Keep moving
The girls spend most of their time off leash either working or hiking so we must practice self control exercises and focus work while out and in the field. The girls are used to this on our land and while out together or with our other dogs in the pack but they also need to be able to do the same with more distractions and in variable environments.
Stay work
The environment is new, we have never visited this state land and felix is a dog that was turned over to Life Long Tails and is currently in training with his K9 handler Kara for Search and Rescue with Amigo Search Dogs. A simple training command that is obeyed so perfectly at home can be a challenge if to many variables are changed to quick. Both girls did great this time as we have been practicing separate and together in varying environments for the last few months.
Girls
The hard work pays off!
Everyone looking like stars
As always the girls impress me when day after day i ask so much of them! Just a short video clip of last weekends fun time after of course a day of work. More updates to follow!
St Pattys day parade
Binghamton had a huge st pattys day parade a few weeks ago on the 7th and Kara and i took the girls down to experience the mayham. The girls did wonderful, stayed focused on us through all the people, kids, other dogs, drunks, cars and floats and things being thrown in the air! It was great to see such level headed focused canines in such a high intensity environment. It was a true testament to all the de sensitizing work i’ve done in town and in stores.
Focus is the key
Eme did great with working with Kara while her mother was right behind her. She is such a flexible dog and that is a great quality if its ever necessary someone else works her or takes care of her. She was un-fazed by anything that went by and listened well to kara’s commands.
Having hard working, high drive search dogs are great, but the key is also teaching them how to “turn off” inside and how to be calm, front brained, and focused in public.
And then there was thaw
This weekend was a busy eventful one! Saturday I brought my girls and the Family Foundtion School Dog Corp Kids helping Canines first dog down. Delilah will live in one of the dorms with 10 of the dog corps kids and they will be responsible for training and raising her until Life Long Tails places her into a home. The boys were very excited when we got there and sweet shy delilah took right to them. It’ll be a long road but i know this will be a great program for the boys and the dogs!
The girls got some work that afternoon and each performed a great moving subject problem with multiple refinds. I’m stoked, they are doing so good!! We spent the night at Ritas and got a few hours of sleep after much talking. Sunday morning brought our meeting to discuss the Comfed we are hosting in September with Amigo and NJ Sar. The girls were patient and new their time would come!
I did it!
Eme got a nice 35 minute long problem with 2 subjects hiding together. It was the longest she had ever done and despite being very tired, and the subjects not being were they had been marked on my GPS I was able to follow my dog and her alerts and find the boys. She was exhausted but did a perfect refind and indication with a long bark and victoriously got her ball! The problem had been worked 20 minutes prior by another k9 team so she had to work out their scent and the subjects scent which made it even more difficult!
Raina got a short demo problem for a few new people who had come to check out the team. She of course showed off her perfect scent work and full refind. I wanted to set up a longer problem with her so we can start to build some nose time, she can be certified by a year old and i’m sure she will be ready. I set up a good problem which lasted 15 minutes the longest she has worked so far. She preformed great and maintained her refind and indication giving me 2 before i reached the subject.
playing with her subject
We finished the day with 2 HR hides including one that was up about 3 feet. Both girls did great and are ready to move on in their HR training. Next we will put in the indication using boxes that deliver their toy. This allows the dog to sit and wait for the ball while focusing on the source and not on me!
Its amazing how quick my girls are growing up. Eme turned 1 on friday and i just don’t know where the year went! The next few months are going to be hard, we will be doing a lot of nose building long problems and drilling in obedience. Certifications will start soon and mom will need to learn not to be a nervous wreck! Off to get re packed and ready to work the girls again later today!
