size.
As soon as we revise the rules to reflect the above issues we will post it.

Again thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. I have to say that a few times during the Claremont trial I stopped and just soaked in the scene and the vibe, and it made my heart smile. I saw relaxed people enjoying the day with their best friends with like minded people in the beautiful outdoor setting with the sun shining on the bright green grass. Fun times indeed.