First Saturday practice

Every week we have a practice on Monday evenings for about 2 hours, but two weekends a month there's a long practice (about 6 hours generally). Usually I can't make Saturday practices because they are held while I'm teaching classes at work, but this week practice was in the evening, so I could make most of it. :) I got there at 7:30pm (it started at 6) and didn't get home until just now (midnight)!

Tonight I was on two searches: one longer one (about 45 mins) and one shorter one (about 9 mins and 1/2 mile). I "flanked" for both, which means I walked to the side of the dog team so we could cover more land and help each other out as needed. On the longer search the team had the dog handler and two flankers, the shorter one only had me flanking.

The first search in one direction was through a pretty brushy woods and I spent most of the time walking perpendicular to the slope of a hill, running into cobwebs every few feet, and ducking through overhanging limbs. Going back was through a field of grass, but we got tangled up in brambles several times - yuck! The dog found the victim on the double back and we headed back to base.

The second search was a fast one through grass and after dark vs. sunset. The dog stayed on track nicely for the most part and the search was over super fast. It's much easier to run through grass than woods. ;)

It was fun to see the teams in action, but I also enjoyed hanging out at base while the trails were laid as it gave me a glimpse of all sorts of things that go on to support the teams both in training and in a real search.

I think the most interesting thing was seeing how they use GPS to "see" victims (and thus the track) and the teams following behind (and thus their accuracy on a track). Lots of info is gained with this technology and it ensures that no one gets truly "lost" during practice as you can "see" where everyone is. :)

I'm looking forward to Monday's practice!