All done
Family time
Waking up to half a foot of snow at 5:45am i was torn to whether it was going to be a good day or a bad day. My focus this morning was getting some work done around the house, updating some logs, trying to stay off my sore knee and then taking to the backyard for some pictures of the pups. What may be our last big snow fall was enjoyed thoroughly by my canine companions.
snow!
crazy
We really do love winter, the snow is great, the lack of mud is even better, and its a different experience to get out there and train your dog in the winter. The chihuahua’s could do without the cold weather and the snow up past their little heads but the big dogs are pretty good at giving them worn down paths all around the back yard. We spend just as much time outside in the winter as we do in the summer and the change of seasons is always a relief. Thank you 2011 for a fun winter experience, here is to a nice dry mild temperature summer!!!!!
Strike a pose
Weekend wonderland
Snow, cold temperature, and wind………..it’s defiantly still winter!! The girls didn’t care they were just happy to have some good training days ahead of them. Friday we headed to Hancock to work with the dog corp boys and get both girls some quick working problems.
My girls
Eme did great, the snow was over my knees but she plowed through like a champ and got her subject. It would have been a good refind too if mom hadn’t walked into a pricker bush and poked her eye!!! Ohhh well it was still great!
Finally done working
Saturday we moved on to building training in Vestal at an hold veterinary hospital. The girls both did amazing especially after the day down at kingston getting in building work. Eme’s most challenging problem was Kara up in the attic. She had never done an up high building before and it was great for her to learn the scent picture.
Working the person in the attick
Raina got some good problems in and her recall and indication is perfect right now. She is so smart and so drivey she just wants to work 24/7
We also added felix blue to the group on saturday and have already begun his training. Felix is a wonderful stable nerved german shepherd. You can see him and Eme at Kara’s house hanging out!!
Felix blue!!
The holy day of the week
My girls
Sundays are another good training day with the co pilot pack. This weekend we headed down to ritas with the girls all in tow to work some of the regular obedience, socialization, and of course SAR.
hanging at the school
Raina spent some time at the school, in the gym working on recall obedience then just hanging out with the kids. We practiced her commands with a lot more distractions present and upped the requirements a little. We also did her short problems with a refind back to mom. Raina has A LOT of subject loyalty and while her indication (a bark and hold to mom) is coming along great we need to stop the game at mom for awhile to get the fast bounce back for refind.
With my ball after the find
We set up a short problem for Eme to see how her refind and indication would hold up. It turned into a bit of a mess but she found the subject, came back, indicated upon asking, and did a good show me! We solidified it with a few more short drills and let her take her prize to the top of the mountain of snow!
Both girls did great and enjoyed playing with Mika and Tank who is Raina’s brother. Another wonderful training with my good friends.
The heart swells with pride
When owning dogs you have good days and bad days, especially when you have a large pack to manage and most are working dogs that are on the path to certification. Today was a great day, a day that makes me realize that all the time, effort, love, and discipline i put into my dogs everyday is worth it. A day that makes me realize that what i do, what i teach, and what i know really is amazing.
Emeline and Raina and i started the morning out meeting Amigo SAR dog team members at Cole park. I worked eme first on a short snow burial, her first ever with a nice quick refind to remind her what we have been practicing the last few months. Then i took the plunge, i knew the last few weeks she was getting the whole concept of refind and it had been forever since the girl had a LONG problem where she had to work out scent. She was first up with an off trail problem over a mile long. As we were working she stayed close and checked back at me often, sometimes with bits of frustration, probably wondering why all of a sudden she was working so long to find her toy!
I was not sure where the subject was and only had man tracking to try to tell me when we were getting close. I wanted to make sure Eme had a successful find since it had been so long but i was worried her refind and indication would drop out like it had been a few months back. Through the first 1/2 mile i had head pops across the water towards the subject so i knew she was working good. Once we got about 250 feet down the trail prior to the subject i noticed a body language change and a pep in her step! I was about to comment i thought we were close when she head popped right and took off up the hill, after working the cone back in to the subject so got him perfect, turned around came back to me as i gave her words of encouragement, sat in front of me barked and with a “show me” we were off to the subject! PERFECT!!! We ended the problem with a 20 minute play session on the way back to the truck. We tugged, we fetched, we lost the toy a few times and found it again. It was a great mesh of working dog and working handler. I love it when all the work pays off!
We worked Raina on some small short problems and now that she knows the game we are incorporating a refind back to me starting now. Her loyalty to the subject is already unwavering so bringing it back to mom now will help any hesitation later on in training.
Pull mom PULL
After training we hit the town and made rounds to Gander Mountain, the pet store and home depot for some in store work and out of store work. My emphasis with Raina is focus in public places and work on obedience commands with distractions. She is great at tuning out any noise but kids playing in the snow was just to much so we distanced ourselves and worked our obedience at Home Depot.
FOCUS
The girls all did great and Emeline and Raina shared their truck so nicely with Bonsai and Mika during the trip. All 4 girls worked obedience for a few hours and even made some new friends and impressed some complete strangers with their obedience!
The power of time
The weekends usually fly by anymore and its sad when i look at how little i accomplish sometimes. This weekend however was not like that. Friday brought some training time and getting the house in order and paperwork set. Raina had her first demo which will be in detail in the next post. Saturday morning Raina and I left the house at 430 am to head to Kingston NY for a search. We spent the weekend looking for a missing man, I in the field and Raina back at the firehouse base socializing and learning how her future years will be spent as a SAR dog. We spent saturday night at a team mates house and raina was great even sleeping in a strange crate in a strange room with new dogs coming in and out of the room all night. The importance of exposing your dogs to these new things are so important especially if you are raising a social working dog!!
Sunday night brought a few quick search problems for Raina in which she did amazing. She is excellent at using her nose and not her eyes despite doing a run away or two first. Her drive is high and right now she works for food and ball play once shes cleaned her plate!
Monday is our in town day, eme and raina both get obedience, socilization, and work some new place in town. This week we did Home depot and Eme we worked her focus and attention to mom. We also built her play drive and then moved inside and worked some obedience around the new machines, all the people and carts ect. Raina we worked on her focus and obedience and did a lot with her socialization. She also got to work 2 problems inside the garden center of the store!
Once finished there i met Kara at the state land up by me and we worked Eme on a few short problems. She did great came right back to me, wouldn’t take the toy, barked, went right back to kara did a second refind to me where i was finally able to reward her at me for the whole sequence!! We did it one more time with kara going a little further away and i got two refind sequences before rewarding her at me. A few more times like this and we will be on the road to a SOLID refind!!! Now just gotta get the bark automatic as soon as she is on her way back to me.
We finished up our weekend by relaxing at home and cuddling on the couch. It was a great weekend and i was not only proud of my dogs but the teamwork that i experienced and the friendships i have developed just over one common love, the canine!
This was it
My emotional release each day is when i step out the front door with the woooosh of four paws thundering all around me as i head up the trail into the woods out our front door. Sometimes i take most of the dogs, sometimes i take them 1 at a time if we are working obedience without distractions but no matter what i need that time.
The other day i took eme and raina out separate to get some obedience, focus and drive training in with each of them. When raina first came to us she was fiercely independent and could care less how close or far i was to her. The last few weeks that has changed 10 fold and she always checks in, doesn’t get further then 15 feet ahead or behind me and if i stop moving and try to hide she whips around and looks for me……gotta love it. So the only way to play hide games with raina is to take her out with Eme where she gets distracted, strays further from me but is the first to come flying back using her nose and crash into me with a happy grunt.
Two cute GSD butts
Today we went out before sun set and trekked down off our hill onto the flat land below our property the girls happily playing in the new snow and responding to obedience commands when ordered. I wasn’t equipped with any lights so we headed back up the hill and reached the peak of our property just as the sun was beginning to fall. I have to admit with the leaves off the trees and the reflection coming down over the other hills in the distance it looked breathtaking. I believe i found where our new house will be built.
We hiked back down to the house in time for dinner and a nap and here we sit now all digesting as i sift through pictures to place in the blog and go through the ever growing list of emails of animals in need. No matter where i am in my house i can always reach down and touch fur, the soothing feeling caresses my fingertips and i know that for another night I’m happy and content.
Canine Copilot 